Sounds frustrating, We had a few bumps in the road this spring/summer, but other than loosing a bottle baby at 4 weeks of age to enterotoxemia all the kids have grown like crazy. That really stinks that you are having problems with some of the kids. We did however loose 4 adults this summer. One being our expenisive herd sire. Yup, that was a real bummer to say the least.
I hope you all figure out what is going on so next kidding season will be better.
OH: Hello, been a while sense we have talked.
I had a show doe jump throw the top space in a cattle gate last night while I was doing chores and get hung up with a her back legs on some attached welded wire fencing that blocks the lower spaces. She was none to happy and hung there screaming while I had to hurry over to save her. Hopefully she wont have a limp she is being shown next Thursday, but nothing looked broken. I am hoping or expecting for her to place the best out of the 5 does I am taking. So it would figure she would break a leg 7 days before the show.
All the kids are not from the same sire. I think the issue we are having is either meningeal or listeria. Our neighbor uses his place as a weekend hunting retreat, so there are deer everywhere due to his food plots and feeders. I have no business telling him what he can or cannot do with his land so I will just have to find a way to mitigate this.
Elf is doing much better, only a small limp. She was in heat yesterday and had no trouble with the boys mounting. The boys ripped a hole in the fence between their two pens so they are both running with all the does I want bred on this cycle. Fortunately none of them are my registered does so which sire the kids have is not a concern. The next group is a different story. I have fixed the hole, hopefully they will be content with their own group of girls. I have 22 more going up in the pens this weekend.
I have rotated every 1-3 weeks, kept them in the woods most of the summer, and FAMCHA checked every month. The vet came out and looked around and we came to two conclusions.
The summer has been mild. Hot enough for parasites to grow, not hot enough to kill them off.
The problem has been the little ones. The bigger ones can graze on the trees and bushes in the woods, the little ones can't reach. So they eat the stuff closer to the ground. In the woods there is not as much of the shorter stuff. When I checked to make sure there was enough forage, I didn't check at all levels.
you are not a failure. This has been a hard year for most! There are only a handful of people I know that didn't lose animals this year. Last winter with all the rain and the spring... horrible. I know you went through alot with all that.
It's easy to blame yourself, but it's more important to learn from it. I've raised goats for over 20 years and I've killed my share.... I always feel horrible but I tell myself that EVERY experience with these critters is a learning opportunity.
I'd be willing to bet that you won't lose another one to the same problem.