# weak legged baby goats



## raykour (Apr 24, 2012)

I was gifted 2 boer bucklings today and both of them are in awful shape. The same folks gave me 2 bucklings about 10 days ago that I thought were in bad shape, but by comparison they were great.  

 These 2 were born last night and got to suck a couple of times off momma while she was held down. They are doing OK on the bottle.   They are peeing so clearly they are getting something down. ONe buckling walks one his hind pasterns.  If you help him he can support himself normally and do a little better, so in a few days I am sure things will tighten up and he will be fine.

His brother, however, really freaks me out.  When he tries to walk on one of his hind legs, the hock joint flexes the wrong way....forward.  It turns my stomach since it is totally unnatural.  I splinted it up so it couldn't do that anymore, and then he started walking on his fetlock on that leg too, so I splinted it all the way down.   

I am hoping this is just an extreme situation of the same issue his brother has and it will clear up, but watching that joint turn itself inside out really freaked me out.  Is there hope for him?  

I know about the Bo-Se, but I have no access to it at the moment.


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## Bedste (Apr 24, 2012)

one of the triplets acted this way last year and I thought they were premies.  He straightened up when he got stronger in just a couple of days.  Can you take a pic and post it?


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## manybirds (Apr 24, 2012)

raykour said:
			
		

> I was gifted 2 boer bucklings today and both of them are in awful shape. The same folks gave me 2 bucklings about 10 days ago that I thought were in bad shape, but by comparison they were great.
> 
> These 2 were born last night and got to suck a couple of times off momma while she was held down. They are doing OK on the bottle.   They are peeing so clearly they are getting something down. ONe buckling walks one his hind pasterns.  If you help him he can support himself normally and do a little better, so in a few days I am sure things will tighten up and he will be fine.
> 
> ...


sounds like mom was malnurished during pregnancy (that or they didn't have enough room inside). i've had it happen before when the doe's where small and didn't have the body capacity for the kid to grow comfortably. i just took plastic spoons some vet wrap and some duck tape and splinted it for around a week. i took the splints off and everything was fine. as for the kids buy some more colostrum, if u can find someone with real raw goats milk buy it. if not you'll just have to stick with formula. just as a precaution i would even give them some electrolits (sorry can't spell it  ). keep them in a warm not drafty spot make sure umbilical cords are cleaned (betadine) make sure there pooping and peeing alright.


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## Bedste (Apr 24, 2012)

so encouraging.....!  There is HOPE!

Maybe you know a friend with fresh goat milk or maybe you can get colostrum from your friend with the mama goat.  I kept mine in a tote with towels for a couple of days.  The triplets were only 2 1/2 pounds each and all three grew up just fine.


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## manybirds (Apr 24, 2012)

did u check your vet for BoSe? and don't forget CD&T


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## 20kidsonhill (Apr 25, 2012)

what you are discribing is pretty common, well at least it isn't all that unusual.  Bo-se would help, but time will help as well. If you have access to a selenium/ Vit E gel you could give that to the kids and mom for a couple days, a long with extra Vitamin E from a gel cap.  But time will heal it.  

This was one of my bucklings born this year.  Taping may help some, but our vet recommended the kid just be allowed to use it and the tendons would strengthen on their own. 






Here he is at about 5 weeks old. Front legs still look a little knobby in this picture, but he looks normal know.


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## Bedste (Apr 25, 2012)

How encouraging.


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## 20kidsonhill (Apr 25, 2012)

I would put 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda in one bottle a day, to help with digestion, since he isn't getting around real well, and encourage standing after each bottle.  I wouldn't offer a bottle more than once every 4 hours for the first 2 or 3 days and then no more than once every 6 hours after that.


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## raykour (Apr 25, 2012)

20kidsonahill, this is EXACTLY what this little buckling looks like.  Thank you so much! It is encouraging to know that this isn't so terribly uncommon.  It looks so unnatural and freakish! 

I have 2 fresh nannies that are supplying the milk for these little buggers.  This is the 2nd set of twins I have gotten from these folks, and the does don't look the best so I am sure nutrition has something to do with it. 

They are eating good today  and the one just knuckled over on his fetlocks is doing great, completely normal. 

I cannot get a photo to load of the little bugger, but I have him splinted up with the plastic fork handle that I heated over the stove so I could make it fit right.  It doesn't looks great but it sure looks better than it going forward.


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## 20kidsonhill (Apr 25, 2012)

I haven't really found that nutrition always matter, our doe had plenty of hay/browse, free-choice loose goat minerals, two bo-se shots during her pregnancy, grain the last 6 weeks of her pregnancy. The kids were plenty big, but this one came out breech and all bent up. The one possible problem could have been not enough calcium in her diet. She did have weak contractions and we had to give her oxytocin and a sign of low calcium is  kids that don't position themselves properly. 

this buckling was 11 lbs at birth, his brother was 9lbs. 

With that said, I do know if you don't give enough selenium to your pregnant animals, you are more likely to have weak legged kids. We only had a couple out of 40 kids that were weak legged, and he was the worst.


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