3 day old bottle kid with diarrhea

[MelMitchell]

I have a three day old kid that the mother rejected immediately after birth. I gave him colostrum the first day, then switched to kid milk replacer on day two. The first day, his poop was somewhat formed, dark in color and sticky. Yesterday and today, it has become pudding-like and brownish orange. He is eating really well, about 4-6 ounces per feeding. He acts normally otherwise; very active and playful. Is the replacer causing the diarrhea? Should I deworm him? This is my first bottle kid, so I would really appreciate some guidance.

 

[20kidsonhill]

No to the deworming.

Prabably the replacer, I have had luck with Land 0'lakes kid replacer but I had tried another brand and not so much luck with that.

regular old whole cows milk from the store works well,also. I would be giving him atleast 3 feedings a day, and 4 would be better, evenly spaced out would be good for him also.

 

[MelMitchell]

Thanks! I had a feeling that the milk was the culprit. I bought Manna Pro because it seems to be the only thing available in my area (there's $20 out the window). I will try the cow's milk and see if that helps.
Thanks again for the advice!

 

[Ariel301]

It could be a lot of things, but the first thing I would try is putting him on real milk instead of the replacer. Ideally raw goat milk, but whole storebought cow's milk will work if that's not available.

It could be a number of things...the milk replacer, overeating, stress, or a bug like E. coli. Switch him to real milk, make sure he doesn't get dehydrated (give him bottles with electrolyes, children's pedialyte works well and be sure he's getting enough fluids). Check his temperature if you can, and be sure he's not too high, if he has a fever it is probably an infection. If his problem is overeating (some kids are super greedy and will eat themselves sick at every feeding!), try giving him his bottles room temperature or cool instead of hot to slow him down.

 

[20kidsonhill]

Thanks! I had a feeling that the milk was the culprit. I bought Manna Pro because it seems to be the only thing available in my area (there's $20 out the window). I will try the cow's milk and see if that helps.
Thanks again for the advice!

You are the 2nd person that was on here in the last month or two that was using Mana Pro and had a scouring kid. Very interesting.

 

[helmstead]

Yep, that milk replacer is especially high in sugar. Sugar = scours. But it's not money wasted, just mix it maybe half and half with store bought cow's milk til it's gone...or switch the kid to store milk and feed the replacer to your chickens if you have any LOL.

 

[Roll farms]

Someone 'left' me a bag of MP replacer at the store (TSC) where I work. Seems they bought some kids, fed them that, and they later died (who knows why, they bought day olds at the sale barn after telling me mine 'cost too much' ....)

Since they didn't need it they dropped it by the store and said, "Give that to Kim, maybe she can use it."

Thanks...:/
I hadn't used replacer in years b/c I had better luck w/ cow milk.

BUT....I hate, hate, hate waste so....

I mixed 25% replacer milk w/ 75% whole milk and fed it to my older kids I was getting ready to wean. They did ok on it.

I never recommend replacer on itty bitty kids, but I do think, rather than waste it, you could wait til he's straightened out / older and then give him a mix of the replacer and 'real' milk.

 

[MelMitchell]

Wow! Thanks for all the input guys! I switched him over to cow's milk last night and he's only had one bowel movement today thus far. He was having diarrhea almost immediately after each feeding. His stool looks like it's on it's way to becoming firm again. Yay!

It's so frustrating that they make and sell a product that is supposed to keep an animal alive and it ends up doing more harm than good. Kinda makes me think the government created it.

I really like the idea of mixing the replacer and real milk once he gets settled, I'd hate to waste the whole bag.

I will also keep an eye on how much he eats. If he had it his way, he'd eat every hour on the hour. Instead he just tries to eat my pants when I won't give up the milk. I don't know how I ever survived all these years without a goat living in my house. He's so much fun!

 

[Roll farms]

I've heard some folks say that have a lot of luck w/ GOAT replacer. Anything that says, "Multi Species" I'd be leery of, simply b/c there's too broad a range there....cows and dogs and goats and horses make different milk, need different milk, etc.
I don't believe there's a 'one size fits all' milk.

 

[MelMitchell]

Thanks Roll. What I got was goat milk replacer. I have seen the multi-species before and thought it was a terrible idea too. I can't imagine many people having success raising that wide of a variety of animals on it.