Very sick baby goat... help?

14 years ago

Our miniture doe had twins yesterday. She didn't seem to be taking care of them, but my father insisted she knew what she was doing, since she had raised a set of twins last year.

One was found dead this morning, and the other was chilly and our outside dog was laying beside it, nuzzling it and trying to make it stand up. (The mother was ignoring everything around her, mostly like she did yesterday. We're getting rid of her soon, she stomped another doe's babies earlier this year.)

Now its in a box, under a lamp in our living room. We've been trying to convince it to take milk from an eyedropper (got an estimated ounce into it already... it did swallow) but its fading fast. We coaxed baking soda water into it and it cried and perked up a bit, but not much.

We're pretty sure its hopeless, but hate to quit a fight before its all said and done.

If anyone knows what more we can do, i'd appreciate it greatly.

Comments (5)

kimblee
Original Author
14 years ago
err... nevermind.

He died about five minutes ago.

Thanks anyway.
oberhasli1
14 years ago
I'm sorry to hear about your baby goats. It is so hard lose them so young. Last year our first freshener delivered twin girls 2 1/2 weeks early. We did tube feed them colostrum but they were just too young. You might want to keep tube feeding equipment on hand just in case you ever have this happen again. You can look on line to see how to tube feed. It is scary to do but once you do it, its not so bad and it can sometimes save young kids who are too weak to nurse. I'm sorry for your loss.

Bonnie
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brendasue
14 years ago
I'm sorry to hear about the loss of the little one.

For future reference, chilled kids should be warmed up to an internal body temperature of at least 100 degrees (normal is 101-103 degrees). You can do this by putting them in a bag & submersing them in warm water while holding their head out of the water, or warming up towels in the dryer & placing the goat on the towels, or using a hair dryer being careful not to burn them (careful of dehydration).

After the internal temperature is over 100 degrees, a quick energy boost will help them-molasses or corn syrup on thier tongue works wonders. Gives them quick energy for rapid recovery from being chilled. Afterwards colostrum (bottled or tubed as stated). The most important thing is to not feed a chilled kid as milk/colustrum only sits in the gut-they cannot digest milks with such a low temperature because their body went into "survival" mode.

To re-cap: Warm them to at least 100 degrees, give quick energy like simple sugars, then Colustrum/milk.

Again I'm sorry for your loss.

Brendasue
owen_hanewald
7 years ago
I've been having the same problem with my goats the past months, vet couldnt help me with a concrete diagnosis...i lost one buck and two kids in a span of 4 months. First they get weak joints, and they cant stand in a few hours theyre lying down and die within 24 hrs. What could be wrong with them? Im at a loss, and i feel so helpless that i cant be of much help to them.
owen_hanewald
7 years ago
My two month old kid is dying, ive been awake the whole night alternately massaging his legs and used a hair blower to warm his joints but its not working.