# Beyond crazy! Do not miss this thread!



## wheytogosaanens (Oct 26, 2007)

Okay, I will preface this with the comment that I have heard from this Newbie, off and on with questions about feed, minerals etc. Dedicated, but definitely new to all homesteading type endeavors. Had a doe with some odd lumps/bumps on her udder (and of course I am not seeing the goat and trying to troubleshoot from her description) as well as that she is not interested in her grain...

So I get this e-mail:



> Dear Camille,
> 
> Well, we discovered why Tafara had those hard lumps, why her rumen puffed out and why she developed a bad attitude! Our chickens started laying 12-15 eggs a day over the last couple months. Some days we would get them all, on others we were lucky to get 2 or 3. We finally saw Tafara eat one WHOLE while we were out there. We locked her out of the chicken laying area and Voila! 12 eggs a day!! When I think of all the eggs she has eaten i shudder!! So glad she didn't get sicker than calcium lumps and a airy rumen. Can you believe it????? I am still in shock!!


and then this one in response to my horrified shock:



> I am totally serious. We saw her swipe an egg and eat the whole thing, shell and all. remember i told you she wasn't eating much of her grain while milking. Well, now that we locked her away from the eggs she eats all her grain like normal, has a great attitude, and her wierd lumps are practically gone. amazing!!! She stills wants the eggs though! She doesn't understand that the eggs were messing her up...and ME! She ate at least 9 eggs a day!!!! HA!


So much for goats knowing what is good for them! :crazy

(BTW, she had also complained in passing at the lousy chickens they had purchased....)


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

So the shell ruminated on and still in small lumps, moved to her udder  And the egg itself, being pure protein and carbs, bloated her. 

The lumps on her udder is staph dermatitis caused by the nasty conditions of the chicken house she lived in........the bloat and not wanting to eat her grain...she was eating the nasty hen scratch.

I call BS on her analogy 

Let her offer the doe an egg, take a video, post it and then I will recant and take this out of my book, The Newest bit of Newbie Nonsense


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## happy vagabonds (Jun 24, 2012)

haha

I can take a video of a doe eating an egg! Dolly loves eggs! I have seen her eating them and she will even root through my pockets to try and get them. (Yes, I sometimes put eggs in my pockets when the hens lay them in inappropriate places... like their stalls and lately, the hay feeder.) 

For the record, I don't like that she eats them and do my best to keep them away from her. But I have seen it happen!


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

So does she bloat and the shells make lumps in her udder to


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## happy vagabonds (Jun 24, 2012)

haha Nope! Just mysterious yellow spots appear on her coat.


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## MF-Alpines (Mar 29, 2010)

:bang Wow!


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## wheytogosaanens (Oct 26, 2007)

You may be right about the chicken grain, Vicki, but I do believe that the goat ate the eggs...the gal has no reason to lie, and if she says she saw her eat the egg...well, I believe her. 

The lumps were/are on the inside, not the outside. And now that her egg eating days are over, the lumps are dissipating...so based on cause and effect, yep, I would say the eggs were responsible for the lumps. And bloat - well, have you ever seen Cool Hand Luke? LOL 

Just when you think you have heard/seen it all! (Perhaps they should take video and post it on YouTube...do folks get paid for views?!)


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## LLB101 (Sep 29, 2009)

Wild... 

We seem to be missing some eggs lately, and the chickens do like to lay in the hay feeder which is one of many reasons I try to limit chicken access to the goat pens. I want them to go in and scratch up and fluff the bedding and clean up the veggie peels the goats dropped. But after a short time doing that, they just start getting into stuff and pooping where they shouldn't. I do not want chickens pooping in my goats' stuff!!!

But here, I'm 99% sure its the dang dog that is responsible for some missing eggs when they are laid outside the nest boxes. I'm getting crazier and lecturing my chickens to give me x number of eggs in the morning while still in night coop with nest boxes, and telling them that only THEN I'll let them out of pen to range for bugs. LOL.

I think eggs are fairly high on the inflammatory index? And for sure, foreign proteins that aren't getting digested correctly in a ruminant, perhaps might increase inflammation and inappropriate immune responses from the body that could possibly, bizarrely, show up as weird edema/inflammation of some udder tissue... its a stretch for sure... but when I was going thru so much autoimmune problems, I learned we don't understand all of the complicated dance and some very strange symptoms can be related.

I'd love to see that video if she gets it and posts it.


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## [email protected] (Sep 18, 2008)

My goats aren't allowed in the chicken area and the chickens aren't allowed in the goat area. ICK. I hate chicken poop.


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## doublebowgoats (Mar 6, 2008)

Back in the day when I had free range chickens, I had a doe that ate eggs too. So I know they'll eat eggs. Goats definitely don't know what is good for them.


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## tlcnubians (Jan 21, 2011)

When you consider that a single egg contains an average of 6 grams of protein and you multiply that by 8-9 each day, the doe was consuming more than four times the recommended amount of protein daily! She's very lucky she didn't founder or ruin her kidneys. And the gas! Wow.

Caroline


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## dragonlair (Mar 24, 2009)

I had a doe who would eat the bantam and pigeon eggs if given a chance. She didn't eat the shell though, only the contents. The pigeons would lay eggs in the eaves above the goat area (try to chase them away! right!!!!) and the bantam would fly out of her pen to lay in the goat stall. No lumps or bumps or bloat. She did have a nice sheen to her coat that the others did not have.


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## Sans Gene Goats (May 15, 2011)

[email protected] said:


> My goats aren't allowed in the chicken area and the chickens aren't allowed in the goat area. ICK. I hate chicken poop.


:yeahthat


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## SherrieC (Oct 26, 2007)

I saw somewhere on Utube deer, Eating birds. Apparently if they can get ahold of eggs, or chicks can't get out of thier way they go into the mouths and munch. It was crazy, makes me wonder did the LGD eat my hens baby chicks or was it the {{{GOATS}}}


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## MF-Alpines (Mar 29, 2010)

Eewww. I hope it was your LGD, Sherrie.


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## IndyGardenGal (Jun 11, 2009)

SherrieC said:


> I saw somewhere on Utube deer, Eating birds. Apparently if they can get ahold of eggs, or chicks can't get out of thier way they go into the mouths and munch. It was crazy, makes me wonder did the LGD eat my hens baby chicks or was it the {{{GOATS}}}


I saw that video. There was actually part of a study that was done and showed that deer were actually the #2 for nest predation, right after mice.


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## wheytogosaanens (Oct 26, 2007)

My DDs just reminded me about the thread of the chicken eating buck - he would bite their heads, if I remember correctly...

(Of course, I believe he was a Nubian LOL!)


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## dragonlair (Mar 24, 2009)

I've got a egg eating goat again, too. One of the chicken pens runs along the side of the goat pen. Every so often one of the bantams will lay an egg next to the fence instead of in the nest box. This silly Nubian (of course it would be a Nub) will see the egg and scarf it down before I can get to it. 

Nope, so decreased appetite, no "calcium bumps" on her udder and no bloating, just a nice shiny, soft coat.

Fortunately, when a chick wanders out of the chicken coop (actually a chain link dog kennel) the goats are more interested in sniffing and watching it than trying to eat it. I always seem to have 1 or 2 hens who fly out of their outside pen area and wander into with the goats. My nasty herd queen Lamancha will pull on their tail feathers if they get near her, but the rest of the goats like to watch them. The kids will play with them, running up to them until they flap their wings and fly into the air. They seem to like the furor they create!


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## doublebowgoats (Mar 6, 2008)

I bet she does have a nice shiny coat! 
I would think that eating too much protein (Not calcium) is probably why the goat in the original post had udder problems. That is pretty common and I would think it would be even more likely with a goat that was ingesting animal protein.


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## Ashley (Oct 25, 2007)

We had pet deer and those things will eat anything. I've seen them eat bologna sandwiches, cigars, hamburgers, irish spring soap and tomato hornworms. Of course, we never fed them those things! They would just grab anything they could get!


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## Audrey (Jun 14, 2013)

My neighbors have an alpine doe who LOVES eggs. They feed her 2 a day as part of her diet, have for the 2 years they have owned her, no weird lumps or any sort of rumen issues.


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## Ober House (Jul 12, 2012)

I made it simple...I got rid of my chickens


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## dreamfirefarm (Nov 15, 2011)

This is the funniest thing I have read in a long time. I had a nubian buck that Loved Hot dogs


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## doublebowgoats (Mar 6, 2008)

Hot dogs!? LOL My goodness!


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## LittleBits (Aug 6, 2013)

Wow, crazy! I've never had a goat that ate eggs, always smelled them, but never ate them. 
I have a doe that loves soda, breath strips, sandwiches, sweets, chips, anything I would eat, she will eat. She's a funny goat 

And I have a boer doe who will run you down if you have a burrito, taco, or pizza!


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## informative (Aug 24, 2012)

I use chicken tractors and enclosed nesting boxes. They get out now and then while I am changing out water and feed but I prefer to have control over where the eggs (and chickens) will be. They do tend to look whistfully out of their tractor at the grass they haven't trampled and eaten yet (such is a chickens life). As for good grazing ideas I started growing propagating purslane which seems pretty popular they eat everything except the thickest parts of the mature stems.


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