My mother just got in the goat business for a hobby. One of the goats she got was very old and little did we no preg. She had three kids. They are four days old and the moma goat died this morning. We bottle feed with can goat milk from the grocery store. Two of them eats pretty good, but one only eats a little and sounds real congested. She also acts like she has to go to the bathroom but constipated.I need some tips. Also, i need to no what to worm the other goats? We have no experience in this. Someone said you could buy a daily wormer to mix with ther food. Can you help me? thanks

-- Mary Land (keywestinn@aol.com), May 18, 2003

Answers

You don't need to buy goat milk to feed the kids, Regular cow's milk from the store is fine. As for the sick one, in my experiance if a new kid is congested it means pnumonia and not much you can do but call a vet and get some penicillen. For more info try Fiasco farm or Homesteading Today's dairygoat forum. Also Goat Kingdom has some info and good links to other sites. Good Luck.

-- Vicki P. (countrymous@webtv.net), May 21, 2003.

Do not feed them straight regular cows milk from the store. It's had all the fat stripped out of it, practically worthless for raising kids. Go to the farm supply store, feed store, whatever, and get a bag of kid milk replacer. Purina milk replacer, Lamnurs, Land O Lakes, lots to choose from. In the event you cannot find them, then mix 1 gallon whole milk, 1 cup buttermilk, 1 can evaporated milk. Pour out about a third of the gallon milk and set aside......into the gallon add the buttermilk and evaporated milk......then fill to the top with as much milk as it will hold from what you have set aside......shake well.

Give the little congested one 1cc of penicillian under the skin for 3 days, it will clear up the mess in her lungs. She might have a little infection or maybe just fluid in her lungs, either way this will help.

Use Ivomec to worm. Get the Ivomec Plus cattle injectible, 2cc per 50 pounds, and give it to them orally. If you use it as a shot, it will hurt them like billy-o. Ivomec will not catch tapeworms, that'll call for Safeguard. The paste wormer for horses will work, 3x the doseage they list for horses, and 5 days in a row. Jade

-- Jade (outlaw@srcaccess.net), May 26, 2003.