Hi everyone. I have a baby goat that is 2 weeks old, from what I was told she was one of triplets and mom died 24 hours after delivering. Since then, the little one has been supplemented with manna pro brand kid milk replacer, she is being fed 3 ounces every 4 hours but not through the night. She has not had normal stools since I've had her. She is supposed to be a alpine/nubian cross and weighs 4.7 pounds. Her stool is always loose but recently has become watery diarrhea, looks to be green. She is doing okay, good appetite but I'm trying to stay on top of her electrolyte loss. She had a fecal done and they said they didn't see anything. She is also getting kaolin a few times a day, usually 3 mls. I have been told to give her cows milk from the store but then also told not to switch her feed because it will make it worse. She also has access to coastal hay. I'm not sure what else to do for her scours, but it seems to be getting worse.
Baby goat with bad scours
- Thread starter Frankie25
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Hens and Roos
Herd Master
Welcome 
, sorry to hear of the troubles. You could slowly switch her from the milk replacer to whole milk going very slowly(across 4-5 days) until she is getting just the whole milk. Have you taken her temperature to see if she is running a fever?(normal range 101 to 103) depending on where you are located.
@Southern by choice @Goat Whisperer @babsbag @OneFineAcre
, sorry to hear of the troubles. You could slowly switch her from the milk replacer to whole milk going very slowly(across 4-5 days) until she is getting just the whole milk. Have you taken her temperature to see if she is running a fever?(normal range 101 to 103) depending on where you are located.@Southern by choice @Goat Whisperer @babsbag @OneFineAcre
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- #3
Welcome
@Southern by choice @Goat Whisperer @babsbag @OneFineAcre
Hi! I have not checked her temp, I will go get a thermometer for her today and check it. Thank you! You think I should go ahead and try and switch her to the whole cows milk?
Hens and Roos
Herd Master
Do you know if she got colostrum from the doe? It's good that you had a fecal run to see if she had anything going on.
If she was ours I would, I think I would start with 1/2 ounce whole milk to 2.5 ounces of replacer per feeding for 24 hours and see how she does.
Not sure where you are located weather wise but if you can keep her clean/dry and warm that helps too.
Hopefully some of the others tagged will stop by and give some input as they have had goats longer then us.
If she was ours I would, I think I would start with 1/2 ounce whole milk to 2.5 ounces of replacer per feeding for 24 hours and see how she does.
Not sure where you are located weather wise but if you can keep her clean/dry and warm that helps too.
Hopefully some of the others tagged will stop by and give some input as they have had goats longer then us.
- Thread starter
- #5
Okay! Thank You! I'm still so new to this! I was told she did get colostrum and that they also did colostrum from the feed store in case she didn't get enough from mom before she died. And I'll work on switching her over, I'll start on her next feeding. Thank you so, so much.
And we are in Florida and it's cold right now but she's being kept inside in a crate with a heating pad under half. And she has shaving for bedding that I'm changing out 1-2 times a day.
Hens and Roos
Herd Master
Good to hear on the colostrum! Hopefully she will start feeling better soon for you. Sounds like you are doing a good job to get her feeling better. Does she or will she have a goat buddy to hang out with? Goats do best with another goat.
- Thread starter
- #7
Thank you! And she would have a buddy once she is well, but concern there is he is older than her by about 4 weeks and when we had them together for the first few days he was being quite mean to her, bullying her, kicking her with his front feet and shoving her away from the hay. He also tried mounting her often, there's a big size difference in the two so we went ahead and seperated her for fear of her being injured. They also have a guard donkey with them (except she's inside right now, does come out to play but primarily crated)
Here's the little girl with scours with my dog
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- Thread starter
- #8
Here's the male with donkey shoeing size difference
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Southern by choice
Herd Master
Switching to whole cow's milk from the grocery is better. We had to switch a couple of goats before and we did all at once, which is not the right way exactly but we felt it was better then what we were dealing with.
She is very small for a alpine/nubian cross, but it may be she was the smallest of triplets...
As far as feeding 3-4 oz every 4 hours is not very much.
Does she finish all the milk at each feeding?
Of course you don't want to make a bunch of changes at once... so start with the change of milk first, then I would start giving 8 oz 3x day, no overnight. You are not really increasing feed at this point but you want to see what she will actually eat. If she finishes the 8 oz increase to 9 oz and so on.
Baby goats have stages of what their poop is suppose to be like, the dark black tar like meconium....usually 2 days... then yellow soft colostrum poo which advances to yellow more pelleted form... from there it progresses to normal berries.
The replacer causes a lot of goats to have nasty poo.
I attached a link - it is all about kid goat poop. It may be helpful.
http://goat-link.com/content/view/46/27/#.WkUf1N-nGUk
As far as the doe and buck... if the buck is 8 weeks then it is time to castrate him. You do not want does and intact bucks to be living together.
A buck is a buck at any age and he will harass her (mounting etc) as long as he is intact.
She is very small for a alpine/nubian cross, but it may be she was the smallest of triplets...
As far as feeding 3-4 oz every 4 hours is not very much.
Does she finish all the milk at each feeding?
Of course you don't want to make a bunch of changes at once... so start with the change of milk first, then I would start giving 8 oz 3x day, no overnight. You are not really increasing feed at this point but you want to see what she will actually eat. If she finishes the 8 oz increase to 9 oz and so on.
Baby goats have stages of what their poop is suppose to be like, the dark black tar like meconium....usually 2 days... then yellow soft colostrum poo which advances to yellow more pelleted form... from there it progresses to normal berries.
The replacer causes a lot of goats to have nasty poo.
I attached a link - it is all about kid goat poop. It may be helpful.
http://goat-link.com/content/view/46/27/#.WkUf1N-nGUk
As far as the doe and buck... if the buck is 8 weeks then it is time to castrate him. You do not want does and intact bucks to be living together.
A buck is a buck at any age and he will harass her (mounting etc) as long as he is intact.
- Thread starter
- #10
Okay. Got it. Thank you. Are you thinking I should straight up switch the milk to whole cows milk and not do it gradually? And she devouers the 3 ounces in less then a minute. Always seems hungry but I was told to feed her 3 ounces per 5 pounds, she's only 4.7 pounds but I'm clearly doing this all wrong. The people she came from said to feed the 3 ounces per 5 pounds every 4 hours saying if I fed her too much I would give her scours. The male is still on a bottle but he's doing great and has nice, normal pellet poop. Thank you for your help
