Week old kid just found dead :(

[cjulian214]

So this afternoon we were outside with the animals for several hours and the Mars (the little buckling) seemed perfectly fine, hopping around, following his mama, nursing. We just went outside to milk out the side of Peggy's udder that Mars wasn't eating off of, and found him dead in the back of the birthing stall. I don't know what happened. Yesterday afternoon, mama and baby got to come out of the birthing stall and stay out, although they would go back in to rest. He did fine all afternoon, night and day until just now. I'm just trying to figure out what we did wrong. We do have a dog that lives with the goats, but he has been with them all this whole time and other than sniffing the kid, has never shown any real interest in him. Our other doe, Cassie, has tried to headbutt him a few times or chase him off, but Peggy usually kicks her butt anytime she went near the kid. He seemed to be eating, peeing, pooping ok. He was right alongside his mama while she was browsing today...maybe he ate something?? There was no signs of trauma, no bleeding from the nose or mouth.

This is how we found him, right up against the back wall of the stall.

Just so frickin sad. Our very first kid...I am not looking forward to telling MY kids when they wake up at 6am that he won't be there when they go outside to do their chores.

 

[PattySh]

Very sorry about your little buckling. I have found baby goats to be the most delicate of any animal I have ever raised. Hard to say what happened. He may have had something wrong internally or ended up in a squirmish between two does. I found my first kid of the year born 2 weeks early dead in the stall a few days ago. It happens.

 

[ragdollcatlady]

I am so sorry!

 

[cjulian214]

I'm just researching the heck out of things right now, trying to figure out if we did something wrong and how to fix it in the future. Kind of scared to try again and breed our other doe :/ . He seemed to be absolutely wonderful at 5:30pm. Nothing strange at all. I just wish I knew what happened. Is his body posture normal? Does it look like the dog scared him and he was running and his heart gave out or something? I'm not sure how ridiculous that sounds....it IS 1:30 am. I'm wondering if we should get rid of our goat dog? Argh. Or if he could've contracted some super fast acting bacterial infection? We cleaned out the chicken coop today and when I went out there, my husband had the chickens free ranging with the goats, before I herded them all up because I read somewhere they might be able to get kids sick. Could that've been it? Sheesh. This sucks!

 

[that's*satyrical]

If I had to guess and there were no other signs I'd say he got a good head butt from someone. A well placed and hard head butt could easily kill a little one. The mom is not always there to block every one. I had one baby goat get nailed by an older goat once right in front of me and even though I stopped the doe from doing it again she had gotten her really good that one time. The little one recovered but she was acting out of it for the whole day.

 

[Mamaboid]

Our chickens and goats are together all the time, not a problem so long as the goats cannot get to the chicken feed. I agree that it sounds like a head butt from a bigger goat.

 

[ThreeBoysChicks]

I am very sorry to hear this news. I know your pain. Do you have the facilities to get a necropsy done? I had a 2 month bottle baby die suddenly last Friday and took her to have a necropsy done on her. Like you I want to know what killed the baby. I want to know if it was something that I could have seen warning signs or not.

How did you kids take it?

 

[Hillsvale]

I'm just researching the heck out of things right now, trying to figure out if we did something wrong and how to fix it in the future. Kind of scared to try again and breed our other doe :/ . He seemed to be absolutely wonderful at 5:30pm. Nothing strange at all. I just wish I knew what happened. Is his body posture normal? Does it look like the dog scared him and he was running and his heart gave out or something? I'm not sure how ridiculous that sounds....it IS 1:30 am. I'm wondering if we should get rid of our goat dog? Argh. Or if he could've contracted some super fast acting bacterial infection? We cleaned out the chicken coop today and when I went out there, my husband had the chickens free ranging with the goats, before I herded them all up because I read somewhere they might be able to get kids sick. Could that've been it? Sheesh. This sucks!

Take your kid goat to the nearest Agriculture College for a necropcy, it will help them learn and help you understand if there was something wrong with the baby but these things do happen. Sorry for your loss.

 

[SkyWarrior]

I'm just researching the heck out of things right now, trying to figure out if we did something wrong and how to fix it in the future. Kind of scared to try again and breed our other doe :/ . He seemed to be absolutely wonderful at 5:30pm. Nothing strange at all. I just wish I knew what happened. Is his body posture normal? Does it look like the dog scared him and he was running and his heart gave out or something? I'm not sure how ridiculous that sounds....it IS 1:30 am. I'm wondering if we should get rid of our goat dog? Argh. Or if he could've contracted some super fast acting bacterial infection? We cleaned out the chicken coop today and when I went out there, my husband had the chickens free ranging with the goats, before I herded them all up because I read somewhere they might be able to get kids sick. Could that've been it? Sheesh. This sucks!

Take your kid goat to the nearest Agriculture College for a necropcy, it will help them learn and help you understand if there was something wrong with the baby but these things do happen. Sorry for your loss.

x2 Get a necropsy done.

 

[Queen Mum]

Sorry for your loss. This little one is in a happy place now and not suffering. You can also know that you did everything you could to assure his survival and did your best to give him a good environment to grow up in. Don't beat yourself up or twist yourself into knots trying to figure it all out...

Here is what I know maybe it will help...

The dog chasing the baby isn't likely to cause a death. And as for the posture, a goat having a seizure will end up in all sorts of contorted positions. Seizures are often the end point of a toxic process or asphyxia. The only real way to tell is to have a necropsy done.

As harsh as it sounds, sometimes with baby animals they just die from so many causes so if you can't afford a necropsy, then you may have to chalk it up to the unknown of raising baby farm animals. You can take heart in knowing that the fittest really DO survive and nature makes sure there are lots of chances for that to happen. And as long as you keep on doing the best you can, then your kids will do well.

HANG IN THERE! lots of