Hair loss was one problem. Loss of life. How much iron was found in our well water.
Sabrina had the worst condition of all the goats, but she made the most amazing recovery!
We started our ranch many years ago and got into raising goats in 2015. We tried different dairy breeds, but stumbled upon the Kiko breed, and realized they are a great multipurpose goat. We have had Kiko’s for over 6 years now, and raised them on grass hay and forage, keeping them grain-free. We put out good-quality loose minerals and fresh water and our goats thrived. In 2021 we decided to move from our 1-acre property to 36 acres in Concho, Arizona, which was only about an hour from our old place. Our new property is completely off-grid and on well water. We never expected that our new property would become a place of tragedy and loss for our once thriving herd.
Over the next year and a half, we noticed the goats seemed a bit off. There were gradual changes over many months at a time, so it took a while to realize what was going on. They had lost a little bit of weight, but not much. They got rough coats, which can be a sign of copper deficiency, so we gave them copper bolus. With little improvement, we started to expect it was the feed. We decided to switch feed, but the new supplier had moldy hay. We found another supplier and using their hay for about a month, we started to see the goats not wanting to eat. After closer inspection, found foxtails in the hay and inside the goat’s mouths leaving them sore and bloody. The burrs were imbedded in the goat’s upper lips and around their tongues. We quickly got rid of the hay, which we bale grazed, so we had to burn our pastures, and pulled all the burrs out of the goat’s mouths. We decided to use an old supplier, though they are an hour away, it is a good consistent hay.
All our goats seemed to recover from the foxtail incident, but still were not gaining any weight. We had already gone through our breeding season, before the foxtail incident, so we knew we had to give the goats as much feed as they wanted to ensure a healthy enough body condition. We kept 1500lbs. of Bermuda hay out 24/7 and they got alfalfa pellets twice a day. We fed out goats this same ration at our old property with no issues. Our herd had been grain-free all these years, so we were reluctant to add any to their diet. However, with the consistent weight issues and knowing they were carrying kids, we figured it was time, so we decided to add oats and black oil sunflower seed mixed into their alfalfa pellets. We later tried adding in a high-performance pellet, which is used on malnourished animals to help them gain weight quicker. We used that for almost a month and the goats still did not gain any weight.
Coming up on kidding season and thinking about the added grain, our does should have had extra-large udders compared to previous years. Unfortunately, it seemed the opposite happened. Their udders were smaller than normal, but we figured it was because they were still underweight. Our normal alfalfa pellet supplier’s mill was down so we tried another alfalfa pellet, but the goats started dropping even more weight after having kids. Thinking it was the new pellets, we switched to alfalfa hay. At this point we were super frustrated because no matter what we tried; nothing was working.
The girls started losing even more weight after the kids were a couple of weeks old and then we lost our first goat kid. We thought it was odd, but that dam had triplets, which can be a lot to handle. A few days later we found another kid not doing well, so we warmed it up and put it on the bottle, this time from a different dam. Within a week we had lost a few more kids. They would seem fine one evening and then gone by the next morning. We started to notice the signs on the kids and started putting them on the bottle, which was helping. Unfortunately, we lost a total of six kids, which was heartbreaking.
By the time the kids reached 30 days old, we got their weight and realized most of them only gained a few pounds since birth. Our kid crops typically had an average daily gain of .3-.4lbs per day but we were only seeing .1-.2lbs per day. This made us realize it was not a feed issue with which we were dealing. We ruled out parasites and soon realized there was something else going on with our herd. We also switched the goats back to grain-free, since it wasn’t helping them anyway.
I decided to go public about what was going on in hopes of finding some answers. Within an hour of sharing our story, we had responses from people all over, with ideas of what could be going on. Additionally, we also received some responses from locals in our area who were having the same issues, so it just was not happening to us!
One of the local ranchers, Rebecca, with Heart and Sol Ranch, was having the exact same problems with their goat herd. They had a thriving herd before moving to Concho, Arizona in April of 2021. Rebecca stated, “Not long after moving we started noticing iodine and copper deficiency symptoms but otherwise, they were all still in good condition. Things stayed fine through the summer and around August and September we noticed the goats were losing weight. No feed change or supplements helped.” They also noticed a loss in milk production and slow growing kids. They ran fecal samples, with negative results but were treated anyway, just in case, with still no improvement.
We partnered with another ranch, Cedar Ridge Kiko’s, back in March of 2022. We brought in high quality Kiko’s from all over the USA to Concho, Arizona. The goats were in great condition when they arrived and were bred months later. The goats seemed healthy at a glance but as we neared kidding season, some of the goats started to miscarry, losing multiple kids. Their coats were rough and their udders small. Losing quite a bit of weight as well, though they were free fed.
We realized every ranch we spoke with in this area was dealing with the same issues even though we had different feed/management practices. Heart and Sol Ranch, Cedar Ridge Kiko’s and Fish or Price Ranch decided it was time to find answers. We started working with our local livestock extension agent, local and state veterinarians and out of state labs. Together, we got samples of blood, soil, water, feed and even had a necropsy done. We were all so desperate for answers to save our herds from this rapid decline. In the meantime, Fish or Price Ranch and Cedar Ridge Kiko’s treated all their goats with shots of BoSe, vitamin B complex, vitamin C, zinc tablets and copper bolus and drenched with CMPK in hopes of replenishing what their bodies were missing.
As results started trickling in, they were not making any sense. The vets and extension agent were stumped! The blood samples were extremely high in iron but also high in copper. This is strange because iron depletes copper. The samples also showed low calcium and zinc. The soil samples were high in PH and Alkaline. The well water was tested with strips and showed no iron or copper, which didn’t make any sense because our pipes were stained orange and how high the blood mineral panels were. We plan to get our water tested to get a full mineral analysis in hopes of better answers. After talking with locals about their well water, everyone’s tests were high in iron, so it all is starting to make sense. At Heart and Sol Ranch, their blood and liver biopsy came back as low in calcium, magnesium, zinc, nickel, and silicon.
After all the research, testing and results and still no answers, my gut was telling me it had to be the well water. We decided to get a water filtration system on our well and filter out iron and any other heavy minerals. Once the Culligan Filter was installed, it was a waiting game. I took a picture of one of our worst goats the day we put the water filter on. It was so sad to see them in such bad condition. I was able to use that photo to compare a few weeks later as to whether the filter was working, and I could not believe the difference. The goats were starting to gain a little bit of weight even though we had not changed the feed.
We also decided to change the first water filter after just 2 months, even though the filter is recommended to be changed every 5 months. The 2-month-old filter is stained dark orange from the amount of iron it was filtering out of our water! It is scary to see that high amount of iron and we can only imagine what the water could be doing to us! Why were we not told about this? I came across an article about the water supply in Apache County back in 1964. It talks about the soil layers and the different wells in the area. At different well depths, you hit different water pockets, some of which are unfit for livestock and human use. In our area, we cannot get into the Coconino Aquifer for almost 1,000ft, which is where the water quality is best. Most of the wells in our area are at around 300-600ft and are in different pockets of water. Depending on the pocket of water you hit, depends on how much water you get and the quality of it. Our well hits water at 250ft but our well water pump is at about 300ft. The unfortunate part is that if we wanted to drill down into the Coconino Aquifer, it would cost us as much as $100,000.00! That is just not in the budget, especially for ranchers and low-income households.
With everything out of our control, we are forced to do whatever we can to ensure our animals get better. Our goats have been using their mineral buffet for about 3 months now, watching them closely and keeping track of what they are using. We recently noticed the goats going after Copper, Zinc, Cobalt, and Phosphorus. We decided to copper bolus our goats again in hopes to help them level out their minerals a little bit quicker and give them other supplements as well. Within a week of giving the copper bolus, the goats quit licking it from their mineral buffet. The goats are starting to gain weight and the kids are growing better as well. We had a second kid crop born a few weeks after the water filter was installed and the dam’s udders are much bigger. We are just passing their 60-day old marks and have found the kids to be growing like they should be. We had a recent liver biopsy done on one of the goats and found that all their minerals are showing normal! So everything we have done has helped the goats tremendously!
We are still in a recovery stage and expect it to take many months to get the herd back up to thriving status. I believe we are on the right track and will be sure to change the water filter more regularly. This will be a forever battle with the water and the goat’s minerals unless we come up with a ton of money to drill our well deeper or move. We planned on this being our forever home. If we had known about the water issues, we would not have moved here. We never expected our well water could cause so much damage to our animals. It is not the first thing one would expect as the problem. I am just upset it took so long to figure this out and our animals had to suffer. We hope this story may help others who may be dealing with the same issues. We definitely recommend testing your water to ensure it is safe for your livestock before it is too late.
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