I'm totally heart broken. I have no idea what I am doing wrong. I can't sleep....
This spring our doe delivered her buckling 20 days premature, we lost him.
We pen breed for fall kids but the (3) does never got pregnant.
6 weeks ago, we found one of our buck weak and disorientated one afternoon. Rushed him to the vet for emergency treatment. We lost him that evening. Autospy done to determine cause of death. Death was caused by coccidia and related problems due to the coccidia. Day after his death, we tested the buck & wether in the pen with him at the time. Plus the 2 does that had been penned with him for breeding purposes earlier. Our wether had a high coccidia load and was treated, stool sample tested 10 days later and was clear. All others tested had minimal worm load.
3 days ago, in the morning we found our wether and 1 of our does dead in the pen. Rushed the remaining 3 goats, 1 buck / 2 does to the vet for exam and treatment. The vet said that worms probably caused their sudden deaths. Treated the other 3 goats with a dewormer and 3 injections of Thiamin. Drew blood to determine what the mineral levels are in the weakest goat, waiting now for blood results in 8 to 10 days.
They have not escaped their pen, no overeating of any feed or grass. The wether had been worm tested just 4 weeks ago for coccidia and worm load was minimal.
They get hay morning and evening. Free choice minerals from Bio-Ag Premix Goat. Kelp free choice. Molly's Herbal Treatment once a week as a preventive. Started feeding a dairy goat ration about 6 weeks ago for the buck/wether, due to low weight, about 1/2 lb morning & evening, top dressing with minerals. The does were started on a goat ration about 2 1/2 months ago, get the same amount with the same top dressing.
I feel like a complete failure and if we lose these last three goats I'm calling it quits. Right now they are crated being monitored in the house 24/7. I love my goats and before I got them read every book I could get my hands on and read a lot of the discussions on this forum. There is something I'm not doing right, but I don't know what that is.
All goats are between 1 1/2 years to just about 2 1/2 years old. Haven't had any major issues except our first buckling at 6 months had a bout with diarrhea, rushed to vet, treated with dewormer and antibodic for fever. Recovered fast and well.
I don't expect any answers here, just need to vent it out.
Replies
I'm sorry I didn't go into this sooner. I sometimes confuse various people's stories and forget who's read my book and who hasn't. If you don't want to buy it, you can get it from local libraries or through inter-library loan. Here's the short answer ...
Copper deficiency can occur in goats that are receiving loose minerals if there is a copper antagonist in their diet or environment. Sulfur or iron in well water can bind with copper and cause it to not be absorbed properly. If you live within 20 miles downwind of a power plant, you can have sulfur settling on your pasture and doing the same thing. Too much molybdenum in alfalfa -- or if your goats get sheep minerals -- can cause deficiency because the molybdenum binds with the copper. This is why goats should NEVER get anything labeled for sheep! And I just read a study in humans recently that said we can become copper deficient if we have too much Round-Up in our diet. Round-Up Ready alfalfa came on the market a few years ago, so I'm thinking that's why we're starting to see copper deficiency in herds where they don't have any of the problems I mentioned earlier, such as sulfur in well water.
How much you need to supplement with additional copper will be decided by your particular situation. We have to do it every three months, but some people may only need to do it twice a year. I really do NOT like Santa Cruz copper because they claim their copper lasts a year, and that has led to some goats becoming copper deficient because it varies from one herd to another. You can't give a blanket recommendation that works for all goats.
We have sent the does liver to be tested. Just hoping we figure out what is going on.
Do you bolus even if you are supplying loose minerals? How often? How do you give them the copasure?
They are all on the thin side, some worse then others. They are getting grain morning & night now, plus all the hay they want.
The buck was 1 1/2 years, the wether and doe just over 2 years.
Thank you for the suggestion, at least I'll know one way or the other.
The first five years we had goats, we never had a buck live past the age of three. We had goats not getting pregnant and not staying pregnant. Seeing kids at four months gestation is the worst. They're a handful of little toothpicks and don't have a chance outside the womb. When we had a doe die with two month old kids, and I told the vet I wanted her liver tested, he told me I was wasting my money. Even when it came back showing deficiency -- 4 ppm when it should have been 25 to 150 ppm copper -- he refused to admit that the herd had a problem. He just said that goat was an anomaly. That was almost 9 years ago when vets had no clue about deficiencies, and there was no Copasure for goats. So, I trusted all the other breeders who'd written about their problems online, and I bought the calf Copasure and resized it for goats, and the next year all of the goats got pregnant and delivered healthy kids. And we just had a buck die at age 10! We discovered our problem when he was three years old, and we probably would have lost him very shortly had we not started dosing him with copper.
There is hope! I'm not saying it's necessarily copper deficiency in your case, but whatever it is, it can be fixed.
Lisa, I'm so sorry to hear of your difficulties and losses. I'm just so shocked and worried now for the remaining ones. I truly hope you find an answer and can help your other goats if need be. I would be interested to know the outcome of the tests, as we live fairly near you. I do know that conditions can vary from farm to farm, but it makes me wonder if our general area is overly deficient in certain minerals. My heart goes out to you and your family and the remainder of your herd. May you find some answers and somehow some peace.-Donna
My heart hurts... so far our other three are doing well. I'll have the testing done. Thank you.
This sounds like our first few years with goats. I came to the conclusion that I either had to figure out what was wrong or get out of goats. Our main problem turned out to be copper deficiency, which my 16-year-old daughter figured out. The vets just kept saying that parasites were killing the goats. But they never checked the mineral levels in the livers. Blood tests do NOT do a good job of testing mineral levels, especially copper. Get the livers checked, and you'll probably find your problem. I'd get a full mineral panel -- check for copper, selenium, iron, lead and anything else that the lab offers, but those four for sure.