Goats and Sheep and Peanuts in the Shell

It does not happen often, but sometimes we are called on to give our sheep and goats medicine in pill form. You can use a balling gun to get the pill down their throat, and it will be a fight. However, do not EVER put you hand in the back of a sheep or goat's mouth, even a young one. Their molars can slice your hand and fingers up badly...they are very sharp, and their jaw muscles are very strong!

There is an easier way, as long as it is ok if the animal chews up the pill! One of my goats was on pills for a while, and was very good at detecting them and spitting them out when we tried to give them to her in breads, jam, what have you. I am very grateful to my house sitter who came up with an ingenious way to sneak the pills past the goat!

We have always given raw peanuts in the shell to our goats for treats, and they adore them. My house sitter came up with the idea to break open the peanut shell, fill the halves with peanut butter, press the pill into the peanut butter-filled shell, and then press the peanut shell halves back together. It looked normal, stayed together, and tasted wonderfully. Well...at least the goat thought so! It was no longer a fight to medicate the goat...which was a relief to all of us.