Our boys have tummy aches and hard bellies

[sadieml]

Jaeger is almost back to normal, and trying to eat everything in sight. Janick is still a bit subdued and his tummy is still a little on the hard side, also he had apparently had some runny stool while I was away, briefly. We gave more baking soda paste, cleaned out their "crib" and left a warm blankie on the ground instead of hay. They won't usually eat their bedding, but I don't want to take any chances of more hay right now. I'm sure it was the hay in their house that started all of this. It wasn't moldy, but it may have been damp since we have had so much rain. They hadn't been in there in days, and the hay was a couple of days old. Fresh for them, but not fresh. I just didn't think. Never gonna make that mistake again. Just hope this once doesn't make me REALLY sorry. Tomorrow is gonna be awful. I have to work at the polls for a municipal election tomorrow. That will have me tied-up from 5:15am to about 9:00pm, and on no sleep, cause I can't leave them for long. I'll just keep praying for them and for extra energy for me and John who will be working with me on about 3 hrs sleep. Bless his heart. He's worried, too, he adores goats in general, and Janick is his.

 

[babsbag]

Hope Janick feels better soon; they always have the worst timing for stuff like this. Runny stool is better than no stool. You want them to clear it all out. I wouldn't let either of them have anything to eat for the next 12 hours or so, make sure they have water though. When you do give them feed skip the grain for a few days, good hay and browse will the best for them; they may be mad at you but it is for their own good. I don't know how much milk they are still getting but you could skip that too,it won't hurt them. I have weaned many a goat "cold turkey" when I have sold them at 8-10 weeks.

 

[sadieml]

I don't give much grain, 1/4C my own mix 2x a day. Mostly , they eat hay(good horse hay-alfalfa/timothy blend), and browse. More sweet gum than you can imagine, oak, especially dried leaves, non-flowering dogwood, and grass that has gone to seed. They get 10 oz whole milk(cow's) 2x a day. Maybe not anymore, though. They won't be happy, but I can't handle any more food stress. Weaning has been tough. I'm ready for cold-turkey.

BTW, my mix is 4 parts barley, 4 parts oats, 1 part cracked corn, 1 part blackoil sunflower seeds, 2 parts shredded wheat, 2 parts bran flakes, and just enough molasses to make it not so powdery, like 1 or 1 1/2 Tbsp per quart. If this sounds bad to anyone, please let me know what you would change. I searched high and low before I decided on my components and quantities. Especially reading up on stuff from Juliette de Bairacli Levy. I am a beginner, and eager to learn. I believe in grain, but only for does about to give birth or in milk, babies, under 4 months or so, and working bucks. I think hay and browse should be enough otherwise, at least here where we have so much good browse. Anyway, I think I'm about to go run a tube into Janick's rumen and give him some cooking oil and more baking soda. Please, everyone, say a little prayer.

 

[babsbag]

I have never tubed a goat or any animal for that matter; something I should learn to do. Saying a prayer for you and them.

When my BIG goat got sick a few months ago my vet said to think of her rumen as being a 5 gallon bucket and that me putting a few Tablespoons of baking soda in it was not going to do the trick. I was treating acidosis so it was different but the vet said that I would need to give my doe 1c. of baking soda in a GALLON of water to do any good. That is when she suggested the Laxade bollus. Even then it was dissolved in 3 qts of water; tubing would have been helpful.

Have your kids been vaccinated with CDT?

As far as the grain, I don't feed it as I have too many kids and it is too hard to keep them apart; there is always the feed hogs. I do feed them a pellet feed when I am growing the meat goats. The dairy kids sometimes get it just because they happen to be in the same pen. I saw that you said below 4 months so that really takes out the worry of urinary calculi, that is the main reason I don't give any of my kids or bucks grain. Your mix looks ok to me, but if you were feeding it long term I would suggest that you look at each ingredient for the C/P ratio. It is important to keep it close to 2:1 for the boys especially. Wheat hay is horribly wrong BTW.

 

[sadieml]

Yes to the vaccine, only one they have had(or probably ever will have), from the breeder. Not terribly opposed, just our budget is a shoestring. Did the tube, but couldn't find a syringe, and gravity does surprisingly little. Got maybe 2 tsps of oil in him, got bitten really well, and gave up. My daughter said "How can you be sure you got the rumen?" I answered, "Because lungs don't smell like that!" If he isn't significantly better tomorrow, I'll do the tube again WITH a syringe. I'm gonna let Jaeger eat(hay and browse) about 10 am, not sure when I should let Janick eat. Any ideas? I told Kimmy to consider them weaned. (Maybe we can give some milk in a bowl? IDK) I just don't know exactly where to go with the menu now. I'm thinking nothing but hay and browse for either one for a few days, then their small amount of grain again. Of course Janick is a wether, so not long on that for him. Just until after the January cold. By Feb it should be okay to cut his out altogether. Jaeger, however, is gonna be our herdsire, and he already has 2 "dates" lined-up for around March. Kimmy says "Meow c:".

 

[babsbag]

Don't rumens smell wonderful? And to think that they enjoy chewing the cud that has already been in there.

I hope that by now all is well and that when you get home tonight everyone is back to normal. All my adult goats get alfalfa hay with maybe a bale of wheat about every 6 months, I used to do it more frequently, but don't go to that feed store as much nowadays. They get browse now and then but they pretty much have the 3 acres cleared of all they can reach until spring.

I would start feeding him again slowly about 8 hours after he is normal. Give him a little hay, but no grain for a few days at least. Make sure they are back to ruminating as they should before doing the grain again. Watch for cud chewing, that is always a good sign of health.

Do you have minerals out for them? If so you can mix some ammonium chloride into the minerals to help prevent UC. Sometimes you can find minerals with it already added. Or some pellet feed has the AC in it as well, just depends on where you live.

 

[Goat Whisperer]

Hoping the boys are feeling better today!

 

[babsbag]

The vaccines are cheap. I know a lot of people don't like to give them but Enterotoxemia and Tetanus are serious life threatening diseases and both of them usually end badly. The bottle to do 10 goats is less than 20.00 and you can do them yourself. If you need to you can even use the syringe and needle on multiple goats. I think it is especially necessary to do the does before they freshen and the kids at 3 and 6 weeks. I haven't seen tetanus but I have seen entero, it was not pretty. JMO

 

[babsbag]

how are the boys today?

 

[sadieml]

Sorry I've been so slow to reply. Both boys are doing bea-u-ti-fully. They are browsing well and very vocal once more. Thank you all sooo much. We didn't need to use the tube again, time and message worked their miracles. I can't tell you how happy I was Wednesday morning to go in and hear BOTH of them screaming at me. The kisses and hugs and fussing for not being around were music to my ears. I held little Janick and cried all over him. I am such a sop.

Thank you all again. It means sooo much to know that others have been where you're going and are pulling for you to make it through. I do LOVE BYH.

BTW, their minerals do contain Ammonium Chloride.