We have a friend's buck kid here,bottle fed,who was very small at birth(1 1/2 lbs) but has been doing well, except for being undersized. He is about 7 weeks old. I just noticed he was lying down in the corner, thought he was resting, but when i went to pet him, his belly is all swollen up, he cries if you pick him up,his ears and mouth are very cold.There is foamy saliva around his mouth.He won't/can't stand up. He hasn't been exposed to any new or suddenly rich feed, or had more feed available than usual,but could this be bloat? I have very few sick goats so have little experiennce in this area,and the vet doesn't care about goats here.I am going to go back down and treat him for bloat,please let us know if you have any advice. Thank you.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@transport.com), May 08, 2000

Answers

By the way, he does not have diarrhea, or anything like that, and for some reason his testicles are kind of shriveled looking.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@transport.com), May 08, 2000.

Rebekah, goats aren't my specialty, so I'll hope some of those folks come through soon to help. Get that little critter warmed up in the meantime. Probably won't cure anything, but it will help him survive until you can get some help. Have you tried the email vet or some of those other email addresses for goat help that came up recently? Gerbil

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), May 08, 2000.

Rebekah, I just sent you an email with some drugs and dosages suggested by my vet. Gerbil

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), May 08, 2000.

Thank you,Gerbil,I'm hoping that his owner, who knows a whole lot more about sick goats than I do, will call soon,and maybe take him to the vet. I drenched him with some baking soda water and vegetable oil, in case it is bloat,he had gotten up and moved to the other side of the pen, so guess he can still walk a little.I'll go check on him and wrap him up in something warm,and get off here in case his owner tries to call us.Unfortuantely, I have no way to get any medicine for him,except to walk over ten miles to the vets office with all the children! Thanks again.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@transport.com), May 08, 2000.

Ok... I recently experienced bloat with my buck, and the vet was not accessible either. do you have mineral oil, milk of magnesia, hair conditioner and baking soda? I will e-mail you the information from the handbook I have on bloat. Also, try going to the goat ER room, its at http://www.goatworld.com, the link is on the left side. there are folks there with tons of experience who can help. If you still need help I'll tell you the concotion I made. E-mail me at geminigoats@yahoo.com Good luck.

Bernice

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), May 08, 2000.

I have had good luck helping relieve bloat in all ages of goats by putting it, facing my left with my thigh under its chest so the chest is higher than the rumen. Then with my right fist I gently knead the rumen, rolling the kid's skin a bit and pressing inward. The combination of the gentle kneading and elevating the forequarters usually elicits a healthy burp.

Can he get any exercise and does he urinate and especially defecate? If he can't move his bowels, there could be a torsion of the gut and not much hope without surgery. I had a young bull calf do that once and when I donated him to the vet school for posting, the pathologist trotted out his camera because of the rarity--and it's probably equally as rare in a young kid.

He's only a little smaller than the premie kids we've saved so good luck.

-- marilyn (rainbow@ktis.net), May 08, 2000.

Thank you all for trying to help. Charm died about 15 minutes after my previous post,crying in pain-it was awful.From the time I found him down to the time he died was only about 2 or 3 hours,so maybe there wasn't a whole lot we could have done for him.I did give him the baking soda water and veg. oil, but it didn't seem to help. The owner called, she said she had always felt that maybe something was wrong with him, and that it was probably for the best that he died, she thinks it was a twisted gut,since he didn't have any diarrhea, and said she wouldn't have taken him to the vet anyway.It just happened so suddenly, and he was kind of a pet.Thank you all for being there.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@transport.com), May 08, 2000.

I am so sorry to hear that. Heres a *hug* take care.

Bernice

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), May 08, 2000.

Bless you for your care & concern for the poor little buck! It's so hard to go through things like this, isn't it?

-- Jean (schiszik@tbcnet.com), May 09, 2000.

Condolences on the loss of the kid. It is always worse when it is not yours, but bad no matter what the circumstances. When I read the posting I was pretty sure the little guy was dying,but there was so much helpful information from everyone that I was hoping somthing would work. I will write down the email addresses for future reference. I do get asked for advice from folks and do not know the solution. I agree that the kid probably had a defect and would not have made it no matter what was done. Hope you have a better day today. karen

-- Karen Mauk (dairygoatmama@hotmail.com), May 09, 2000.

Sad thing to read about. How quickly things happen with the little ones. In the natural, he would have died at birth or shortly thereafter. You've given him 7 weeks of life he probably wouldn't have had otherwise. I know how you love your animals, it shows in your posts. Take care.

-- Jim Roberts (jroberts1@cas.org), May 09, 2000.