Goat Talk with the Goat Doc

Goat Talk with the Goat Doc

Dr Cara Sammons-Shepard, DVM is a practicing veterinarian in Maine and New Hampshire, and when on the road, the majority of her patients are goats. She and her husband have owned and operated a commercial farmstead creamery since 2009. In this podcast, Dr Shepard discusses different topics related to goat medicine and husbandry. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/goatdoc. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episodes

July 15, 2022 • 38 mins

A long overdue update on what's been going on at Flying Goat Farm this spring/early summer.


Questions, comments, just wanna say hi and send me cute goat pics online? www.goatdoc.com, goatdoccara@gmail.com, Insta: @goat_doc. Want another place to talk about goats online? Come say hi on the Discord server: http://discord.gg/am66zGny2b

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/goatdoc.


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Why should we care about whether our goats are registered? It's more than just being able to say that your animal is "purebred" or not. In this episode, I talk about my experience and opinion about why you should register your goats. I'm obviously biased, but it may not be why you think someone would be biased towards registering animals.


Questions, comments, just wanna say hi and send me cute goat pics online? www.goat...

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May 27, 2022 • 25 mins

Dystocia is our veterinary doctor word for difficult birth. (I guess maybe we call it something different for humans? I don't know, all species but one over here). In this episode I talk about different causes for dystocia, my experiences with what is more common in goats, and some dystocia do's and don'ts.


Questions, comments, just wanna say hi and send me cute goat pics online? www.goatdoc.com, goatdoccara@gmail.com, I...

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April 30, 2022 • 38 mins

Seems like we talk about poop a lot sometimes doesn't it. While I'm sure I've touched on fecal analysis as part of a parasite management program in the past, I thought I would take some time and talk about the different types of fecal analyses we have available to help assess and monitor parasite levels in our goats and other animals. This episode covers the difference between qualitative and quantitative fecal analysis, Baermann ...

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April 23, 2022 • 25 mins

While coccidia is the big player in problem protozoa for ruminants, there are a couple other guys I see around that I sometimes care about as well, so Entamoeba and Giardia get a couple minutes of attention in this episode and I also spend some time discussing considerations for treating enteric protozoa in general- why, why, how, and what to consider when you are doing it.


Questions, comments, just wanna say hi and send me cut...

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April 16, 2022 • 51 mins

It's been a while, but I'm back for at least a few episodes to talk about enteric protozoans - single celled critters that live in the guts, and may or may not be a problem. First things first- Coccidia. I managed to get a little long winded here talking about these guys and options for treating them when you may have a problem.


Questions, comments, just wanna say hi and send me cute goat pics online? www.goatdoc.com, g...

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October 1, 2021 • 30 mins

Talking a little pause from calcium to talk about the fall breeding season. The leaves are turning in Maine and in a strange turn of events, I finished my 2021 breeding plan several weeks before it's actually needed!!! #signsoftheapocalypse. This episode is just my thoughts about how I approached a breeding plan for about 45 does for the 2022 milking season- things I think about, what options I use for bucks and why, how we are ...

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August 20, 2021 • 31 mins

This is the first of a couple of episodes talking about calcium. For this first episode, I go into the physiology (I think I kept it mostly under control) of where calcium hangs out in the body and the systems that regulate how much calcium is available for important life functions. The goal of this episode is to have an idea of how this all works when things are normal, so that when things are not normal, we have something to co...

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July 23, 2021 • 49 mins

A departure from your more goat oriented podcast. In this episode I am going to tell you all about what is going on in the veterinary field as of this moment in July 2021. If you have not already been made aware, the veterinary profession all over the world is experiencing unprecedented and overwhelming demand for services and we are all just trying to keep our heads above water while we try to help as many patients as we possibl...

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July 16, 2021 • 35 mins

Devin and I recap what all has been going on over the winter and spring at the farm on a rainy truck ride up to my parents' house on the 4th of July. (Sorry about the windshield wiper noise!)


Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/goatdoc.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Got some stuff to clear up for people! You may already know some of these things, but I've had a few things bouncing around in my head lately that I hear people say, or do or read people talking about on the interweb that *aren't* quite right, so here's what I've got to say about those things! Talking about parasites and goat kids, milk fever and pregnancy toxemia, and probably some other stuff stuck in there too.


Questions/c...

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July 2, 2021 • 40 mins

I got a couple of requests to talk about general buck keeping, so here we go! Also go check out Episode 39 for a more reproductive focused buck episode.

This episode starts with a step back to talk about the "why" of keeping a buck, then my general nutrition recommendations, and then some of the less charming aspects of keeping bucks.


Questions/comments/etc? Shoot me an email at goatdoccara@gmail.com, check out the website at ...

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More Goat Talk about the whole passive transfer of maternal immunity for our goat kids coming at you in this episode. We talked about the actual amazing importance and complexity to the seemingly simple system of goat kids drinking colostrum in the first 24 hours of their lives in Part 1, so in Part 2, I go into what problems can arise from the failure of passive transfer (FPT), sequelae of FPT, and goat and human behaviors that c...

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Crash course in immunology of neonatal goat kids part one! In this episode, I try to give a foundation for understanding what all is going on with goat kid immune systems and how they manage to survive a world full of bacteria and potential pathogens for the first 1-2 months of their lives while their immune systems get geared up. Talking about a whole bunch of things in this episode including placentation (refresh yourself with ...

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January 29, 2021 • 41 mins

Part 2 of Goat Respiratory Stuff - I talk about non-infectious causes of respiratory issues in goats. Discussion includes, inflammatory/allergic issues, cardiogenic, neoplastic, anatomical, and functional causes, and talk about what I'm looking at in a physical exam focused on respiratory problems.

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/goatdoc.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/priv...

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January 22, 2021 • 48 mins

Talking about coughing goats! Well, more accurately, talking about respiratory disease in goats. This is going to be a two parter.


In part 1, we get into infectious causes of respiratory disease in goats, some anatomy talking about normal respiratory defense mechanisms, and the interplay of primary respiratory problems and secondary invaders.



Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/goatdoc.


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December 11, 2020 • 29 mins

Farm update and talking about what we want to get done this winter and in 2021.

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/goatdoc.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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December 4, 2020 • 47 mins

Annnnd I totally uploaded the wrong episode file for Part 3! And then we had a ridiculous snowstorm and we lost power, then the power came back on, but no internet. So here is the correct episode! Sorry!


Devin joins me for Part 3 of the series on Milk and Mammary Health. We talk about proper milking procedure and protocol and why recommendations are what they are, monitoring milk and udder health and mastitis.

Support thi...

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November 27, 2020 • 38 mins

Milk & Mammaries Part 2 builds on what we talked about in Part 1 and we get into more anatomy and physiology of what type of cells make milk, how the milk comes together into the udder and what that all looks like. Important differences between how goats and cows make milk. Anatomy of the udder and a little bit about how that plays into udder and milk health. Questions, comments or just want to say hi? Find me at @goat_doc on...

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October 4, 2020 • 41 mins

The first in a series of episodes talking about milk and mammaries. Not quite sure how many episodes it will take to get through all the stuff I want to talk about. As usual, I think it's useful to talk about basic stuff, so in this episode, milk is defined, I talk about what all is actually in there, and get into the casein thing a bit.

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/goatdoc.


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