Need some help

[thingrizzly]

I bought a very poor goat to help clean up around here. She was doing a great job and beginning to get fat (I thought). Heard her bleat and went to check on her, she had a doe kid that's problably only 3-4 hours old.

I've raised a little of everything but haven't been around goats for 40 years and I need advice.

Kid is not standing yet
Mom seems to be ignoring the kid

What's normal? Do I need to milk her and feed the kid or let nature take its course?

How old before the kid is able to stand?

Please help this ignorant old fool. If nothing else the mom got a pardon, she was going to go to the freezer.

Kenneth

 

[cmjust0]

My experience has been that lots of goat moms will ignore their kids if you allow it. Without fail, they'll only start bleating and calling out to for the kid once A) it dies or B) you steal it to bottlefeed..

The kid should be able to stand within just a few minutes of being born -- definitely by several hours. Are you positive that it hasn't stood and laid back down? They do that a lot..

My advice would be to put them in a stall or some other kind of small enclosure together, and make sure the kid gets to nurse ASAP.. You may have to help it find a teat. If mom tries to get away once it latches on, do what you have to do to keep her still. Nose her to a post...hobble her hind legs....whatever. She should bond with it and come to understand that the kid relieves pressure on her udders and makes her feel better, at which point she should begin allowing it to nurse freely.

Or...

If you want, you can milk her and bottlefeed the kid. Or you can bottlefeed the kid cow's milk from the store..

If I were you, though, I'd get them together for a few days until you're confident that the kid is able to nurse and turn then back out together if at all possible... Bottle babies, cute as they are, can be a real PITA -- especially if you were unprepared to have to raise them.

 

[thingrizzly]

Thanks for the advice CM.

Not sure how long it's been born but as of 30 minutes ago it was still having trouble standing.

Tried to milk Mom for the colostrum but could not get anything. I don't believe her milk has come in.

Weighed the little fellow, an even 3 lb.
Went and got some half and half and was going to give it 2 oz.

Little fellow sure acted starved, took 3/4 oz. stopped to rest and then took another 3/4 oz.

Sleeping in a box in the livingroom with DW hovering.
Already been instructed that if it makes it, its got a home for life.
And not a short life with a destination of Camp Kenmore.

Kenneth

PS. To everyone thanks in advance for any and all future advice or comments.

 

[ksalvagno]

The little guy is going to need some type of colostrum. Hopefully someone on here can tell you what to use since he will be missing out on the first 24 hours.

I would feed him every 3 hours or so. I feed around the clock but not sure what other people do. I would add some yogurt to your half and half. Also I would get some Vitamin D milk and use that as the main milk with some added half and half to fatten it up a bit. Then add a tablespoon of yogurt to the bottle and mix well.

Good luck with the little guy.

 

[thingrizzly]

Thanks ksalvagno,
I should have thought of the yogurt. I've got 2 young squirrels that I'm feeding milk mixed with yogurt, (the yogurt cleard up the diarrhea ).
Do you feel the half and half will be to rich for his system?
3 hours after his first feeding he took a full 2 oz. Already seems like a newborn human infant, wanting food every 3 hours and crying to let you know about it.

Looking around the room here, 1 blue heeler, 1 Taco Bell dog, 2 squirrels, 5 newly hatched button quail, a few guppies, and now the goat just named Lily by the DW.

People have said I belong in a zoo, quess I'm making my own.

Kenneth

 

[Cara]

This should help:

http://www.fiascofarm.com/goats/feeding.htm#bottle

 

[thingrizzly]

Doesn't look like the little fellow is going to make it. It was never able to stand for over 2 minutes at a time. At the third feeding it wasn't really interested in the bottle.

As of now it shows no interest at all in eating, has trouble holding its head up, and has the scours.

No vets in this area that treat anything other than cats or dogs.

Thanks for the advice you all have given.

Kenneth

 

[Roll farms]

Sorry it didn't work out.

I'm sure if you'd have known she was pregnant, proper supportive care would have been given and made a world of difference.
Colostrum would have helped, but if you didn't know you needed it....

I've bottle raised (by choice) literally hundreds of goat kids, and every one melts my heart...and when they don't make it, they break your heart.

For future reference, our kids generally stand and eat w/in an hr of birth, around 4 oz of colostrum. I don't 'round the clock feed, either. 3-5 feedings a day for the first 1-2 days, then they're on a 3 bottle a day program (every 8 hrs) until they're being weaned.

Newborn poop is usually black / tarry and some of the most amazingly sticky stuff I've ever encountered. After they pass that, they should start making mustardy-brown colored clumps, then berries.

Your heart was in the right place, don't feel bad over the loss.

 

[cmjust0]

Wow...3lbs. If mama was a standard breed goat, this may very well have been a preemie. Could also have something to do with why mama's milk didn't come in, as many goats -- most, in my experience -- start to "bag up" before kidding out. May also explain why the kid was so weak..

 

[kimmyh]

I would give it BoSE, it is a miracle drug with babies.