Dumb as a Goat or What?

It is kidding time at the Fat Ewe Farm. First Weezie had twins and was doing great. I put a board in the pen, a heavy 3/4 inch board leaning up against the side of a house and thought it would be good emergency shelter for the little ones. What I did not think is that one of the big goats would knock it down on one of Weezie's babies, the little girl, and kill her. Poor Weezie is beside herself looking for her baby this morning.

Then Mamma Theresa had triplets and all was well too. She is an experienced mother, a good mother and will raise them without any problems if I do not intervene or kill any inadvertently.

But this morning...oh boy. Three goats had babies. There were 7 of them, 2 of tiniest things you ever saw, brand new still in the sac and the rest more or less cleaned and off to a good start. But whose was whose? I had no idea to whom the tiny abandoned ones belonged, so I grab Daphne, thinking they must be hers and she is not interested. Oh great! I try the other and nope, they won't have anything to do with them. So I tie Daphne and milk some colostrum and also try to get these tiny ones to nurse from her. She does not want to have anything to do with this and keeps trying to kick the babies away. Then I look at her butt closely and shiza! she is still pregnant. So I have milked a few ounces of colustrum from her, tied the poor thing up and lost my temper with her when she kicked at the babies and there is no way they were hers.

I run to the house to get a bottle and feed the two tinies a bit. One is very weak and does not take the bottle well, aspirates a little colostrum and gurgles. Then I think...oh no, I killed this one too. I untie poor Daphne, thank her for her colostrum and let her go. In the meantime I have no idea whose kids the others are, but they seem to be alright so I leave them to decide and concentrate on the abandoned twin boys.

Then Serena comes by and low and behold, she has just given birth. Serena is a sick little goat, anemic and there is nothing I seem to be able to do to make her better. I have given her selenium, two types of Vitamin B, Vitamin E and wormed her with a completely different wormer than used on goats. Still she is not well. I had NO IDEA she was bred. She did not even have a belly. So the twins belong to her and she does not show any interest in them. I feel bad and do not want to force her to nurse. She needs every reserve for herself.

Now the twins are in the porch in a kennel. Poor Serena did not even appear to notice when they cried. It is like they fell out of her and she has no idea why...no mother instinct.

Anyhow, Daphne is yet to kid and man I hope and pray she accepts her kids from the start. She is a first time mother as are two of the others. I am not sure that they did not trade kids somewhere too, with one stealing milk from another doe. This is very confusing for the does and poor me, who already feels like an idiot for killing the baby girl with the fallen plywood and tying Daphne when she did not even have kids yet. Then the man came to pick up the piglets.....OY!

Whew! You've had quite a day! Well I must say you have handled things well for having so many challenges all at once. Here's wishing you all the best with your Mommas and babies!

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Whew! I second what Happychicks said! I hope things get better but it sure is hard when you're learning. It was weird reading your story though as your goat has my name LOL and I'd never known anyone with my name until I was in my 20's hope she gets better now that she's not feeding babies and hope her babies do well with your care

Goat kids sure can be a challenge at times. If you can get them through this first coupld of days that will be the tricky part. At least you don't have cold temps to deal with like in the early spring...

Sounds like you will have 2 bottle babies. I hope it all works out OK for you!

So, the man came to pick up the weaners, which are no longer weaners, but a good 50 pounds each. He had reserved and tried to pay for them a month earlier but for one reason or another did not come until today. Today of all days! It is 32 degrees outside and hot and I am still racing around trying to make sure the kids are all hydrated and have suckled and the man comes for the pigs. He said he would bring help and he brought his daughter, who was maybe 10, but a buxom strong young thing and his juvenile son of perhaps 3. Cute kids, but not quite what I had in mind. Chasing pigs in the muck when it is 32 degrees is not my idea of fun. After just over an hour, we got 3 little ones loaded and on their way.

Then back to the goat pen to check on the kids...Sure enough the twins are still abandoned, so I milked one of the moms and added it to the colostrum I stole from the still pregnant doe this morning and fed the two babies. They are in the porch now. Let's see, this year, the kitchen or the porch has been home to lambs, turkeys, chicks, ducklings and now goats. It's a darn good thing I have a little farm house and do not live in the bed and breakfast house. I just do not think the health inspector would understand goats in the kitchen.

Oh no! What a day, TFE! Good for you for having the patience to get through it all. I know how you feel, some days I'm just so tired and everything goes wrong at once and nothing works. The chickens wont go in, then a broody abandons her chicks, and I find mites on another hen, and I just think REALLY?! WHAT NEXT!? But, tomorrow is better. I do what I can for all of the living creatures on this farm, but over the past two years incubating and hatching I have come to realize that you can't always save them all and sometimes the best intentions are the worst ideas. So, stay calm and have faith, trust your instinct because most of the time you will see you are right. Goat kids do pretty well bottle fed, just be cautious if you end up with a little male, they tend to get too pushy after being bottle fed, and in our case anyway, the got to be too big to be pushy!

Good luck! And, no need to bring ACE business onto this forum. It's a whole different forum for a reason

Sounds like one hell of a day for sure. Promise you that you are not the only one to go throw crap like this and in fact you made me feel better as I too had problems this year with my goats and bottle lambs. Life is a learning lesson, all we have to do is learn from the lessons so we do not go and do them again.

If it helps I had a bottle lamb a friend picked up had a limp and turns out the swelling tock 2 weeks to go down to find out the leg was broken
Another had a respotory breething infection ( cant spell )lived in the house for 2 weeks with lots of care.
Another momma goat had twins and I lock them up to bond with her kids, she got her two front legs caught in the hing area of the door. Bottle feeding her kids and momma is down for 8 days then up in a sling. Now back walking and doing fine.
2 kids down with White muscle ..........big mistake of the year. I always give selenium A, D & E shots after birth ,but if you don't check the lable your screwed, it was out dated.
Had one doe give birth to triplets the night I was with my friend at the hospital and one kid walked away and died , mind we still had snow and it was 1 day later I found it as it was white. I did the omg.

So I hope my crap makes you feel better. We are human and not vets. In the end we do the best we can with every thing else on are plates.
Keep you chin up and bottle babies does not matter if they are male of female can still be great goats when they are all grown up. Been there done that.
Mind I even had my buck live in my house for 3 months when his de wormer stopped working and he was skinny and collapsed in the coldest day of the year.
After living in the house mind he was 90 lbs at the time and is now 160 lbs he is a sweet boy and loves people. Anyone can go in and give him love and hugs.

I lost one of the tiny babies last night. He was too weak to nurse and I tried to tube him, but he expired. I have no idea how that anemic goat momma was able to carry a pregnancy at all. She is barely alive herself. She became resistant to Ivomectin and I did not realize it. I have switched her wormer and she has had 3 treatments and is due for the next, plus selenium, B complex and E, but she is only just hanging in there. Her little boy that died was so weak he could not stand. The other twin is only somewhat better. It makes me wonder if it is the right thing to do to try to save him, but I am .
chickencrazygirl, at least I know I am not alone with the goats. I have read a lot on goat management and it is not easy. They require so much intervention, but their quirky little ways are so much fun to have around, I can not imagine the farm without them. I will cut down the herd though. I think 4 or 5 goats will be plenty for me. I need to trade the billy this year as well.
The goat that I milked colostrum from who had not birthed is still waiting. I still feel a bit silly when I think I was trying to force her to take some kids when she had not even had any. Duh. Anyhow, today all is well in the goat pen. Weezie is still crying for her little girl and Serena is crying, but maybe because she is sick or maybe she realizes she is a mamma now. Whew!

Life is not easy at times with goats, but as you say life without them just would not be the same. My buck that lived in the house had the same problem as your goat ivemec stopped working and it was not until he collapsed in the field on the coldest day of the year I knew he was skinny. After all a cold goat is all puffed up and so looks bigger.

I too have a super skinny goat that has twins on her. The moment she had her kids she started loosing hair and body weight.
She had dandruf coming off her skin as well and from reading up on it I think she is Zinc deficent ( oh boy spelling is so bad opps)
Any way I think when I get back from holidays I will take her in for a blood test. At the moment she has twins on her. I bring her in 2 times a day to give extra feed to. Her kids will not come near me at the moment so they have to get any oats and sunflower seeds that they can with the other goats.
Mind I was so afraid that I also put a round bale into the field while I am gone. It is high in alfalfa and so trying to bring up the daily intake of selenium in there diet also why they get black oil sunflower seeds which they love.
Oh to be a vet it would be great to know what to do.
When you tried to get your goat to take the kids when she had yet to deliver , you did that out of panic nothing else. I know when I found the triplet the day after I went and checked if anyone else had delivered . I have had goats ( first timers) give birth in the field in Winter and leave them when it was time for food. Lucky for the kids I noticed the bloody behind as she came in and all was well.
But goats are well lets just say I always want them in my life even if it was for a pet.
Just rememeber we are not vets and do our best.

TFE...I had wrote you and asked you about my goat being in labor so long on the "other" site. I can kind of understand how you feel. Mocha was in labor for 3 whole days before she finally managed to push out two small dead babies. Perfectly formed, but for whatever reason she just didnt get into the full swing of labor quick enough. She never grunted or talked or cried out while pushing and as soon as they hit the ground she walked away and never looked back like she had no idea they were anything more than poop So after 3 days of watchful eyes on her to make sure they werent stuck (we tried to pull the baby earlier on the 3rd day but our hands were all too big to fit in and couldnt help her at all). SO after the second one came out and was dead we cleaned up and left her to rest for the night sure she would be ok til morning. Well....morning came and we go out to find her pushing with all her might to get a THIRD gigantic dead and very dried out baby out of her. Not exactly what I was hoping to find at 7am :/ So I pull and pull and pull and cant get this leg out. I phone my friend and her hubby a few doors down and they race over and she tries to pull and just cant get it. SO her husband finally reaches in and pulls (at which pont poor Mocha is screaming bloody murder and Im sure she will be ripped in half form the size of this baby) but he pulls and pulls and piece by piece the dead baby comes Talk about the worst first kidding experience ever. I have just bred 7 does who are due eraly November. I am suddenly not looking forward to it - at all
This was Mochas first time too. I bet she doesnt want to do that again either.

Jaclyn

The tiny twin, now named Pippin, made for two whole days. She is going to be Ok. I took her with me for a car ride to North Battleford today to deliver 2 kids to a petting zoo that wants to bottle feed them. I sold one yesterday to another petting zoo..same thing, for a bottle baby. There was one doeling left to kid and she waiting until I got home from North Battleford, bless her little heart. She got frightened when she went into labour and ran in the bush, so I had to half carry her back to the pen. She then laid down and began to push in earnest. I had an idea so ran to get my camera, a towel and Pippin. Pippin had had this doe's colostrum when I mistakenly thought she had birthed her and left. That was a good start, because moms identify their youngsters by scent. Then I smeared Pippin with the birthing fluids and put her beside the newly born doeling. Success, Daphne accepted her and began to clean both babies as her own. The next trial would be whether Pippin was strong enough to nurse and whether Daphne would let her.
But then, oops, a back foot of something large protruded from Daphne. Breach babies can inhale amniotic fluid because it does not get squeezed out at they enter the world. I ran to phone my daughter, who is going to be a midwife and has already attended dozens of human births. What to do? She tells me she is not familiar with goats, only human babies.

So I run back to Daphne with surgical gloves ready to stuff the leg back in if necessary and try to turn the baby, but if the hoof size has anything to do with reality, that baby was huge. By the time I returned she had squeezed the boy out and yes, he is the biggest of the kids born on The Fat Ewe Farm by a long shot. He coughs and sputters and wheezes trying to clear his lungs and I leave him because he seems strong. Mom is cleaning the two little girls, Pippin and her own baby, so I take junior and towel him off, clear his mouth and stick him in front of her. She is happy now and busy cleaning. Pippin is interested in nursing. Hurray!
I help Pippin find what she is looking for and she nurses. I am so happy, so pleased for her. She has a momma and a new family and can grow up as a little girly goat should. Thank you Ms. Daphne for accepting Pippin.
After chores I put the babies and mom in goat city and closed the gate. They should bond well and be safe tonight in their little dog house.

Hidden Acres, what a horrible experience!

Golly Hidden, that is terrible! I'm so sorry you experienced that. Bad enough all being born dead but to also come out in pieces.........just terrible.

Wow! I have a very dear trusted friend who has goats - I've thought about them off & on for quite a while... Hearing all these stories convinces me she's right.... Goats and their micromanagement are not something I can take on, handle on my own with current work load as high as it is already! I think I'll continue to take her advice - and pass on adding goats to my farm any time soon!

I hope your baby does well Fat Ewe, would be great if momma accepted it & has enough milk for all 3.

We've had goats off and on for the past 15 years, and we've had our current herd for 5 years. I've found that most does are very good moms, even first time does. But just like any animals some do not take to it right away. We had a cow that was useless and left her calf as soon as it was born, and cats that have abandoned thier kittens. Sad, but sometimes they need some help to learn how to care for their babies.

Overall, goats are not dumb animals. They are actually very smart and curious creatures, and that can get them into predicaments at times. This means you must always be thinking of things that could be dangerous for them and only house them in good, well built stalls and pens to keep them safe.

The most important thing we've found is to have good herd management so you know who they are bred to and when they are due to kid, and be there to help if needed. The newborn kids are delicate for the first day or 2, so you need to see that they are getting a good start. But once they get going, goats are generally very healthy and easy to care for and make wonderful pets.
While we've lost probably 3 or 4 newborns over the years that were born in cold weather or were weak for one reason or another, we have never had to help with birthing, never had sick goats and actually very minimal issues with them at all.
I just wanted to add this in case people are starting to think that goats are nothing but trouble.
We all love ours to pieces and wouldn't want to be without them!

Kathy S, what breed of goats do you have? Do you have a system for them, such as worming every so often and feeding certain things? My friend has Boer and Kiko goats and has very little problems with them, but she mixes her own feed and minerals and has been raising goats for many years, practicing selective breeding and culling the weak.

I am new to farming and still learning. Over the past year, from whence I first started, I have gleaned tons of knowledge from reading and from those with experience, all very valuable.

As with any breed, there are individuals that are good moms and have healthy babes and once in a while there are those who have problems. Those with problems should not be rebred, I believe. Once a herd is built to have the quality desired, problems will also be diminished immensely, or that is the thought. Overall, the goats have been fun and I love them dearly, even better than the sheep.

If you are thinking, considering getting goats, please do. They are amazing.

Our management with the goats is pretty basic. Worm them spring and fall, give them good mixed pasture when its available and hay in the winter. A handful of barley for each of them once every couple of days and free access to loose minerals (prefered) or mineral block.
We don't vaccinate and so far I haven't needed to give any vitamin shots to babies. I've had good results just making sure the moms have plenty of mineral available including selenium while pregnant. But use caution, because this can be an an environmental issue, with some areas being especially selenium-deficient making the kids very succeptible to white muscle disease.
We have a small herd of Pygmy and Nigerian goats. The kids are a mix of the 2 breeds, which makes them very colorful. We leave the kids on the moms since we don't milk.
The does and kids belong my youngest daughter who spends alot of time with them. She baths them and trains them to lead, so they truly are pets.
I'm sure those who are serious about raising goats for dairy, meat or hair will have a more regimented routine. For us, we just keep it simple and fun.

Oh, one other thing, we found the Story's guide to raising Dairy goats is a very good resource with lots of good info and tips.

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All is well at The Fat Ewe Farm today, except for one baby turkey who decided to get himself soaking wet in the thunder storm last night. Sad.

Management here is the same but two goats became resistant to Ivomectin and who knew? It was not until one laid down near death that I realized something was wrong with her. Otherwise they are pretty great.