Just last week, one of our goats (doe) developed a serious case of pneumonia and nearly died. Our vet came out, treated her, and left a supply of medicine for us to inject her with over the course of the next four days. Tia, our goat, is doing much better now. However, out of that near-disaster, came a decision to leave the large barn door open at night for ventilation purposes. Why was the barn door closed at night to begin with? A nearby neighbor's goats had recently been attacked by a bear (we live in Rappahannock County, Virginia). Our neighbor lives next to woods. My husband and sons were convinced that we needed to keep the barn door closed to protect our goats from possible bear attacks. We do not live on a wooded lot (mostly cleared pasture)and I felt our goats were at a higher risk of dying from pneumonia than of dying from a bear attack. Anyway, the vet agreed with me, so we are now keeping the barn door open. My husband theorizes that if a bear does enter the barn, it would likely get only one goat because the rest are smart enough to run out the barn door to the safety of the pasture. So far, we have not seen any bears, so we plan to continue our current strategy. - Liz Rhein

-- Liz Rhein (merhein@shentel.net), June 25, 2000

Answers

Perhaps come at your ventilation problem in another way. Leave the barn door open during the day and closed at night, but perhaps a continuous ridge vent with a fan? Or like us, our barn walls from 5 foot up to 9 are actually plywood "windows" that open up and out and are held in place with legs that attach down on the wall. This drastically increases the ventilation, yet if we wanted to, would secure the does into the barn. Perhaps instead of a solid door you could add ventilation to your doors with cattle panel inserts. I know that in many new folks zeal to raise their baby goats they get carried away rasing these kids in the house instead in the cold/fresh air that they need to be in. Think fresh air, rather than hot air. And if you are on your knees in the pen and your knees are wet, change the bedding or increase the drainage of your barn! The problem with pnemonia like cocci, is that once the damage is done, pnemonia causes scar tissue in the lung, cocci the intestine, you have an animal that you will more than likely have decreased production, size, milk, or over-all-health for the rest of their lives. Bears! Dang! I visit the barn at night when we hear a coyote! Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), June 25, 2000.

Before I got the Great Pyre. I locked the goats in every night too. My barn has a loft over half of it and the part in front of the loft is open, so air circulated. I never did have any problems with illness/pneumonia or the ammonia smell in the barn from lack of ventilation. Any way you could put a window in that predators couldn't access?

-- Marci (ajourend@libby.org), June 25, 2000.

LIZ,

Thats interesting about the bears attacking the neighbors goats. I live about 120 miles south of you in Victoria, VA., in the middle of the woods in the boonies. We are surrounded by timber company land. Anyways, in the 5 yrs we have lived here and had goats we have never experienced a problem with a bear attack. In fact I came face to face with a big black bear 2 yrs ago while picking blackberries. I was scared, my 2 dogs ran for cover under the truck but when I offered him berries from my bucket he stared, sniffed and went away. We have bears around again this yr too as our corn field has tracks in it. Our dogs may be what keeps them away from the house/barn. Get yourself a good livestock guard dog and you should be fine. I would not leave the doors closed as they need the ventilation. Good luck.

Bernice

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), June 26, 2000.

I agree with Bernice that you need to get a livestock guardian dog. Maybe the bears won't cross your pasture to get to the barn, but I wouldn't want to bet my flock on it!! And Bernice, just because you haven't had problems with bears yet doesn't mean you own't! But I do think that they avoid places with dogs -- sometimes! One of our neighbors here was telling us about a bear coming in and eating her dogs food while the dog (a German Shepherd, I think) lay in its house and calmly watched! Same dog sounds vicious when we walk past their house!! Go figure!! :-) When we were living in Alaska in my brother's cabin, there was a bear trail through the woods behind the cabin, and an open garbage pit on the property (which we eventually got buried), but we always had a good watch dog, and the bears never bothered the cabin or the animals.

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), June 26, 2000.

Thank you for your responses! We will likely add some kind of roof/ridge ventilation system (maybe a cupola?) and fans to increase ventilation. Evidently, the existing windows do not provide enough ventilation. I will look into getting a guard odg. Our border collie is wonderful, but not with the goats! He tends to chase them for "fun"....

-- Liz Rhein (merhein@shentel.net), June 26, 2000.

We have a bear that "attacks" our garbage but does not bother my rabbits. The main reason I believe is because I have an eletric fence around my pasture. Another friend had the same experience. I told someone else who lost his rabbits last year and since he put up his eletric fence, he has had no deaths, even though he regularly see the bear. Unfortunately, my electric fence is down because of a storm. The new one didn't work and haven't been able to be replace. And tonight is garbage night.

-- Dee (gdgtur@goes.com), June 29, 2000.