Baby goat help

[Brandi]

Ughhhh thank you again for all the answers, no fecal today, could get the vet on the phone. I also am not able to buy the B-12 just yet either as I am broke from my christmas shopping for my 2 boys. I have give the drench and she will not take the bottle today at all, even when I force her she throw one hell of a fit. She drank fine yesterday well 2 ounces about every 2 or 3 hours. I was feeding her that many times because she acted hungry and was only eating 2 ounces? How much chould she be eating at a feeding at her age? She is a pygmy and 12 days old and weighs 6 pounds, or so says my bathroom scales. She is sleeping now and grinding her teeth again, so frustrating and disappointed, on a better note she is very active when awake and not dehydrated at all at this point. Again thanks again for you guys time and thank you in advance for any other words of wisdom. I will get the scour stuff soon as I can prob tomorrow I can dig up some more money.

 

[Brandi]

ok how bout this one. I also am babying a rooster in my 2nd bathroom, so I am in there cleaning up and the baby goat comes in and I turn around and she is going to town in the chickens food dish!!! She won't eat from the bottle but she ate the chickens food!!! Is that bad for her!!? I am so stressed over this little baby she is driving me crazy....still will not take anything out of the bottle today, been having to fight with her to eat.

 

[Southern by choice]

I think Rolls Farm has a good bottle feeding schedule. You can search the name and look up articles. I think Jodief and 20kids has bottle fed and they have lots of experience here for everything goats along with Rolls.
I have never bottle fed so not much help there. Sorry.
As far as the chicken feed. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! This can cause her to bloat and make her very sick.
Hang in there. It is a lot for you to take on.

 

[MissFitFarm]

If she wont take a bottle then get a bowel and put a little bit of milk into it and see if she will drink it that way some of my bottle babies wanted it out of a bucket rather then a bottle. have you tried dipping the nipple in a sugar water mix yet? how big is the nipple make sure you got a goat nipple, I agree with southern, chicken feed not good.... will she drink water out of a bowel? I have had some very stubborn babies, it sometimes can take allot of work to get them going. can you ask the person you got her from how she was doing it? Some people may have a stroke over this but take a VERY small amount of sweet grain and offer it to her, maybe her age is wrong or she could have been started on it with her mother??? It has happened with a few of mine. DON'T let her pig on it. see what happens. in case of bloating.... take a tums chew-able grind it into as close as a powder as you can, warm water mix well, take a eye dropper or anything like that and slowly force feed it if you have to, not allot at once, you don't want to drown her and it is not that hard to do if your not careful. and rub the tummy from head to back, my vet is an old farmer and has told me lots of little tricks... they have never failed me yet. hope this helps.

 

[Brandi]

ok, here we go very weird little animal here, she only ate a small little bit of the chicken food but right after that she took the bottle of electrolytes and just now drank two ounces of plain whole cow milk. and acting like she wants to chew on everthing

 

[Brandi]

i did try to get her to drink from a dish she wasnt excited about that. could i give her small pieces of hay to chew on? maybe tomorrow? sorry for all the questions just using her actions as to what to do. seems like chewing that chicken food stimulated herappetite

 

[Brandi]

idk ha ha but thanks you all have been helpful and lots of ideas very much appreciated. and sorry for the broken up posts my phone is acting a fool.

 

[Southern by choice]

oh and I though that was just added suspense

JK!

 

[goatboy1973]

X2

 

[jodief100]

at 12 days she can start eating grain and hay. Giver her some in small amounts and let her try it. At first she will just taste it and she isn't getting any nutrients but after a few days she will be able to digest it. This is NOT a replacement to the bottle, she still needs milk. It will suppliment her. A study done with bottle raised dairy bucks showed they can start eating and utilizing solid foods as a suppliment to a bottle as young as 3 days if it is offered to them.

Not sure about pigmys since I raise big goats but it is roughly 10%-12% of body weight in milk. She is 6 lbs, that is 96 ounces. So 9.5 to 11 ounces per day. Offer her 4 ounces 3 times a day. If she eats 3 you are fine. Do not force her, she will only learn to hate the bottle. If she doesn't eat at one feeding, she will at the next. It won't hurt her to go half a day without it.

Do not offer the bottle more than four times a day, three is fine. Overeating and FKS are very real possibilities with too many feedings.