One of my does gave birth to one very large girl on Sunday. The kid is nursing very well and is actively playing with her cousins who were born Monday. But mom has started to get sluggish and seems to have lost her appetite. She wont get on the milking stand to eat her grain at all and she only picks at her hay. Raisins are all that she will eat with enthusiasm. Any ideas as to what might cause this and suggestions for making her feel better?
She has access to plenty of free choice minerals. My only thought is that we got into a batch of hay the other day that I'm not liking the looks of and she could have an upset stomach from that. But everyone else seems fine.
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I'm so glad she's better, Lee! That same thing happened to one of my does last summer. She had a singleton, 4.25 lbs, and she was a first freshener. The vet came out and checked her inside and out, and gave her calcium, Vitamin B, etc., etc. and we ruled out mastitis, retained kid or placenta, hypocalcemia and everything else either of us could think of. It turned out she was in pain from the birth, even though it went smoothly. The vet gave me dexamethasone, and the goat was back up and eating normally. And it was all my fault because I had been told to feed her grain throughout her pregnancy, but she was a dry doe and all it did was grow a huge kid. Luckily, a more knowledgeable goat breeder caught me feeding her grain fairly early in her pregnancy and convinced me to stop. Obviously, I had not yet found this blog, and was going by advice I found in a couple of books. Now I check here first for advice about Nigerian goat care.
Im guessing upset stomach is all it was. She is back to normal this morning. The birth was quick and easy and the placenta was passed soon after. No assistance was needed with the birth. Her udder appears to be normal. I'll pick up a thermometer today and get her temp taken.
Also, how is her udder? Is it hot and hard? Mastitis could also make a doe very sick at this point.
Ditto on what Margaret said -- and does she have a temperature? If she has a retained placenta or kid, she probably has an infection and will have an elevated temp. If her temp is below normal, she could have milk fever, which is caused by hypocalcemia, or low calcium, and you'll need to get a calcium drench and/or CMPK injections into her fast.
ok first of all...upset stomach...does she have free choice baking soda? How did the delivery go? Any problems getting that kid pushed out and was there any assistance given? Are you positive she passed the placenta? If anyone had to go in for the kid there is always the possibility of an infection and if she didn't pass the placenta or all of it that could be the problem. I had one that did that to me once and died about 3 days after she kidded. I didn't realize back then what all was going on, but now I know to look out for that one. This may not be a big deal but it could be deadly so hopefully with some more info from you and some more people jumping in here you can get some help quick!