Swollen Feet

[SkyWarrior]

I'm so sorry to hear this. They were beautiful kids.

I'm glad your doe is okay. And yeah, manipulating them is amazingly difficult.

 

[GLENMAR]

I'm so sorry to hear this. They were beautiful kids.

I'm glad your doe is okay. And yeah, manipulating them is amazingly difficult.

x2 Glad your doe will be OK.

 

[Queen Mum]

Those are some good sized babies. I am so sorry you lost them. I wonder if they succumbed to the effects of the toxemia?

You might want to ask your vet some other questions as well for future reference... Is there is a prevention for toxemia? Are some does more susceptible? How much does age play a factor? Criteria for early induction? These would all be questions and considerations in evaluation of this pregnancy and others to come, I would think.

Again, I am so sorry for your loss.. Glad your doe is doing OK...

Congratulations on a good delivery, though....

 

[Tiss]

At this point, I can't second guess myself. Trixie was in good condition when she was bred. The vet thinks the toxemia was just the stress of the multiples. She was curious what the outcome of her last triplet birth was but I don't know...that was for the owner prior to the family from whom I bought her.

I'm totally new to this so even though I suspected triplets, I had nothing to base that on. In the future I will recognize the signs better. I have also learned to listen to my gut about my goats and not just trust friends even if they have much more experience.

The vet and I made the decision to wait a couple days after she went off her feed to induce labor to try to give the kids a fighting chance. I'd read that kids born much more than a week before their due date don't generally survive, so we waited until 10 days prior to induce. I kept Trixie going by shoving a turkey baster in her mouth 6 times a day to give her Propylene Glycol and the Dextose drench on page one. I also gave her B-complex shots twice a day and probios daily.

Seeing how developed the kids were, now I think we should have induced sooner. The vet thinks the toxins probably killed them. Again, now that I've seen the kids, I think that Trixie being a mini made a difference to her gestation period. But I had no way of knowing that before.

Now my focus is on getting her healthy again. She's started eating and has wanted a little social time with the other does each day. I've been able to milk a little colostrum out of her a few times today. I was truly worried yesterday that she wouldn't have any milk after this whole ordeal! She was my best milker last year.

I have 3 more goats due to freshen in the next month. They are all fiesty and going strong. I feel like we'll have a much different outcome from all of them and if we do run across something strange, chances are I've seen it and know how to handle it now.

 

[Queen Mum]

Good for you Tiss! You are an awesome goat owner. Sounds like you did a great job! Hindsight is really helpful in evaluating what to do "next time", but hopefully there won't be a next time... Keep on milking that girl. She might come in with a load of milk ON her due date. You never know.

And her system has to clear all the toxins as well... I am guessing....

 

[ragdollcatlady]

Wow! So sorry about the rough delivery. Congrats on your doe surviving and recovering.

 

[GLENMAR]

I would not have known what to do either.
That is the great thing about this forum. We can
learn from folks with more experience.

 

[Tiss]

She was actually chewing cud this morning! So good to see her getting turned around. She wanted out for a good romp with the other girls. I was afraid they'd knock her right off her feet, but she held her own through all the head butting. Then I put her back in her stall with a heat lamp and a blanky- I've never seen it so cold here this time of year. I have to leave her separate or the others will eat all the alfalfa I have out for her and I want her to get plenty of rest to recover.

I continue to get a small amount of colostrum out with each milking. I know she doesn't have the energy to be making much but I want to keep her flowing.

 

[Tiss]

Double post. Please delete.