FF Premie twins... lost one trying to save the other *update* with pic

[jessica117]

My first kidding this year has not started out too great. It was one of my FF and her babies were I'm pretty sure a little early. We weren't expecting any babies until next week at the earliest. I found them about 3pm this afternoon and they were definately fresh because she was still passing the afterbirth. The male was listless, cold and barely breathing but the female was alert and warm so I left her with mom in hopes she would nurse. I couldn't bring the little guy back and he died within an hour.

I was checking on the remaining kid every hour and about dark I gave up on mom because it was getting chilly and so was the kid. The kid was also not able to stand yet. Got her in and warmed up. Milked mom and got about an ounce. I have fed her twice (1/2 ounce each feeding) and she took to the bottle like a champ. I milked mom agian and got only about a half ounce this time. It's in the fridge for later. Once we got her belly full the first time she is standing on her own... not walking much yet, but I am happy with standing

She is soooo tiny. She is less than 2 lbs. I would say about 1 and 1/2 lbs. Her hooves are pretty soft and she has no teeth. I thought I remembered my babies being born with teeth... but I've slept a couple times since then I do however know that she is the smallest baby ever born on our farm.

I have bottle fed in the past with great success, though because I am working now I would prefer to get her back with mom. She will be spending the night indoors because it is way too cold for her outside tonight. In the morning I will try to get her to latch on to mom.... if that doesn't work I guess I'll be milking again.

She is a fighter and is constantly sucking on her upper lip/blankie/me/anything she can get in her mouth I hope she has a chance.

Oh... by the way... parents are nigi's and mom is about a year and a half old. Didn't plan on her having babies this young but due to an oops with the fencing and a very determined buck... here we are

 

[PattySh]

Sorry to hear you lost one kid. We had a pair of 1 1/2 pound Nigerian doelings this past summer. Boy they were tiny. Their triplet who was a bit bigger was stillborn. Their teeth were barely thru the gums. We were not sure of their due date as the little herd was basically a rescue. I fed them a tiny amount every few hours the first couple of days as they couldn't each much at a feeding. I don't think I would let the little one go all nite without a feeding. Since she has had colostrum you could warm some whole cow's milk and mix it with what you milked out for a couple of nitetime feedings if you don't have enough milked out. Depending on how warm your house is you might want a sweater or heat lamp on her even in the house. Make sure she is warm enough before you feed her. If she acts weak and won't take a feeding, a little sugar water dripped in her mouth sometimes perks them up and gets them eating. Hope she does ok for you.

 

[currycomb]

must be small baby day. our nigerian mix doe popped out 4 kids this afternoon. 2 normal size, one small one and one teeny tiny one. i honestly didn't think the tiny one would make it. he was buried in the straw, cold and weak. took him in the house and placed a tote over the heat vent and turned the heat up. decided the smaller one should come inside also, as company for tiny, and because she is small. so got some colostrum from mom, found a soda bottle for the pritchard nipple. thought that would be too big for tiny. dribbled the contents of the bottle into tiny's mouth, and he managed to swallow some of it. then fed sissy. finished chores, and continued to feed every hour or so. low and behold, tiny is standing on his own! wish us luck, going to be a bumpy ride i am afraid.

 

[20kidsonhill]

Good luck to both of you, I hope they made it through the night.

 

[jessica117]

Good morning She made it through the night. I did thin the half ounce with a little cows milk and gave her 2 more feedings of 1/2 oz each. She is trying to walk.... still really wobbly, but improving. I am waiting on my son to wake up so that he can help me hold the mom so I can try to get the little kid to latch on... or milk her... whichever works

Good luck to the rest of you! I hope we all have luck with these itty bitties

Does anybody know how early she might be. Her hooves have hardened up some but it almost looks like the hooves on her front feet haven't grown all the way to the end of her pads yet. There appears to be about an 1/8 of an inch of pad sticking out past the hoof. That and her total lack of teeth makes me think she had to be pretty early. Her ears are also still folded back against her head. My other kids had their ears up... if i remember correctly.

We have been very fortunate in our kidding thus far. This is our third year kidding on our farm and luckily this has been our first problem. We've always had much bigger, healthy, full term kids. They have all been up an running within a couple hours.

I hope she makes it, if for nothing more that for the sake of my human children. They were devistated to lose the little boy and they didn't have much time to get too attached to him. I hate to think how they will react to losing this one. At least we have 2 more does due to kid soon. Maybe that will soften the blow. I am hopeful, yet realistic.

Here is a pic of the little dear. It isn't very good since my camera broke and all we have is the cell phone cam.

 

[Julie]

Best of luck with the premies. Last summer was our first kidding and we also had premies. When I went out to the barn in the morning, I found 2 who had died, another who had died in utero, and one in a heap, but alive. She actually needed to be tube fed as she was too weak to nurse from mom or bottle. The other doe had a 4 lb buck and a 1.5 lb doe. I felt so awful watching her give birth to such a giant of a buck. I didn't dare interfere much as he presented with just one giant hoof and face. All are now wonderfully healthy and the one surviving preemie is simply georgous. I couldn't have imagined having such challenges in our first kidding season and it was very hard on our hearts to lose 3 babies, but sadly, life on the farm can be that way at times. The other challenge was brain swelling in the premie at disbudding. We even waited 5 weeks to disbud her. I really don't know if I can go through this again, but if I do, I will surely get a monitor for the barn so I can listen all night. As for disbudding, I am really torn. One just now regrew her hair where her horns were. I was worried she would be bald there forever. Best of luck!

 

[jerebear7]

My first kidding this year has not started out too great. It was one of my FF and her babies were I'm pretty sure a little early. We weren't expecting any babies until next week at the earliest. I found them about 3pm this afternoon and they were definately fresh because she was still passing the afterbirth. The male was listless, cold and barely breathing but the female was alert and warm so I left her with mom in hopes she would nurse. I couldn't bring the little guy back and he died within an hour.

I was checking on the remaining kid every hour and about dark I gave up on mom because it was getting chilly and so was the kid. The kid was also not able to stand yet. Got her in and warmed up. Milked mom and got about an ounce. I have fed her twice (1/2 ounce each feeding) and she took to the bottle like a champ. I milked mom agian and got only about a half ounce this time. It's in the fridge for later. Once we got her belly full the first time she is standing on her own... not walking much yet, but I am happy with standing

She is soooo tiny. She is less than 2 lbs. I would say about 1 and 1/2 lbs. Her hooves are pretty soft and she has no teeth. I thought I remembered my babies being born with teeth... but I've slept a couple times since then I do however know that she is the smallest baby ever born on our farm.

I have bottle fed in the past with great success, though because I am working now I would prefer to get her back with mom. She will be spending the night indoors because it is way too cold for her outside tonight. In the morning I will try to get her to latch on to mom.... if that doesn't work I guess I'll be milking again.

She is a fighter and is constantly sucking on her upper lip/blankie/me/anything she can get in her mouth I hope she has a chance.

Oh... by the way... parents are nigi's and mom is about a year and a half old. Didn't plan on her having babies this young but due to an oops with the fencing and a very determined buck... here we are

Did the doe show all the signs that she was going to give birth? Like loose ligaments, discharge, etc.? I'm just asking out of curiosity, I have a Nigerian doe first timer as well. Thanks for sharing. Good luck with the baby goat! She's cute!

 

[Julie]

My first kidding this year has not started out too great. It was one of my FF and her babies were I'm pretty sure a little early. We weren't expecting any babies until next week at the earliest. I found them about 3pm this afternoon and they were definately fresh because she was still passing the afterbirth. The male was listless, cold and barely breathing but the female was alert and warm so I left her with mom in hopes she would nurse. I couldn't bring the little guy back and he died within an hour.

I was checking on the remaining kid every hour and about dark I gave up on mom because it was getting chilly and so was the kid. The kid was also not able to stand yet. Got her in and warmed up. Milked mom and got about an ounce. I have fed her twice (1/2 ounce each feeding) and she took to the bottle like a champ. I milked mom agian and got only about a half ounce this time. It's in the fridge for later. Once we got her belly full the first time she is standing on her own... not walking much yet, but I am happy with standing

She is soooo tiny. She is less than 2 lbs. I would say about 1 and 1/2 lbs. Her hooves are pretty soft and she has no teeth. I thought I remembered my babies being born with teeth... but I've slept a couple times since then I do however know that she is the smallest baby ever born on our farm.

I have bottle fed in the past with great success, though because I am working now I would prefer to get her back with mom. She will be spending the night indoors because it is way too cold for her outside tonight. In the morning I will try to get her to latch on to mom.... if that doesn't work I guess I'll be milking again.

She is a fighter and is constantly sucking on her upper lip/blankie/me/anything she can get in her mouth I hope she has a chance.

Oh... by the way... parents are nigi's and mom is about a year and a half old. Didn't plan on her having babies this young but due to an oops with the fencing and a very determined buck... here we are

Did the doe show all the signs that she was going to give birth? Like loose ligaments, discharge, etc.? I'm just asking out of curiosity, I have a Nigerian doe first timer as well. Thanks for sharing. Good luck with the baby goat! She's cute!

Not when I looked at her earlier that evening. I happened to be away that night and returned late that evening and did not check thinking she wasn't due for another week and a half. The kid that died in utero caused the early birth.

 

[20kidsonhill]

Where you does exposed to any new does in the herd this past breeding season, or did you use a new buck, compared to last year?

It is pretty common practice after an abortion or early delivery to treat the doe with tetracyclene or oxytetracyclene as well as treating your remaining does that are due to kid, as long as they are 6 weeks or less from kidding, as well as treating the breeding bucks.

this is to treat for abortion diseases.


I would also consider getting a bottle of Bo-se injectable from the vets office and treating the does with that. 1cc per 40lbs injected.

Copper deficiency is also a common cause of early births and weak kids, so if you don't have out loose goat minerals all the time. I would be offering them to your goats.

Although I realize things like this just happen, could have taken a hard hit from another goat, could have been just a thing.

Just thought I would share some common thoughts on the subject.

 

[Julie]

Where you does exposed to any new does in the herd this past breeding season, or did you use a new buck, compared to last year?

It is pretty common practice after an abortion or early delivery to treat the doe with tetracyclene or oxytetracyclene as well as treating your remaining does that are due to kid, as long as they are 6 weeks or less from kidding, as well as treating the breeding bucks.

this is to treat for abortion diseases.


I would also consider getting a bottle of Bo-se injectable from the vets office and treating the does with that. 1cc per 40lbs injected.

Copper deficiency is also a common cause of early births and weak kids, so if you don't have out loose goat minerals all the time. I would be offering them to your goats.

Although I realize things like this just happen, could have taken a hard hit from another goat, could have been just a thing.

Just thought I would share some common thoughts on the subject.

Thank you. I don't believe in using antibiotics for much due to too many things becoming resistant. I am an herbalist and have a host of products for various illnesses. I was formally trained as a wildlife rehabilitator, and they discouraged us from using antibiotics and trained us in homeopathy so as to not interfere with the natural disease resistance of the wild animals, so I carry that into my farming practices. She did retain the placenta afterwards but eventually lost it and was fine. I gave her colloidal silver daily. I'm not sure why you would suggest to treat a doe without any symptoms. The breeding buck was new but leased then returned. I give free choice minerals daily and had very good milk production. I allow my goats to roam the back of the property when I am home so they can eat plenty of shrubs too. It was not recommended to me to use BoSe unless they seemed weak on their pasterns. She was with a doe who was very aggressive, so it could have been a hit, but 4 kids in total is a lot and one may have just been lacking in nutrition in utero. Everyone has been very healthy otherwise. Knock on wood, I have never had any disease other than occasional foot rot after raising sheep for 10 years.