Keep these in mind and you will not go wrong.

Whether it is the sallah season or one is just out on a search for live slaughter, getting to buy a ram or goat can be a daunting task, a challenge. From the drive to the market, to the hustlers who make you pay ‘laada’ (an undefined tax or payment); to leaving the market with an animal but having this ugly feeling you have not made a good deal, the challenges are there, and there are quite a few of them.

Check out the fellow who bought a ram from a market a few days before the eid celebrations for the year in question. It was a rough ride but he leaves the ‘kara’ (animal market) feeling elated. It was a good handshake; a good deal. He got home and everyone was happy with the ram, neighbours and family. Sadly, the animals passed away before daybreak. In his confusion, he recounts that the animal was ‘fit as a fiddle’ and well fed. It was active and ready to go. And go, it did. Only this time, it was unassisted, and several days before the D-Day.

But what could have gone wrong? A lot, apparently.

We will share with you some of the tricks at play out there. So let’s head to the market to sample some rams and see typical situations.

#1 How can you tell, nearly instantly, and generally, the well-being of an animal?
Head, neck and back position provide an instant give-away of the general well-being of an animal. A healthy animal, viewed from the side, will present with head and neck well above the level of the back of the animal. This is the natural position for healthy sheep or goats, standing or laying down. A sick or tired animal does not appear this way. Instead, the head, neck and back are on the same level and kind of form a straight line. In some cases, the head droops below the level of the back while the animal is in rest position, and not eating. This is a big, clear sign that all is, indeed, not well with the animal. There is no predicting how an animal like this will fare after purchase.

So, away with the guy who holds the animal by the lower jaw and turns its face to the sky while stretching its neck just to prove to you that your buy is healthy!

#2 Running nose… a no-no? While a running nose of catarrh would ordinarily not appear troublesome, it is evidence that the immune/defense system of the animal is fighting something: an infection. The production of phlegm in the respiratory tract of the animal is an indication that there is an infection along the tract. Viral, fungal or bacterial. And in the midst of all the scare, it could just be as a result of a sudden, dramatic change in weather/climatic conditions, from the typically dry weather in the northern parts of the country to the more humid weather in the south and south-western states.

A dry nose is a pass, any day!

#3 Pale or no? Famacha score. It is important to know what is going on in the inside of an animal. Very important! But how do you know? How can you tell? Surely you are not going to take the animal (or samples from it) to the lab. So how can you tell that all is well (or not)?

One simple method is to check for paleness in the animal by inspecting parts of the animal with mucus membrane. Don’t panic! These are just parts that appear like they have no skin around them. Two easy examples are the anal area and the inside of the eye lid. Here you can check for paleness or otherwise; here you can tell by looking at the colour of these areas and tell if the animal is pale or healthy.

On the farm, I’d easily use the Famacha card. This is a colour chart that is graded and numbered. I’d compare the colour of the mucus membrane with colours on the card to get a Famacha score. In the market, that is not practicable because the Famacha method is best done indoors, with controlled lighting. At the market, I’d just inspect!

Turning the lower lid of the of the eye of the animal inside out carefully reveals the mucus membrane. You will have to inspect quickly because over time, the membrane gets irritated and may redden, leading to false clues. A deep red colour shows that the animal is well. Very well. Pink and lighter shades show that the animal is pale or anemic. Shades anywhere in-between give a general idea of what’s happening to the animal. You get the gist!

Now, what does it mean when we say an animal is anemic? In layman terms, it means the animals does not have the requisite amount of red blood cells in its system. What happened to its red blood cells? They are fighting an infection or struggling to maintain a balance. Typically, this signifies that the animal
(a) has been through quite a bit of stress from travel, or from infection or illness.
(b) has a high worm load in its guts or high ectoparasite load. Ectoparasites in this case would be ticks, lice and mites. These ‘suck the blood’ and leave the animal pale.

#4 Dirty? Why? Now here is the joker. Cattle, sheep and goats have no need for a wash.
YES, I SAID IT! They have a self-cleansing mechanism. In any case, washing an animal will remove only superficial dirt on it and not deep hewn stains. A dirty animal is a worm-infested animal. If the animal is not clean and good looking, especially at the posterior, kindly walk away if you are out shopping for a healthy ‘dude’.

#5 Did you know that animals look bigger when viewed from a lower level? Yes, they do! The reason most karas are on a higher level than the roads passing by/leading to them. Do keep that in mind the next time you visit one to buy an animal. There is no hard-and-fast rule to tell how big an animal is. Most of the time, it is a judgement call based on human sensory ability. This is the reason why an animal looks small from one angle and large from another; small in this look, a few blinks and moments later, large. Scientifically, the only way to qualitatively describe an animal is by weight reference.

#6 A limp is a limp is a limp. A limping animal, on any of the four legs (hands, depending on which language we speak in or translate from) is a deal breaker, especially when buying for religious slaughter. Except it is clear that the animal has a fracture or a fresh wound, the only other cause of limping is foot rot.

Foot rot is a bacterial infection affecting sheep and goats. It is highly infectious, and typically spread by moist floor, grazing fields or stands. Left untreated, it can cause lameness in flock. The good thing is that since it is a bacteria infection, it can be treated easily, with no invasion.

So, that limping sheep or goat is not bouncing, neither is it just limping. It is sending a message to those who know and can translate.

#7 Let’s play with shit…. Oh well, let’s look at the droppings, they tell a lot. A healthy animal’s poop should be dry and solid droplets. Grade A! If that is what you see in an animal, then you can go to sleep knowing all is well with the sheep or goat.

Solid droplets with a shiny glaze are also good; not a problem, nothing to worry about.

When the poop is not perfectly formed and takes the shape of cattle dropping, I’d be a little worried; just a little. This could be due to a diet change and expectedly, should normalize in no time.

Watery stool is a no-deal. Do not even bother. It’s a recipe for disaster. If you took a fecal sample and examined under the microscope, you’ll see nothing but a horror movie. Let’s not even begin to rationalize buying or not buying. You do not need such an animal. Period!

#8. Swollen abdomen? What are we feeding? It is not likely that you will find a hungry looking animal in the market. Fat chance! Typically, they’ve all been well packaged before being set on display. But how can you tell if they are really well fed. Our merchants have a way of raising the heads of these animals to the sky, getting you to feel the spine at the posterior, hitting the animal on the belly (oh gosh!!!) just to show you the animals are fat and healthy.

Run!

Actually, no. Not that fast.

For a doe (female goat) or ewe (female sheep), a swollen belly is usually a sign of pregnancy; yes, safe to assume.

Let us knock out bloat. This is quite a deadly condition where the animal has a blockage in its system or has too much gas produced in its gut. It typically kills the animal within days.

For a buck or ram with a large swollen abdomen, it don’t mean nothing at all. Let’s think about it. The sellers want to make a profit and so reduce their handling costs. They need to feed the animals at the cheapest cost. So, what do they use? Corn offal. I mean!!! We call it offal, how much juice can one possibly get from corn chaff? Nearly zero. But guess what? It has a lot of weight and occupies space, never mind that it has almost no nutritional value. That does the trick. Load the animals, they look good, they sell. No one wants to buy a hungry looking ram anyways.

So how do we know a well-fed ram? By looking at the poverty triangle. And this takes us to the next point.

#9 The poverty triangle is a depression visible above the abdomen, by the upper end of the thigh when viewed from the side. It is used as a measure of how well-fed an animal is at any point in time. It is not a measure of how much food is in the rumen but how well the animal has eaten good food.

Let’s get a little technical. The ruminant has 4 ‘stomachs’ right? When trash is eaten, it goes to the first one called rumen. There is not a lot of work for the rumen to do, so it slowly, grudgingly passes the food to the other chambers for digestion and regurgitation before passing out whatever is left as poop. When highly nutritious food is eaten, a sudden change in the production of digestive enzymes kicks in, and all 4 compartments are ready to receive. The animal itself wants to grab as much as possible of the food, and so keeps eating and filling the rumen. The rumen sensing work to be done in digesting quickly passes the food to the omasum, abomasum and reticulum for further digestion. The filling of these compartments closes the poverty triangle. Simple enough? So, the next time you go inspecting an animal, keep a keen eye on this triangle.

#10 How old are you Mr. Ram? Sometime we want to make sure our animals are old enough, and not just some fat, over-fed babies. So how can we tell the age of an animal?

Nope, not by size!

Neither is it by the size and length of the horns.

The age of an animal can be fairly accurately determined by the dentition and dental condition. We will discuss this in another post. But when you inspect the lower jaw and you see milk-looking teeth, be sure that you have an animal that has barely been weaned. Mature animals have permanent, grass-stained teeth and in some cases, may even be missing some.

#11 Medication and withdrawal periods. There are some medications which when administered, render an animal not fit for human consumption for a given period. This is a period when the medication is reduced to safe tolerance level and is called the withdrawal period. For example, many antibiotics have a withdrawal period of 72 hours. Unfortunately, there is no way to tell what medication an animal has been injected with and what withdrawal periods to consider. This is only available for animals raised on farms, with good record keeping and traceability (a complete record of an animal for 6 months prior).

I hope you have enjoyed reading. If you keep these things in mind, more than likely you will make a good buy.

Happy shopping!