pregnancy toxemia in sheep & goats ...!! give Your opinion :)

[kuwaiti-90]

Hello ...
In an important subject I love to talk about and benefit from your information in it

pregnancy toxemia in sheep & goats​

Many of us have sheep and goats and rejoice for her birth and breeding, but sometimes we grieve for her ( pregnancy toxemia ) and there are certainly many reasons for the injury.

Is it a shortening or poor nutrition ....?
Is it bad interest and management ....?

I love to discuss this conversation with you to share experiences with each other

I have sheep and goats and I suffer sometimes with the same diseases that you have in your sheep and goats. I have some solutions for these problems but I prefer to share them with you here.

 

[Goat Whisperer]

We had pregnancy toxemia once. It was odd though, the doe was in good condition and certainly not underfed. All the other goats were fine too. Our vet was stumped as well- she is pretty close to us and knows our farm well, when she came out she was surprised as the doe seemed to be in great health.

But the doe is a very heavy milker and pours everything into the milk pail. So many that pulled her down pre-freshening

Anyway, she never went down. She just seemed a little sluggish and had tender feet. We first noticed it when she was walking along the pasture and stumbled, and then did it again.

We immediately started her on propylene glycol and CMPK (calcium-magnesium-phosphorus-potassium). And also put her in her own stall with alfalfa hay.

We did this until she kidded, and followed up after kidding and she has been fine since

 

[kuwaiti-90]

@Goat Whisperer
Through your words shows how important you are to the flock and that it is comfortable with you. It is good that there is a veterinarian following the herd well, and I am happy to improve her condition and recovery this guide to your attention.

The treatment you gave it is nice ,
I sometimes or all the times in this case I put intravenous solutions (glucose 5% ؜ or 20% ؜) according to the case + calcium (cautiously !!) + vitamins given by vein + propylene glycol oral ,until the situation recovers ( doing these things with my self) .

We do not have the same minimum feed ( alfalfa ) ,We mix some corn, beans, soybeans and molasses with barley and give it to sheep and goats. But this mixture is given only to pregnant ewes and goats in the last months of pregnancy, adding some vitamins and supplements and mineral salts in water .

Finally, thanks for comment and visiting my subject

 

[Goat Whisperer]

Thank you, we are so fortunate to have some pretty great vets here! We do most of the care ourselves as well, but often times have to conform with our vet first. We've had to run IV's & SubQ fluids on a few goats in the past, but not for toxemia (thank goodness!). I think my doe had a minor case of toxemia and we caught it quickly, so we were able to treat her with oral meds only.

 

[farmerjan]

We also have had pregnancy toxemia in some sheep although not in several years. It has also co-incided with sheep that were known for multiple lambs and higher end milkers( as evidenced by the lamb growth in past years). We also follow the propylene glycol oral drench, and have upped the minerals with calcium/potassium balanced but increased. We have stopped having this as a problem since we feed alfalfa hay pre lambing and for about a month or 2 after lambing. Most of the times we have seen it with ewes that have triplets or 2 very big lambs; they take up so much room in utero, that the ewes cannot eat enough to meet the bodies demands.
It also seems to be more prevalent on years that we have hard winters and the ewes are trying to keep up their bodies needs to survive the winter and feed the growing lambs inside.
Also there is a nutrient drench that has molasses and other vit/minerals and we can mix it in their water so they are getting small amounts all the time.

 

[Baymule]

I haven't had sheep very long, almost 3 years, and haven't had that problem. I keep a good Bermuda grass hay in front of the ewes at all times. I give them a shall amount of pellets in the morning and evening, plus all the mineral they want. I have a ewe that gives her all to her lambs, she gets a cup or two of corn.

@kuwaiti-90 are veterinarians available in Kuwait like they are in the U.S.?

 

[kuwaiti-90]

Thank you, we are so fortunate to have some pretty great vets here! We do most of the care ourselves as well, but often times have to conform with our vet first. We've had to run IV's & SubQ fluids on a few goats in the past, but not for toxemia (thank goodness!). I think my doe had a minor case of toxemia and we caught it quickly, so we were able to treat her with oral meds only.

Excellent, many doctors in the place rest assured, but are they at the late hours of the night ..? In emergency cases ..?
We have many (very bad) veterinarians, but few are excellent and do not get them easily.

In this matter I have to deal with the situation urgently and carefully so as not to lose the situation ... !!
This thing made me know some treatments and understand her method of treatment.

 

[kuwaiti-90]

We also have had pregnancy toxemia in some sheep although not in several years. It has also co-incided with sheep that were known for multiple lambs and higher end milkers( as evidenced by the lamb growth in past years). We also follow the propylene glycol oral drench, and have upped the minerals with calcium/potassium balanced but increased. We have stopped having this as a problem since we feed alfalfa hay pre lambing and for about a month or 2 after lambing. Most of the times we have seen it with ewes that have triplets or 2 very big lambs; they take up so much room in utero, that the ewes cannot eat enough to meet the bodies demands.
It also seems to be more prevalent on years that we have hard winters and the ewes are trying to keep up their bodies needs to survive the winter and feed the growing lambs inside.
Also there is a nutrient drench that has molasses and other vit/minerals and we can mix it in their water so they are getting small amounts all the time.

Nice words ,
This nutrition that you give is the same as that given by sheep or goats that I have.
With all these things such as what you said (cases of twin or 3 twins) nutrition is stronger especially for the last months of pregnancy,
Sometimes we have to give them Intravenous (10% Glucose) solution to keep them from getting infected every other day, mixed with vitamins and calcium.
This thing whether summer or winter, is more than summer .

 

[kuwaiti-90]

I haven't had sheep very long, almost 3 years, and haven't had that problem. I keep a good Bermuda grass hay in front of the ewes at all times. I give them a shall amount of pellets in the morning and evening, plus all the mineral they want. I have a ewe that gives her all to her lambs, she gets a cup or two of corn.

@kuwaiti-90 are veterinarians available in Kuwait like they are in the U.S.?

I have up to 90 sheep, 4 rams and 15 goats, and they need good feed because they walk in the desert and a few plants in the desert and do not waste good nutrition.
I have to give barley and some other types of feed to them.

Yes, there are veterinarians in Kuwait, but some are very bad in dealing with animals.
There are excellent doctors but it is difficult to come to us, and the cost is very high for the place

 

[Goatkid51]

I ran into three cases of VERY minor PT last year (tender feet, sluggish), and I couldn't figure out why because I was giving them plenty of calcium--free choice loose minerals, grain mix with 2:1 calcium, and alfalfa/grass hay with a high percentage of alfalfa. And they were on the alfalfa since about 4 months before kidding.

Well, it turns out... if you give a goat high levels of calcium before their bodies need it (4 months before kidding), the calcium pump/system that their bodies use to regulate the calcium stops trying to store it away due to the excess. Then when the goats kid and come into milk, even though there is lots of calcium available, the goats have trouble metabolizing it properly because that system for storing it had shut down.

Moral of the story is be careful to maintain calcium levels around the normal 2:1 until sometime in the third trimester or last month of pregnancy, (and that's very possibly what happened to Goat Whisperer's goat). And if, by chance, you overfed calcium and are now seeing PT symptoms, the only treatment is to load them up even more with Calcium since their bodies aren't absorbing it well, until it's time for them to dry off.