Final Necropsy Results on Fourth Dead Kid In. Nope. Nope. Nope :(

[babsbag]

So very very sorry, very disheartening for sure. My heart is just heavy and I know there are no words to ease the pain right now. Praying that you find the cause.

Hoping the vet will send off tissue/blood for toxicology and analysis if he can't see an obvious reason for the loss. None of this makes any sense.

 

[Hens and Roos]

so sorry

 

[Southern by choice]

don't even know what to say Sky.

 

[SkyWarrior]

That many kids dead means something bad is on your property and running through the herd. You definitely need a necropsy - can you be present when it is done since it is a local vet? I would recommend this since you can answer his questions as he is working through it. Also, do a check on your feed, both grain and hay. It is possible that something got sprayed on the hay crop or in the mill that doesn't affect the adults but the babies with their immature rumens might not be able to synthesize it. Can you send samples to a lab? This is not only heartbreaking, but potentially disastrous for your entire operation. You need to identify it asap so you can deal with it. The scours and deaths are the symptoms, but there has to be an underlying cause that needs to be dealt with.

One year we lost 3 consecutive sets of calves to e. coli and finally had to stop bringing in any more while we disinfected the pens, ground around the pens, feeding equipment, etc. with bleach and let it sit for a whole year. We lost a lost of income that year since our calves paid the hay bill, not to mention the $100 apiece for the calves that died, meds, etc. Until we found out it was e.coli we couldn't stop it. Identification is your prime objective now.

I hope you will get answers with the necropsies. Please post findings when you have them. This loss is terrible.

I drove about 35-40 miles one way to get the baby to the veterinarian. SMH This is one of the few goat vets nearby. I had a choice of two. This one did call back and asked a lot of questions. The other vet basically is busy but I could drop off the carcass and wait for word. So, I chose the goat vet who seemed concerned, which I know is only people manners and has little to do with actual animal care, but I needed to stress how bizarre this was.

Basically she asked the right questions. About feed and nutrition. About how they died. She doesn't think it is related, but at this stage she thinks it's a good idea at this point. She is performing the necropsy after hours tonight. She'll be sending the pathology to the state if she doesn't find anything obvious. Those results will be about a week.

I'm pretty bummed by it all. Basically I've had 5 kids die (1 newborn at birth) out of 7. The only thing I can do right now is figure out what happened to my healthy herd. This year, the hay out of the Bitterroot is awful. Full of stems and nasty. My farrier says everyone is complaining. I get my hay from various sources there. The deaths seem to come with more than one source of hay, so I'm not sure it's related though.

@babsbag and @Southern by choice -- I don't have any words at this point either.

 

[goats&moregoats]

so sorry

 

[Latestarter]

Wow Sky... my heart goes out to you... I'm so sorry! I'm afraid I have to agree w/@Ridgetop There HAS to be some common denominator there... something that is affecting the kids but not (deadly to) the adults. I wish there was something I could offer in the way of help aside from condolences...

I hope the vet/labs can get to the bottom of this before you lose the ones you have left! What a very sad finish to the start of a reasonably good year

 

[Pearce Pastures]

 

[SkyWarrior]

Well, the vet called us this morning with results from the necropsy. Basically a healthy kid who is dead. Rumen in good shape -- she had even eaten and no signs of gas or bloat. No signs of trauma. No visual signs of: "Well, there's your problem." The veterinarian is sending the samples into the lab. We will hopefully find out what might have happened.

It is beginning to look like unless there is something that could've caused all the problems (FKS, bloat, diarrhea, something with no symptoms), I may just be having a run of bad luck. Nutmeg was vaccinated for C&D plus tetanus so if she had Clostridium C or D, you'd think she'd be covered. Basically, it's a wait until the pathology comes back. And hope that the two remaining kids stay healthy.

 

[SkyWarrior]

Wow Sky... my heart goes out to you... I'm so sorry! I'm afraid I have to agree w/@Ridgetop There HAS to be some common denominator there... something that is affecting the kids but not (deadly to) the adults. I wish there was something I could offer in the way of help aside from condolences...

I hope the vet/labs can get to the bottom of this before you lose the ones you have left! What a very sad finish to the start of a reasonably good year

Thanks. I've been racking my brain on this and right now we don't have anything that makes sense as to why she died. The preliminary results of the necropsy is "I've got nothing." So until we have the pathology back, we just don't know.

 

[promiseacres]

How frustrating