Bottle baby- reluctant eater, not thriving

kcbdcarnold

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We are new to goats and have two 3-week old Nigerian Dwarf bottle babies. We have had them since they were 9 days old. The doe is doing great, eating 5 oz. 3x day, energetic, normal poops. The little boy doesn't seem to be thriving- always been a reluctant eater, we've tried multiple nipples/bottles, daughter has to "force" him to eat minimum amount 8 oz/day now (in 1-2 oz. at a time with her hand wrapped around mouth and bottle.) We've watched many videos and tried a lot of tricks! He now has runny stools, not watery, but soft and has mucus in it. He's wobbly (not stable when he stands at times), doesn't have a lot of energy like his sister, and sleeps/lays down a lot. We are just worried something more might be up. Thoughts? Suggestions? Normal temperature and he is on milk replacer. Thank you!
 

Beekissed

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We are new to goats and have two 3-week old Nigerian Dwarf bottle babies. We have had them since they were 9 days old. The doe is doing great, eating 5 oz. 3x day, energetic, normal poops. The little boy doesn't seem to be thriving- always been a reluctant eater, we've tried multiple nipples/bottles, daughter has to "force" him to eat minimum amount 8 oz/day now (in 1-2 oz. at a time with her hand wrapped around mouth and bottle.) We've watched many videos and tried a lot of tricks! He now has runny stools, not watery, but soft and has mucus in it. He's wobbly (not stable when he stands at times), doesn't have a lot of energy like his sister, and sleeps/lays down a lot. We are just worried something more might be up. Thoughts? Suggestions? Normal temperature and he is on milk replacer. Thank you!

Try some probiotics....could be he didn't get colostrum when he was born. I just mix some cultured buttermilk into their milk and it seems to really help, especially with scours. Have done it with bottle calves from the sale barn that had scours with quick and good success and more recently with a small lamb that also was just not vigorous enough about eating, so his mother would just walk away from him.

One feeding with the buttermilk mix and he went from a weak lamb that I expected to find dead at any moment to a strong and bouncy lamb...he is now catching up with the other lambs in size and it's only been a few days~nurses vigorously now and Mom now stands for him to do so. He's also the most bouncy, ornery and adventuresome of the pack. He just needed a little boost to get him going. I didn't even use a bottle....just used a condiment dispenser bottle so I could dribble it into his mouth at a rate I could control but didn't require that he suck to get it~he took about 4 oz that first feeding, though some dribbled out on the ground, so not quite the full 4. He fought me on it but was really too young to fight for long.
 

kcbdcarnold

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We'll try probiotics today! Thank you!

I forgot to mention in my post that his little belly "looks" fuller than his sisters who drinks twice as much as him, but his tummy feels kind of squishy, not as firm as hers- not sure if that means anything. It has only looked this way the past 2 days, before that it would be noticeably skinnier than sisters.
 
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