# Magnets?



## teddybear (Oct 26, 2007)

A question, do goats require magnets to prevent hardware disease like cows do? Or are goats more careful about that they put in their mouths and swallow?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cow_magnet

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardware_disease


----------



## goatkid (Oct 26, 2007)

I've never fed magnets to my goats. Usually what kills goats isn't metal anyway. You need to watch out for things like twine and plastic bags in your goat yards. This past spring, I lost a doeling who pulled about an inch of her rubber nipple off her bottle and it became lodged in her rumen.


----------



## Bernice (Apr 2, 2009)

Ditto what Kathie said....never have used magnets.


----------



## Horsehair Braider (Mar 11, 2011)

Goats are a little more discriminating in what they eat. I've never had one die of hardware disease, never used magnets and never had a vet recommend I use one. 

Brings up a funny story though. My vet showed up one day (late, as usual) and I asked her about the compass she had in her truck. I asked if that was to help keep her from getting lost? She explained it was to help with hardware disease. If you go to a farm with a sick cow, and you suspect hardware disease, you want to feed the cow a magnet. But if they've already got a magnet in there, the two magnets won't work as well as one. Sometimes the farmer can't remember if that particular cow has a magnet or not. So you get out your compass, and if it points at the cow... :rofl


----------



## Trysta (Apr 5, 2011)

Remind me never to get lost in a field full of cows that have magnets..... I would never make it out with my compass (unless one of the cows knows where I live and walks me home...) :biggrin


----------



## dragonlair (Mar 24, 2009)

Just hope the cow is not facing north!


----------

