# Galadriel Just Died in my Arms and now Delilah's buckling



## SkyWarrior (Jun 16, 2015)

I'm still in shock.  Galadriel, our almost 3 month old bottle baby died in my arms tonight. I went to feed the critters and milk the does.  Galadriel had been acting a bit reluctant to hang out with the other girls and laid down but when I called her to the bottle.  She ate like a fiend.  She got her standard one bottle as she was getting close to being weaned. Then she promptly laid down.  This got me looking at her and right before my eyes she bloated.  I loaded her up on the ATV and got her in the house.  I made a quick slurry of baking soda and water and got a bunch into her. Then, I gave her C&D antitoxin. I put her in the large dog crate and had her rest while I let the baking soda work.  It seemed to.  Then, she started screaming and spasming.  I held her and gave her some antibiotics, but she was fading.  She simply died.

I'm stunned.  She was healthy and playing with her half sisters earlier.  Now I have a dead goat baby.  What could I have done?


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## Southern by choice (Jun 16, 2015)

I am so sorry.


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## samssimonsays (Jun 16, 2015)

I am so so sorry!  my heart breaks for you reading this!


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## luvmypets (Jun 16, 2015)

Im so sorry, we lost our one and only baby last week


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## BlessedWithGoats (Jun 16, 2015)

I'm so sorry SkyWarrior!! I know this must hurt you a lot, to lose her! Please please please don't blame yourself in any way... you did everything you knew to do for her.


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## Hens and Roos (Jun 16, 2015)

so sorry to hear this


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## SkyWarrior (Jun 16, 2015)

Thanks, all.  And I have a kid with FKS.  My life has taken a turn for the surreal.


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## BlessedWithGoats (Jun 16, 2015)

Will be praying for you SkyWarrior!!


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## mmpereira (Jun 16, 2015)

I'm very very sorry. I am sad. I think you have done everything you could, but some times we don't what happens. don't blame yourself. Be strong.


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## SkyWarrior (Jun 16, 2015)

What in the heck am I doing wrong?  Delilah's buckling with FKS just died in my arms too.  Dang it, I did everything right and he was recovering, and then wham!


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## Hens and Roos (Jun 16, 2015)

oh no so sorry to hear


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## Southern by choice (Jun 16, 2015)

Oh how your heart must ache. 
So sad for you Sky.


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## babsbag (Jun 16, 2015)

It is so hard to lose the little ones. Wish I had some answers for you.


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## norseofcourse (Jun 16, 2015)

Oh wow, I am so sorry for your losses, I can't imagine how bad you feel right now.  

Without a necropsy it's hard to say, but I've heard bloat can happen very quickly and you can't always save them...


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## Baymule (Jun 16, 2015)

I don't have goats, but I've lost animals. It always hurts and you question yourself, what could you have done different.  Sometimes there simply is no answer. Sometimes no matter what you do, your animal dies. It isn't fair, it just isn't fair, but we pick ourselves up, and try again. So sorry about your babies.


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## OneFineAcre (Jun 16, 2015)

Can you get these animals necropsied to find out what is going on?
If I have one die on me I have to know?
How else can you tell if you aren't doing something right?


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## Goat Whisperer (Jun 16, 2015)

I am so so sorry SW!   Hate to hear this 

I would get a necropsy done on BOTH the kids, that is the BEST way to tell.

Are they on milk replacer or ? If so, what kind? How old? CDT? Could you go over your feeding program?  

You may want to look at this-
http://www.sheepandgoat.com/articles/AbBloat.html 

This is part of the article.
"Rapid ingestion of milk can result in rapid fermentation of the milk."

"As the bacteria multiply, the sugars in the milk ferment with excess gas production. At the same time, the stomach becomes more acidic to the detriment of other bacteria. As the gas cannot escape, it bloats the abomasum. Death is rapid and unpleasant."

"The disease can progress rapidly, within 30 minutes of feeding. Sometimes, all you find is a dead lamb or kid."


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## Goat Whisperer (Jun 16, 2015)

Posting at the same time as OFA.


SW- here is a lab
http://liv.mt.gov/lab/default.mcpx


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## BlessedWithGoats (Jun 16, 2015)

So Sorry SkyWarrior!! :'( You can't go blaming yourself, you've been doing all you can to save the little ones.  Bless your heart for trying so diligently to get them to be well again! Sometimes even though we do our best, they still don't make it.   I have tried to nurse countless chickens back to health, and almost none of them have made it. But at least you can be at peace knowing that you tried, and you did the very best you could to get them well.


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## Devonviolet (Jun 16, 2015)

Oh SkyWarrior!  I am SO sorry!  My heart breaks for you!


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## Latestarter (Jun 16, 2015)

Wow.. a double whammy! So sad and so sorry to hear of your losses. Got all teared up just reading your posts. I know this has gotta hurt bad! Can read it in your font. Try to find out what happened and if there was anything you could or should have done differently to hopefully prevent this from happening again. Condolences!


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## SkyWarrior (Jun 17, 2015)

I'm afraid we've already taken care of the kids' bodies.  I'm very sure that the buckling had FKS as he improved with baking soda and water.  He never pooped which suggests a problem with his intestines. They were not compacted but he strained constantly.  I did try to get him to poop with a warm water enema, but it was really too late, and there wasn't much in there anyway.

Galadriel had bloat.  That I'm sure of. Happened right after I fed her (she's a bottle baby) and she died within a half hour. Basically, I was on top of it the moment it started. Couldn't save her.  It sucked. She was getting weaned off the milk and would've been completely weaned in two more weeks.  I was feeding her milk from the does, which never had a problem before.  Her two half siblings are a week older and they got the same milk and the same amount. 

I look at this as a run of really lousy luck.  I am evaluating when we're going to have kids.  I had been pushing it out to the late spring months because weather is so wicked in the early spring, but if there's more of a chance of clostridium A hitting these kids and causing FKS, I might as well take my chances with the weather. 

Thanks for all the hugs and condolences.  I've been toast today due to sick animals and work and have had not a lot of sleep in 72 hours.


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## samssimonsays (Jun 17, 2015)

I am absolutely heart broken for you! Many hugs! there is nothing you could have done to change what happened. Just know that they were loved and KNEW they were loved and you gave them the best chances possible. They certainly wouldn't have made it as far as they did without you.


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## BlessedWithGoats (Jun 17, 2015)

Samantha drawz said:


> I am absolutely heart broken for you! Many hugs! there is nothing you could have done to change what happened. Just know that they were loved and KNEW they were loved and you gave them the best chances possible. They certainly wouldn't have made it as far as they did without you.


 I agree with what Samantha says, SkyWarrior! You did a wonderful job with them!


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## Ridgetop (Jun 18, 2015)

Skywarrior:  This will not make you feel better right now, but when we raise livestock *^%*# happens.  Since you gave her all her CDT  vaccinations and boosters, _and_  she has been healthy for 3 months, and _the_ other 3 kids in the pen were doing well on the same feeding program, then there was no way to anticipate this.  Bloat happens fast.  You said she ate like a fiend.  Maybe she drank too fast, but to bloat right before your eyes was terrible.  If you were a trained vet with a trocar, maybe you could have punctured the rumen to release the gas.  Then again, that looks good on TV but you might have punctured something else and made the situation worse.  You were on the spot and immediately did all you could to save her.  The other kid with FKS might have died anyway.  FKS can be something difficult to deal with and other problems can mimic it.  How old was he?  Are you sure he had FKS?  We had a lamb born that looked like FKS but was actually brain damage from a traumatic birth when I wasn't home to pull him.  We put him down to spare him since he would have died eventually.  How sure are you the other kid had FKS? 

As livestock keepers we do the best we can for our animals.  Some we can pull through and we are joyous, but others cannot be saved and we grieve.  All we can do is keep going and trying and caring the best we can for our animals.  You are doing a good job, sometimes bad stuff happens.  Take the good from it and add this to your experiences.  If anyone else has this happen, you will know about it and can help them.  Losing animals sucks.  Hugs to you.


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## SkyWarrior (Jun 20, 2015)

Ridgetop said:


> As livestock keepers we do the best we can for our animals.  Some we can pull through and we are joyous, but others cannot be saved and we grieve.  All we can do is keep going and trying and caring the best we can for our animals.  You are doing a good job, sometimes bad stuff happens.  Take the good from it and add this to your experiences.  If anyone else has this happen, you will know about it and can help them.  Losing animals sucks.  Hugs to you.



I'm pretty sure it was FKS because the treatment _was _working.  I was so angry that he backslid when I thought he was clear.  

Now, I'm dealing with a kid who is scouring.  Which sets my teeth on edge because I've lost two kids from what was obviously different stuff.  I suspect the scouring is coccida.  (Three weeks old)

I guess my luck ran out when it came to kids.  I've had healthy kids for the most part -- this year is different.  Sure, I've had unlucky births, but never after the kids were more than a day old.  Last time a kid had scours, it was three years ago and cleared up fast with treatment.  Now I'm pulling my hair out.


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## samssimonsays (Jun 20, 2015)

SkyWarrior said:


> I'm pretty sure it was FKS because the treatment _was _working.  I was so angry that he backslid when I thought he was clear.
> 
> Now, I'm dealing with a kid who is scouring.  Which sets my teeth on edge because I've lost two kids from what was obviously different stuff.  I suspect the scouring is coccida.  (Three weeks old)
> 
> I guess my luck ran out when it came to kids.  I've had healthy kids for the most part -- this year is different.  Sure, I've had unlucky births, but never after the kids were more than a day old.  Last time a kid had scours, it was three years ago and cleared up fast with treatment.  Now I'm pulling my hair out.


I'm dealing with the same in rabbits now...  Hugs. It's a horrible feeling.


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## Baymule (Jun 20, 2015)

When I have horrible diarrhea and vomiting, I take apple cider vinegar and honey mixed half and half. Knocks it right out. Wonder if it would work for your kid?


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## SkyWarrior (Jun 20, 2015)

Baymule said:


> When I have horrible diarrhea and vomiting, I take apple cider vinegar and honey mixed half and half. Knocks it right out. Wonder if it would work for your kid?




Don't know.  Very odd.  They do have a 4 compartment stomach though.


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## Poka_Doodle (Jun 22, 2015)

Sorry to here that, great failure can get animals at any point, my hamster died in my hands in February


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## Ridgetop (Jun 25, 2015)

Has your weather changed this year?  Excessively wet or hot weather can cause problems that have been dormant for years.  I use regular pink kaopectate for goat scours.  I used to buy it in the gallon size at the dairy store cheaper - but human stuff works well.  (Dairy farmers supply store - not people dairy LOL)  Also give lactobaccilis and paste electrolytes available at the feed store.  The Kao stops the diarrhea, the lactobacillis gets the gut back in proper working order, and the electrolytes replace what the kid/calf loses through scouring.  If this simple remedy doesn't work, you may be looking at coccy or e.coli. 

Samantha:  For rabbits scouring, I pull all feed, hay and grain.  I give the rabbits a dish of wood shavings, and gradually add straw.  This was an old remedy taught me by a follow who started breeding rabbits in 1900.  If they are just starting on scours, or are nursing kits, try just adding some shavings in their cage.  When they scour they will devour the shavings.  the low protein, high carbon roughage seems to help their guts.  Once the scours clear, I start out slow with low protein pellet (Since you have angoras your pellet might be 18% or more rather than 16%.  This pulled my barn through about 20 years when we had some sort of enteritis going through the state via rabbit shows.  One show and the entire barn had it.  The shavings worked the best.  It took a little while to get them back up to weight afterwards since scours simply sucks condition from rabbits.  I was lucky since some people lost half their herds from scours.  Out of a barn of 70 I didn't lose anyone.  It is an old remedy but works.


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