Doe recently kidded and trembling in the rear & dried blood on tail...

[glenolam]

This is my first experience with a doe who kidded. I've had Eloise for a year now and never saw her do this. Excuse the long post, but I like to be specific.

She's looked fine and acted fine ever since she kidded a week ago, but this morning when I checked on her before work I noticed "pine cone" poos all over the place. Not really diarrea looking, just not the normal little raisins or licorice jelly beans I'm used to. I also noticed her hunching as if she was trying to poop or stretch. Not severly, but enough where I could see she was doing something. I cleaned it up and made sure she had fresh water and left. When I got home I let her and the kids out to play and she looked as if she was stretching with hind end sticking up, tail as high as it could be and did a hunch or two as she did this morning. Her kids are still nursing well and don't seem to be missing any milk.

I started milking her last week, well, if you read my post about how Eloise will not let me milk, you'll note that I'm trying to start milking her. We still have arguments, but she's getting a lot better and so am I. I noticed today her right udder is a lot smaller than her left, but I saw both kids nurse of each teat. Should I be milking the smaller udder more to increase production on that side or the bigger one to milk it out?

Anyway, back to her problem....after I saw her stretch oustide a few times I noticed she was trembling at her back end and flagging her tail a lot - meaning it seemed like the trembling wasn't coming from her front by her head it was coming from her rear. It wasn't too cold outside today - maybe 54 degrees, so I can't see that she was cold. I took her in to milk and then noticed that she had a lot of dried blood on the tip of the underside of her tail. I milked her, but only a little as she was trembling and seemed nervous. Milk looked regular, no blood, no difference in color.

She also has dried blood near her "vent" if that's the proper word. I'm guessing she had discharge that she was flagging away, but could that be connected to the trembling?

I looked up ketosis and milk fever, but she doesn't seem to have those exact symptoms.

She is eating as usual; I'm deworming her in the next few days and I gave her a B Complex shot (I wasn't sure so I used 2 cc SQ) just to give her a boost. Is there something I should be worried about or do?

 

[Roll farms]

Did she pass the afterbirth ok?
Does she have a fever (over 102-102.5)?

I can't explain the trembling, but the icky tail is pretty common.

The proper term would be vulva / vagina....but at our farm it's a 'twee twee'

I give B complex in the muscle....

 

[dkluzier]

I wouldn't be concerned as long as she passed the afterbirth either. Otherwise it sounds like a female who has given birth and is recovering. The bloody discharge is normal for a couple of weeks after kidding as long as it's not excessive.

If she didn't pass the afterbirth I would definitely get her to a vet.

 

[glenolam]

She passed the afterbirth fine - less than 2 hrs after the 2nd birth - and ate everything (I let her because she seemed very intent on eating every last morsel!). To my knowlege, everything about the birth was text book. She cleaned off both girls immediately and got them up and going and they started nursing within 1/2 hr.

She did not have a temp either, just the trembling.

I've read instructions to give B Complex both IM and SubQ and since I've given plenty of vaccinations SubQ I felt more comfortable doing it that way - how does everyone here do B Complex? Did I give the right amount?

This morning when I checked she looked great, only regular poops lying around and she wasn't trembling anymore.

I like the "twee twee" term - it's a lot more people kid friendly!

 

[ksalvagno]

You didn't say how much you gave her but SQ is fine. I give all my shots SQ. The only thing you can't give SQ are hormone drugs such as Oxytocin and Estrumate and Lutalyse. Those have to be given IM. If you want something to work faster, then you also want to give it IM.

 

[glenolam]

I used 2 cc - it was "off lable" and only gave instructions for sheep, pigs and cattle, so I just went with how much I give her for CD&T.

 

[Roll farms]

From what I've read, you can't OD them on B vitamin, they'll pee out any extra. I usually give adults 5 cc and kids 1-2 cc, depending on age / size.

 

[cmjust0]

Yep...B vitamins are water soluble, so they do just pee the rest out. We usually give 6ml at a time just because I had a crapload of 6ml syringes and...well, why not.

The crazy thing is that certain ingredients in the 6ml of the fortified b-complex I use these days could be equivalent to 12-36ml of each ingredient in other non-fortified b-complex solutions.. Each vitamin in fortified b-complex seems to be in amounts 2-6x higher than non-fortified versions.

Cool thing is, it's only like $2 more expensive.

 

[glenolam]

And in my case - the only thing TSC had on hand! I was looking specifically for B12, but they didn't have any so I got B Complex knowing there's some in there.

I'll let you know if there's any changes when I get home this afternoon.

 

[Roll farms]

Another thing....You can only get thiamine from a vet (or at least, here in IN)...so if you ever suspect thiamine deficiency, and can only get / use the non-fortified (late when the vet's closed), you can safely overdose them to get closer to the amount you need.