Hand rearing a goat kid

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Hand rearing a goat kid
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Andrea

Joined: 02 May 2005
Posts: 2260
Location: Portugal

Posted: Mon Dec 02, 13 1:10 pm Post subject: Hand rearing a goat kid

Bottle feeding a goat kid advice please. This one is on it's third day of life. Mother has shown minimal interest in it since birth and I've never seen it suckle (although I assumed that it was doing so when I wasn't there, perhaps I was wrong). Mum appears not to have a great deal of milk. It's been up and about and behaving perfectly normally until this morning when I found it collapsed in the outside part of their enclosure and too weak to stand. It was very cold and semi conscious, would not feed when held to the teat. I milked off what I could from Mum and fed it using a syringe. Mum has not produced more milk since so I took a little from another goat who is due to birth shortly and is already producing. The kid was too weak to take milk initially, but has strengthened some now and is taking it willingly. It can now stand again. Mum is not at all interested when I've tried putting it back.

So, looks like I'll be feeding this one. I've never done it before so my questions are, how much milk should a little one be taking each session / each day? How often should I be feeding it? I've managed to get some more goat milk from a neighbour now.

This is one of the new goats I recently took on, and although she's allowed me to take milk she doesn't really trust me yet. Is it likely that she would injure the kid if I continued to try to reintroduce it?

I'm really not sure whether the little one was collapsed due to lack of milk or the cold, but if it were the cold I'd expect her to show interest now it's back on it's feet.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45515
Location: yes

Posted: Mon Dec 02, 13 2:36 pm Post subject:
i know nowt about goats but i know hand rearing is hard work with several other types of critter extra help to keep it warm and fed seems a good idea and try to keep mum involved if she is up for any babycare . if you need to hand rear it without mum that will be clear from mums attitude to it and or her ability to feed it sorry not to be more use

Andrea

Joined: 02 May 2005
Posts: 2260
Location: Portugal

Posted: Mon Dec 02, 13 2:59 pm Post subject:
Just had mum & baby together. Mum uninterested, but allowed baby to latch on when I held her. Not that there was any milk there. Sigh. Kid is sitting in a box of straw on the table in front of me. Where the hell do you keep a defenceless goat kid when you have six dogs?

Cathryn

Joined: 16 Jul 2005
Posts: 19856
Location: Ceredigion

Posted: Mon Dec 02, 13 5:48 pm Post subject:
Will the soon to kid goat take it as well? Sheep can be fooled in various ways to take an extra lamb.

Andrea

Joined: 02 May 2005
Posts: 2260
Location: Portugal

Posted: Tue Dec 03, 13 6:42 am Post subject:

Cathryn wrote:

Will the soon to kid goat take it as well? Sheep can be fooled in various ways to take an extra lamb.

Not a hope. She's a bitch, through and through.

Shan

Joined: 13 Jan 2009
Posts: 9075
Location: South Wales

Posted: Tue Dec 03, 13 8:15 am Post subject:
I have hand reared enough lambs to never want to do it again. I'd look up the equivalent of Lamlac for Goats and see what the dosage instructions are and go according to that.

Melli-Jane

Joined: 09 Mar 2011
Posts: 272
Location: East Sussex

Posted: Thu Dec 05, 13 1:27 pm Post subject:

we usually have a few kids to hand rear and usually use lamlac or there is goat and kid milk replacer from badminton feeds or you can get caprilac milk replacer which is a goat formula - quite expensive though. in an emergency I have used the delemare goat mik from tesco and warmed it up!
fias co farm - an american website - have a whole host of useful info and they have feeding guides etc...I tend to follow the instructions on the milk replacer. but as a guide, up to 8 ounces 4 times a day then 12 ounces 3 times a day from 10 days old.
the only concern is probably the lack of colostrum if mum hasn't fed it properly and they need this in the first hours of life - so make sure you vaccinate with lambivac from 3 weeks to give it a fighting chance against clostridial disease with a booster 4-6 weeks later.
keep it out of drafts and in the warm during bad weather - pop a lamb coat on (or a childrens jumper) if you need to.
finally .... good luck x

Andrea

Joined: 02 May 2005
Posts: 2260
Location: Portugal

Posted: Fri Dec 06, 13 9:34 am Post subject:

I've got a regular supply of goat's milk coming from a neighbour now, until one of my others gives birth. The only milk replacement available locally is a GMO soya stuff which is marketed for calves although the woman was trying to sell it to me for kids. Maybe if I had to, but not whilst I can get hold of the real thing. I'm also holding Mummy goat still each morning and evening for baby to take everything she's making directly (only about 50ml a time).

Little goat is only taking 40-50ml per feed, but seems bright enough on it. She's living in my bedroom (only place I can keep her safe from the dogs) at night and in with the other goats (not mum and co, I've two sheds) when it warms up.

I'm shattered.

Melli-Jane

Joined: 09 Mar 2011
Posts: 272
Location: East Sussex

Posted: Mon Dec 09, 13 10:24 am Post subject:
Hi Andrea - how are you getting on?

Green Rosie

Joined: 13 May 2007
Posts: 10498
Location: Calvados, France

Posted: Mon Dec 09, 13 1:31 pm Post subject:
The things we do for our animals - at least it's not down your bra

Andrea

Joined: 02 May 2005
Posts: 2260
Location: Portugal

Posted: Mon Dec 09, 13 7:47 pm Post subject:
Sadly it died on Saturday night. I got advice from the vet on Friday evening, but it never really rallied and just faded away in a box of straw in front of the stove.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45515
Location: yes

Posted: Tue Dec 10, 13 12:20 am Post subject:
bad luck but well done for trying

Green Rosie

Joined: 13 May 2007
Posts: 10498
Location: Calvados, France

Posted: Tue Dec 10, 13 6:39 am Post subject:
So sorry to read this It does make me wonder if perhaps there was more wrong with it and that was why Mum rejected it.

Andrea

Joined: 02 May 2005
Posts: 2260
Location: Portugal

Posted: Tue Dec 10, 13 7:55 am Post subject:

Green Rosie wrote:

So sorry to read this

It does make me wonder if perhaps there was more wrong with it and that was why Mum rejected it.

Mum was a recent arrival her and the stress of a move so late in pregnancy probably contributed to her disinterest. We didn't realise how little the kid had fed until the morning of day 3, which meant it probably missed out on the vital colostrum feed which really needs to be within the first 12 hours.

Although I fed colostrum from Mum and robbed from another Mum to be as soon as I realised, it probably wasn't enough, soon enough, to get little one's digestion working properly. It seemed to be thriving for a few days then went downhill very rapidly from Friday afternoon.

I've learnt some tricks for next time, but a little one abandoned by Mum will always be fighting the odds

Melli-Jane

Joined: 09 Mar 2011
Posts: 272
Location: East Sussex

Posted: Wed Dec 11, 13 4:26 pm Post subject:

so sorry to hear that, reassure yourself that you did what you could x

we lose one or two each year in the same circumstances and I think it normally it is the lack of colostrum that will tip them. It's always a lot of heartbreak after 4-5 days. I had one girl last year kid twins a month early, one was still born and the other one was breathing and bleated a few times but passed on within an hour or so - it would never, ever have survived but was still horrible feeling so helpless.

Have your other girls kidded yet? fingers crossed for some strong healthy kids and attentive mums

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