Sire: A goat’s father. You can also say that a goat sired a kid.
Taking a Look at Goat Anatomy
Goats are mammals and are similar to other mammals in some ways. But they also have unique features that indicate whether they are healthy, tell you how old they are, and even give clues about their parents.
In this section, I tell you about different parts of the goat, how to tell a goat’s age by his teeth, and how to tell a goat from a sheep. (Some of them do look similar.)
Parts of the body
You can own goats and not know the names of parts of the body. But if you want to have an intelligent discussion with other goat aficionados or show your goats, knowing the correct terminology is essential.
Figure 2-1 shows you the names of the different parts of a goat. Some are obvious — we all can identify an ear or a neck. But others may be new to you if you haven’t raised animals before. Here are some terms for different body parts:
Cannon bone: The shin bone.
Chine: The area of the spine directly behind the withers.
Escutcheon: The area between the back legs, where the udder lies in a doe. This area should be wide in a dairy goat.
Pastern: The flexible part of the lower leg below the dewclaw and above the hoof.
Pinbone: The hip bone.
Stifle joint: In the back leg, the equivalent of the knee in a goat.
Thurl: The hip joint, usually referred to in relation to the levelness between the thurls.
Withers: The shoulder area or area of the spine where the shoulder blades meet at the base of the neck. You measure from this point to the ground to determine a goat’s height.
FIGURE 2-1: The parts of a goat’s body.
The digestive system
Goats are ruminants, which means that they have four stomach compartments and part of their digestive process includes regurgitating partially digested food and chewing it, called ruminating. This kind of digestive system needs a plant-based diet.
Understanding a goat’s digestive system and how it works helps you keep your herd healthy or identify potential problems.
FIGURE 2-2: The parts of a goat’s digestive system.
Each stomach compartment has a different function, and they all work together:
The rumen is the largest of the forestomachs, with a 1- to 2-gallon capacity. It is a large fermentation vat that has bacteria living in it. These microorganisms break down roughage, such as hay. Then the goat regurgitates the partially broken-down material, chews it as a cud, and then swallows it.This repetitive process, rumination, creates methane gas as a byproduct. Methane is the cause of the strong-smelling belches that you can expect from a goat with a healthy rumen. A goat that can’t belch has bloat. (See Chapter 11 for signs and treatment of bloat.) The rumen action also creates heat, much like a compost pile, which helps a goat stay warm.
The reticulum is in front of and below the rumen, near the liver; the reticulum and the rumen work together to initially break down the food. Rumen contractions push the smaller particles of partially digested food into the rumen and heavier pieces into the reticulum. Then the reticulum contracts and sends the partially digested food into the mouth as a cud for chewing.This process continues until the pieces are small enough to pass through to the omasum. The reticulum also catches harmful things, such as wire or nails, that a goat accidentally swallows (see Chapter 11).
After fermentation and rumination break down the roughage, it moves through the reticulum to the omasum, where enzymes further digest it. The omasum has long tissue folds whose function is to help remove fluid and decrease the size of food particles that come out of the rumen.
The abomasum is the only compartment that produces digestive enzymes. It completes the next step in the digestive process of food that forestomachs partially broke down. The abomasum handles the primary digestion of grain and milk, which don’t need rumen bacteria to be digested. The products of this part of digestion pass into the intestine for final breakdown, separating waste products from usable fats and proteins.
Hooves
A hoof is the horny sheath that covers the lower part of a goat’s foot and is divided into two parts. Goats stand on their hooves and walk on them to get around, which makes them extremely important.
Because they don’t like to stand in one place to eat, goats don’t do well if they have to lie around or walk on their knees. (Yes, knees.) I recently saw goats on television whose owners had fed them well but apparently hadn’t trimmed their hooves for years. (Chapter 9 tells you how to trim hooves.) The goats’ hooves were almost a foot long and curled up at the ends. Consequently, many of them couldn’t even walk, and others walked on their knees, dragging their rear feet. That had to hurt!
Untrimmed hooves make a goat prone to foot scald or rot, which can ultimately kill a goat. (See Chapter 11 for more on foot rot.) Goats’ hooves do best in dry, rocky climates. Goats that are feral or were feral for years, such as the Spanish goat, need less hoof care than closely bred, farmed goats.
Teeth
Goats have lower teeth in the front of their mouths but only a hard pad on the top. They also have back teeth on both top and bottom, which you will painfully discover if you put your finger into the back of a goat’s mouth! The back teeth are used for cud-chewing.
Baby goats get their first teeth before birth, at around 98 to 105 days of gestation. They lose these baby teeth, just like other mammals. You can generally determine the age of a goat by looking at the eight teeth in the goat’s lower front jaw. This is called toothing a goat.