Where passion for animals, science, and medicine lives…
“What do you feed your dog?” you perfunctorily inquire, while completing your examination. “Cooked chicken and rice,” the pet owner boasts. “Is that on top of the kibble?” “No. Just chicken and rice. I buy premium, cooked chickens at Costco. I make sure it is lean, white meat, no skin, no bones, no fat. […]
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While many people take St. John’s Wort as an herbal treatment for depression, the plant induces painful sunburns in goats when eaten. Sound crazy? Wondering if you heard that correctly? Yes, St. John Wort is a photodynamic plant. After eating, certain UV-light-absorbing compounds in the plant circulate in the blood of the goat. In white, […]
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“Comparison is the death of joy.” People have been shifting their concept of human beauty over the centuries, and with this, their view of an ideal weight. The change in perspective has not been subtle. Today, we desire teeth so white they sparkle and will employ lasers, daily strips, and overnight trays to accomplish it. […]
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In the last podcast, we discussed cyanogenic plants – plants that create cyanide. Some trees are consistent risks, other plants like Sudan grass depend upon environmental conditions. While goats have fewer toxic risks than other ruminants, many threats remain. Alkaloid plants represent another category for concern to the goat producer. Luckily, most of these plants […]
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At the dawn of the 18th Century, in a small Berlin laboratory, a dye maker used a contaminated ingredient and stumbled upon a discovery that would change the world. Heinrich Diesbach shared his lab with a brilliant but obsessed scientist named Johann Conrad Dippel, who resorted to grave robbing to pursue his dream of bringing […]
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I have always undervalued vomiting. I hate vomiting. When I say “hate,” I am not using this in our culture’s overused version of the term. I really hate it. So much so that I have only vomited four times in my life: once while experiencing dysentery in Egypt, once when overeating watermelon as a child, […]
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I remember being a small child and my father took me to the Los Angeles Zoo. Having been raised in the suburbs, livestock represented cute accessories to my finished, miniature Lincoln-Log cabins that I would construct. Small plastic sheep and goats would be set within the small green fence that I would make around the […]
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We all love goats. How could you not? Even Abraham Lincoln had pet pair of goats named Nanny and Nanko who used to chew on the White House furniture. Goats are worthy not only of our love but of our admiration as well. Goats hold a number of superpowers, one of them being able to […]
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Adult livestock tend to resist the effects of mineral deficiency better than young animals. Increased demands from growth and decreased body reserves put young animals at risk.
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So far, we have covered reproduction and lactation. Now we move on to growing and weaning stages. A common practice in many Midwestern states involves sending stocker cattle to wheat pasture for winter grazing. Lush, green cereal crops notoriously are low in magnesium (Mg), leading to grass tetany. Adult cattle are susceptible to grass tetany […]
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