This is for my neighbour...He has over 160 dairy goats. This year he was expecting over 80 kids beginning in January. But, he has a big problem...the kids are dying like crazy, 2-3 a week. They're fine in the morning, feed well, and seem normal in behaviour. But by late afternoon they're weak and listless, unable to lift their heads off the ground. And by suppetime they're dead.

He's also had a lot of aborted and stillborn kids (4 this week alone).

Never had any of these problems before. He thinks it's toxoplasmosis from the barn cats they have. I'm wondering if it's not something else. I saw a thread here tonight about clamydia but don't know enough about it to be sure. I looked on the web but didn't find anything that helped, although I'm still looking.

Any ideas out there?

Thanx Russ

-- (imashortguy@hotmail.com), February 14, 2002

Answers

Response to kids are dying

First ask the question on the breed lists at groups.yahoo.com Nubian Talk for one. Also go to saanendoah.com and put the question to Joyce and perhaps if she isn't to busy with her own kiddings she can help. If the barn cats include lots of kittens then yes this could be one of the problems. Is he milking commercially? Are the kids dieing after being moved from mom to milk replacer? Did he think for a moment to necropsy one ill kid to save the rest? Goat medicine has lists of reasons for abortion, still birth or dead and weak kids at birth, early abortion, midterm abortion or late abortion, but to read it and get an answer I need alot more information! Many diseases overlap each of them. Is he there for the stillbirths or just finds them dead. Are the does milking? Joyce also has a great article on floppy kid syndrome which is very eaisly treated. Like I said I could guess on and on, need more information. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), February 14, 2002.

Well this is'nt really an answer to anything but I have an older doe she just resently gave birth to a snow white billy, but it was dead when my dad found it,I watched her all through the pregnancy and she and kid was fine. I could here the kids heart beat and I could see/hear it moving.the doe was bread by a very healthy miniture pigmy she was not a mini.pigmy. any help is needed!!!

-- Danielle Brittain (deborahbrittain@yahoo.com), March 24, 2002.

I am so sorry you lost your baby goat. There is no way of telling what happened. The kid could have been very hard to deliver, staying to long in the birth canal, breathing in fluids at birth which the mom could not lick out, had a birth defect that caused it not to breath in the first place, the placenta could have detached during the labor so the buckling didn't receive enough oxygen, he didn't get up and nurse, it was too cold out when he was born and he froze. Get her bred again! Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (Nubians) (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), March 25, 2002.

Thank you vicki you have some of the same thaughts as I did at first.Whats so bad is I had 4 pigmys and 1 miniture pigmy to start with.I got my first 2 about 5 yrs ago they were twin nutured billys. Then I got 2 does( the older doe and her yearling ) off the Carl Sandbirg estate, so their registerd, but I wanted to breed both of them so I got my uncle's mini. pigmy. He did his "job" but it was born I guess dead.... The bad part was that2 big dogs got into my pasture with the goats one night and killed my mini. pigmy and one of the other bucks. Soooo... I'm buckless now!! ( well one that can do his "job"!! Do any of yall have any ideas were to get a good buck at in N.C.??

-- Danielle Brittain (deborahbrittain@yahoo.com), March 26, 2002.