We are doing battle with the gorse at the moment. We have quite a lot growing in our hedgerows and through the stock fencing and as gorse gets quite woody, it can damage and weaken the fencing if allowed to grow too big. We found several places where gorse had loosened wire by pushing the staples out of the wood and others where the stems and branches were getting so big they were stretching the wire. .
Goats will nibble at gorse if they can get to the top, fresh shoots but most of the time it is just too prickly for them. However, in cutting back the gorse, we usually reveal brambles or similar which the goats really do love. As soon as they saw David holding the loppers they came over: they learnt a VERY long time ago that shears mean vegetation and in most cases that means there is some food in it for them.
Gorge (pictured) is walking a lot better today due (probably) to a shot of Metacam and we also think Curds and Cheddar looked better too. We are waiting to hear back from the vet but in the meantime have been exchanging views on a Facebook Goat Forum where it has been suggested that the problem could be Laminitis! Laminitis is inflammation of the hoof and has all sorts of causes: eating food that is too rich and stress to name but two. Turmeric is recommended to relieve both the swelling and the pain. We hope to talk to the vet tomorrow about her thoughts on this!!
(And in other ‘health’ news, we still have a Whiteface Dartmoor with a mucky bum… the task of collecting poo for testing may be on our ‘to do’ list...)