Changing bottle babies milk replacer (should I?)

[aggieterpkatie]

Each person really has to decide what's best for them since there are so many factors that can affect decisions. For me, feeding whole milk would not be feasible. It's too expensive (over $4/gal here) and I don't have the storage to keep much more than 1 gallon in the fridge, and I don't have the freezer space to keep many gallons there. I don't have or don't want to spend the time to run to the store every few days to get more milk. Replacer works for me because it doesn't require refrigeration, though if I have leftovers at the end of bottle feeding season I do freeze it until the next year. I can mix up a new batch at every feeding so it's always fresh and I don't have to heat or reheat bottles, I just use hot water.

I truly feel the problems with replacer are most likely caused by improper mixing ratios, cheap soy based replacers, or something else entirely. That's just my opinion though. A very large percentage of the dairy cattle industry raises their calves on replacers, as does much of the dairy goat industry. They (the good replacer companies) have to be doing something right.

This isn't meant to be a debate on what to feed, I'm just offering another opinion.

 

[Livinwright Farm]

Please don't get me wrong, I am not dissing those who use whole cow's milk for their bottle babies... I am just stating why we choose not to. Our farm hadn't know of Johnes disease until we were asked if we tested for it by a vet. We told them no, and then went home and googled what it is and how it started in goats. I am just sharing what I learned from several sources.
http://www.tennesseemeatgoats.com/articles2/johne'sdisease.html (this particular site does not mention the occurance in goats as stemming for usage of cows milk, but it most informational as to susceptability, testing, and signs/symptoms.
I completely agree that it is up to the individual farm to decide what is best for their animals, be the topic: all natural, organic, feed, medicine, chemical vs herbal, housing, etc.

 

[animaniac]

Thanks to you all for your replies! I am going to see if I can return the Sav a Kid and continue with the LoL since they are doing well on it. If I can't return it maybe I will sell it on craigslist. I really appreciate the advice re medicated feed- I will avoid it for sure in the future. In the future if I do have bottle babies, I may go with whole milk from the store as it is so accessible. There is so much conflicting advice out there, but it is nice to get some been-there/done-that advice from you all.

 

[SDGsoap&dairy]

I'd like to see any reference to even a remote possibility that Jonhe's is transmissible through pasteurized grocery store milk. Unpasteurized cow's milk aside, which of course you'd never find in the grocery store anyway. That's a pretty serious implication...

 

[Livinwright Farm]

I'd like to see any reference to even a remote possibility that Jonhe's is transmissible through pasteurized grocery store milk. Unpasteurized cow's milk aside, which of course you'd never find in the grocery store anyway. That's a pretty serious implication...

You would have seen that reference in at the link I posted, which again, is just one of many pages talking about the disease and though very informative, does not go into how it got presented in goats.
"This bacterium is very hardy and heat resistant. However, pasteurization can kill most (if not all) of the organisms, depending upon the concentration of the bacterium in the milk, and is a useful technique for reducing ( but not eliminating entirely ) the number of organisms the kids receive."

 

[that's*satyrical]

Freakin' pesky bacteria. You die when we're trying to kill you, darn it!!!

 

[kstaven]

People don't test for Johne's in the U.S. or something?

 

[kstaven]

I'd like to see any reference to even a remote possibility that Jonhe's is transmissible through pasteurized grocery store milk. Unpasteurized cow's milk aside, which of course you'd never find in the grocery store anyway. That's a pretty serious implication...

You do find unpasteurized in many states off the farm and in the stores in others.

 

[Livinwright Farm]

People don't test for Johne's in the U.S. or something?

We do. And now we make sure that the sire and dam of any kid we are looking at has tested negative for Johnes, CL, & CAE. We don't want to chance any of them in our herd.

 

[Livinwright Farm]

I'd like to see any reference to even a remote possibility that Jonhe's is transmissible through pasteurized grocery store milk. Unpasteurized cow's milk aside, which of course you'd never find in the grocery store anyway. That's a pretty serious implication...

You do find unpasteurized in many states off the farm and in the stores in others.

Yup