# Mysterious Sudden Kid Death



## Ariel301 (Apr 30, 2011)

When I went out to feed and milk this morning, my LaMancha/Oberhasli doeling Butter didn't come running to the fence for her breakfast. That is very odd, so I went looking for her. And I found her, stretched out in her favorite dog house, cold and dead.  All yesterday she was fine, eating, playing, drinking, everything normal. Last night at midnight she seemed fine also. And then, dead, in less than 12 hours. 

I had the exact same thing happen to a wether kid last year. He was fine when I checked him before bed, and then by 10 the next morning, he was laying in his favorite sleeping spot, looking like he just went to sleep and never woke up. I called the local livestock vet about him (didn't get a necropsy because it would have cost more money than I owned) and their best guess was a rattlesnake bite. But rattlesnakes don't really come out at night...and there was no obvious wound anywhere on him. Or on this doeling. :/

All the kids are getting their Di-Methox drench this week to prevent cocci, none have any symptoms. Yesterday was their third of five doses. She MIGHT have had a little bit too much, like maybe less than half an extra dose. (I always put a little extra in the drenching syringe because they usually don't manage to swallow all of it) That wouldn't be enough to kill her that quickly with no signs of being sick, would it? She had pink eyelids yesterday, not as bright pink as they could be, but not pale either. I've been seeing some signs of copper deficiency in the whole herd, but this doeling didn't look bad at all, it's mostly the does in milk that looked bad. I treated them for that last week and no one showed any ill effects ever. 

What in the world could take a 3 month old kid down so fast with no obvious signs of illness? The kid last year, I decided maybe it was some weird internal defect we couldn't know about, but the chances of that happening in such a small herd two years in a row, with the kids being exactly the same age and from completely different parentage...I doubt that.


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## elevan (Apr 30, 2011)

There could be a chance that one of your other goats rammed the kid and caused the death.  This unfortunately is what I suspect happened to one of our doelings in December.

((HUGS))


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## ksalvagno (Apr 30, 2011)

What about getting hit by another goat? I can't believe the dimethox would do it.

I'm so sorry you lost her.


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## SDGsoap&dairy (Apr 30, 2011)

I'm so sorry!   I agree with Karen, there's a broad enough margin of safety with DiMethox that it's unlikely to have caused her death.


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## Roll farms (Apr 30, 2011)

I can't really offer an opinion on what killed her except to say, I've purposely overdosed kids on Di Methox a few times and they didn't even get the poops, much less die from it.

Have they had their CDT?

Sorry you lost her.


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## Ariel301 (Apr 30, 2011)

They have had their CD/T. She didn't look like she got bloat, and there were no wounds, broken bones, or bleeding anywhere. No signs of anything being wrong. She literally looked like she was just sleeping, I didn't realize until I touched her that she was dead. I hate it when this stuff happens.  We were going to sell her mom, but I guess this changes that plan. 

I didn't think it would be the Di-Methox. Some of the boy kids the same age had a bigger dose than she did and they're fine today. 

I had an issue a while back with some datura plants that got mixed into a bale of hay; my milkers ate a little and were pretty sick for a few days...I wonder if something like that happened again and she ate it.


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## PattySh (Apr 30, 2011)

Very sorry to hear you lost Butter and not knowing why makes it harder.


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## Our7Wonders (Apr 30, 2011)

I don't have any advice but wanted to say how very sorry I am for your loss.


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## jodief100 (Apr 30, 2011)

I would guess poisonous plants but it only a guess.

I am very sorry.


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## Livinwright Farm (Apr 30, 2011)

I am SO sorry for your loss!   wish I could help you in figuring out the why.


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## rockdoveranch (Apr 30, 2011)

I am so sorry for your loss.

When I hear something like this happening to an animal that appeared healthy and then found dead over a matter of hours, I think "White Muscle".


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## Ariel301 (Apr 30, 2011)

White Muscle Disease does not do this, I've had lots of experience with it since we're very selenium deficient here. They will have symptoms for at least a few days before dying. She had also been treated with selenium at birth, and her mother treated before the birth. 

Poisonous plants is the only thing I can really think of, unless someone rammed her in a way that left no outward mark but hurt her internally. 

It sounds like an awful thing to say, but why did it have to be my best doeling and not the meat wether?  It always seems to happen to the one I like the most. Well, I guess I am on the hunt for another reasonably priced doeling.


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## redtailgal (Apr 30, 2011)

............


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## rockdoveranch (Apr 30, 2011)

Our only experience with WMD, thank goodness only that one time, was in 2009 when we were going through a horrible drought.  We had twin lambs that were bouncing around and appeared to be healthy and happy.  I would have to go back and look through my records, but I think they were about a month old. 

We just happened to be with the sheep watching all the babies playing, running wildly around, flying through the air and flipping directions,  when all of a sudden both twins began stumbling and falling down.  It was horrible.  After the first stumble and fall they showed the classic signs of the disease affecting their skeletal muscles.  They both were dead in less than an hour; much less than an hour.  I remember it like it was yesterday.  I hope NEVER to go through that again!  It was horrible!

I have read that sudden exercise can trigger the disease and our lambs were acting very very wild and crazy when it happened.

It does not sound awful saying you wish it was the meat wether rather than your best doeling.  I think you feelings are normal.


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## goatsintheopen (May 6, 2011)

Ariel301 said:
			
		

> White Muscle Disease does not do this, I've had lots of experience with it since we're very selenium deficient here. They will have symptoms for at least a few days before dying. She had also been treated with selenium at birth, and her mother treated before the birth.
> 
> Poisonous plants is the only thing I can really think of, unless someone rammed her in a way that left no outward mark but hurt her internally.
> 
> It sounds like an awful thing to say, but why did it have to be my best doeling and not the meat wether?  *It always seems to happen to the one I like the most.* Well, I guess I am on the hunt for another reasonably priced doeling.


I SOOO understand that and I know how you feel.  it just absolutely stinks!    Especially, when you don't know "WHY"


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## warthog (May 6, 2011)

No opinions to offer, but so sorry for your loss.


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## julieq (May 6, 2011)

I'm very sorry for your loss!


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