Taffy birthed

MiniMilkers

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Purchased a nigerian dwarf doe yesterday. The breeder is getting out of nigerian dwarfs. The doe I was told is 3 years old & pregnant. No due date as she was ran with the buck her whole life. I was told she's always had twins.

I am concerned about her and her babies. Her condition is horrible. I weighed her when I brought her home she weighed 49.8 lbs. She is skin and bones besides her pregnant belly. I wormed her with Ivomec & gave her a copper bolus. She has diarrhea. When she's standing she is constantly shifting her legs, like she's uncomfortable. She is eating here and there, not much at all. She has not even put a dent into the flake she got yesterday.

I am feeding alfalfa 24/7 & minerals.
Any advice?
taffy 8.7.18.jpg
Taffy8.7.18.jpg
 

Southern by choice

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You should have a fecal run to find out what you are dealing with and the level of the load. Deworming her really doesn't give you that info without running fecals.
If she has ivermec resistant worms or if she has super high load you won't know which it is.
I am also wondering if she possibly has coccidia as well. Adults can have coccidia and pregnancy can really increase the severity as well.

She looks like she has mites or lice as well.
Check hooves. Do they need trimmed? Is there rot? look between web, any rawness?

I would definitely start her on probiotics for the gut health. B-vitamins injectable if you have them. Get a fecal to the vet asap.
Is she eating the minerals? What kind of minerals?
If you can cut some branches and give those to her that would be good. The alfalfa may be too rich for her right now, if you can get some orchard that may entice her.
 

MiniMilkers

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Vets here do not see goats. I can send a fecal in. Will collect a stool sample and send it out.

She does have some kind of skin issue. Her hooves were a little over grown, I trimmed her feet. No rawness, no smell.

I will go to town to get her probiotics. I do not have B-vitamins. She is nibbling the minerals here and there but has not eaten much. The minerals are Manna Pro Goat minerals.

I can cut branches for her. Have mulberry & olive trees. The hay choices I have are teff, alfalfa or 3 way.
 

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Fecal was mailed out. Yesterday she stopped eating leaves, but started devouring her alfalfa. Yesterday afternoon she had a normal poop. Her energy level has picked up. I named her Taffy.
I am really hoping that I will be able to put some weight on her before she delivers. When ever that may be.
 

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I named her Taffy. I weighed her this morning to see if she's gained at all. She is up to 51.2 lbs.

I took pics of her yesterday evening. You can really see how skinny she is in them.

I think you're right about mites. She is constantly itching herself. I have checked for lice, have not found any. Could a mineral deficiency also make her skin be itchy and look the way it does?
Taffy 8.10.18.2.jpg
Taffy 8.10.18.jpg
 

Donna R. Raybon

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I would reworm her again in ten days and then again in another ten days. Use something that gets tapeworm, too. Resistant worms are usually a purchased problem. Parisitology professor at UT Vet school recommends quarantine at least 30 days and deworm at ten day intervals. Even though TN does not have liver flukes, because so many Boer goats brought in, UT recommends using something for flukes in quarantine.

I also recommend treating for Coccidia, too. As someone said stress can bring on, even in adults. Vitamin B injections for a few days is helpful to ease stress. When you pull her lower eyelid down is it pale or rosy inside? If pale, then add iron for anemia.

Alfalfa the last four weeks gestation puts her at high risk of milk fever as potassium level is too high. First cutting grass hay, any heavy matured hay, and all alfalfa has too high potassium to be safe. 2nd and later cutting grass hay is best to feed close to kidding (last month gestation. ) You can counter by feeding anionic salt like ammonium chloride, but they are bad tasteing. The high potassium blocks body from using calcium and causes milk fever. Tennessee Farmers Co-op makes a goat feed for preventing urinary stones with ammonium chloride so it does double duty preventing milk fever.

What is selenium levels like where you live? I would be a bit leary of giving injection, but if doe is deficient she will have weak labor, weak kids, very tough, thick placental sack.
 

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Taffy had a high parasite load & cocci. She has been treated. I will be sending out another sample to see if the treatment has been effective.

She's up to 51.8 not a huge gain since the last time I weighed her. She still is not that interested in the minerals I put out. I have started her on grain. Small amount 3x a day.
She is eating her alfalfa. I cut down branches for her daily.

I will get some pics of her later today.

I have not heard about milk fever in goats because of alfalfa. Alfalfa is the #1 hay here. I have tried Teff with the 2 other goats I have. They wasted 90% of it. I did google milk fever because of Alfalfa and only found it with cows. Do you have any websites I can read up on it?

I looked up the selenium in my area. This is what the report shows. I honestly have no clue if any of these levels are high/low, normal?

Element Symbol Mean Std. dev. Minimum Maximum
Aluminum Al (wt%) 7.837 0.819 4.971 10.951
Arsenic As (ppm) 12.714 27.668 0.487 571.304
Calcium Ca (wt%) 2.779 0.654 0.556 6.744
Copper Cu (ppm) 15.572 6.442 1.119 61.683
Iron Fe (wt%) 3.625 1.051 1.339 9.740
Mercury Hg (ppm) 0.039 0.058 0.010 0.967
Magnesium Mg (wt%) 1.100 0.303 0.246 2.454
Manganese Mn (ppm) 665.497 222.538 183.980 1608.750
Sodium Na (wt%) 2.133 0.333 0.878 3.595
Phosphorus P (wt%) 0.087 0.022 0.027 0.219
Lead Pb (ppm) 20.195 7.529 7.433 130.477
Selenium Se (ppm) 0.310 0.423 0.070 5.774
Titanium Ti (wt%) 0.461 0.130 0.194 1.102
Zinc Zn (ppm) 78.843 19.731 31.070 198.815
 

Donna R. Raybon

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Yeah, milk fever happens in goats. I have had half dozen cases before I found out how to prevent. Any lactating animal species is at risk. In dairy animals it is usually caused by excess potassium just prior and after freshening.

Amaranthus retroflexus , commonly known a red root pigweed is attractive to goats. If they eat enough it can interfere with available calcium. I had a doe that had milk fever from pigweed.

Around here it is usually first cutting grass hay that is culprit. I try to get my does onto 2nd or later cutting grass hay by last month gestation. Ammonium chloride is an aniontic salt that also helps. Lots of info on milk fever in dairy cattle literature.
 
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