Hi, my doe is due to give birth within a couple weeks. She is healthy and her belly and udder are growing nicely, I have been putting my hands on both sides of her belly, and watching it as well and I haven't seen much, if any, action! Should I be concerned? Also, one of her teats has a tiny "spur" or extra nipple growing from the side of the teat itself, will that make it hard for the baby(s) to nurse? BTW, she is a FF. Thanks for any info you might have:)
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Thanks Margaret that makes me feel ALOT better. On a positive note she is seeming to be feeling better today. She is getting out of her pin and eating the grass around it. we just had her out and she walked down to the fence where the other 2 are and they were so happy to see her it was SOOOOO sweet! She walked part of the way back then my husband picked her up cause he just didn't want her to wear herself out. LOL :) And she has started to fight now when I am giving her the shots. Yesterday she didn't even flinch when we gave them to her..It is amazing how attached you get to these little boogers :) They are like my kids..I guess since we don't have kids we get over attached to all our 4 legged babies
Oh, Margaret, I am so sorry for your bad experience and losing your four-footed sweeties.
Amanda, you have no reason to feel like a bad goat momma. You have been trying to figure out what was going on and watching her. You also carried her to the vet for help when she showed danger signs.
You did better than lots of people would have and probably just what most of us would have. We all try to avoid going to the vet if we can and not just cause we are cheap or trying to save money, surely not because we don't care enough, but because experience has taught us that most vets don't know much about goats and that most of the time they are better off with us taking care of them ourselves.
I know I don't want to go to one for anything because a few years back I bought a little mixed doe who gave birth to twin bucks a few days later she died. I didn't know she retained the placenta. I was then given a gorgeous purebred paralyzed newborn boar doeling and we nursed her back to health.
So we bottle fed the 3 of them and a few months later they all of a sudden start dropping dead. I take off to the vet and am told to start with that he can't find anything wrong with my last buckling except low blood sugar from not still getting his milk. Sorry, but I still have my doubts about that. Since then I have herd of to many people who have the kids weaned younger than that. And yes my baby did die before morning. That is why I haven.t had any goats for a few years. I just couldn't!
Don't beat yourself up. We are all doing the best we can and we all learn some lessons the hard way. That is after all a large part of why we are all on here together, so that we can share these things in hopes of helping others to be spared what we have been through. Not to mention supporting each other through those rough times. And fortunately, sharing in many joys together. Hang in there girl!
Well, those are the two heavy hitters, so one of the should do the trick!
they gave us Cydectin to give tomorrow and they gave her Levamisole today. She only weighted 31.7 pounds which seems really light..I wish I knew what she weighed when we got her..to see if she was losing because she was sick. Although today was the 1st day she wouldn't eat. She was VERY pale when we got her to the vet..I fell like such a bad goat mommy for not knowing she was sick :(
Smart move, Amanda. When a goat won't eat grain, something is definitely wrong! Hope you have a dewormer that will work for her. You should see an improvement within 24 hours.
Thank you again for all your help. We took her to the vet today and she has a Strongyle overload and they think Thiamine Deficiency. So we are worming her and giving her Thiamine injections along with some other type of injection twice a day for 4 days. They did an xray to look for babies but didn't see any evidence of any. So I guess we just had a wormy baby. We just got really worried today because she was alot weaker and wouldn't eat grain or bread (which was totally not normal for her). We are going to worm the other 2 just to be sure. They have been separated the past few days so maybe they aren't affected but we're going to try and prevent it. Thank you all again. I am sure we'll have more questions..lol
Pictures would definitely help! I can't think of anything that would make a goat's whole face swell. Was she really underweight when you got her? I'm even having trouble picturing that. Goats don't really have any meat or fat on their faces. As for sucking on your thumb -- that's typical for a former bottle baby. Every now and then, you'll find a dam raised goat that does that, but the majority of bottle babies do that if you let them. She may just be more mellow because she is settling in to her new home.
That would be super Amanda, if you can post those pics. That is just what I was fixing to ask you to do. Having a good appetite is a very good thing. No bag does not sound like she would be close to delivery. Now October yea, I have about 5 who should/could/may be due then and none of them have started bagging up yet but they are getting quite chubby. Normal poop is also a very good thing. I really can't say that any of this besides the "swelling" would bother me. That obviously has us all worried about her. You get us those pics and let us know if anything else happens or you remember something. Try to get those pics asap and maybe we can give you some ideas. Deborah will have a good idea about if she looks normal. We will be keeping an eye out for your post. Hang in there.
Thank you all so much for responding. As for the "swelling" in the face it is all over, not just under then chin. My husband says she has started changing over the last week he guesses. I work crazy hours so I didn't see her for a couple of days. She just looks different than when we 1st got her. Maybe weight gain..from pregnancy? She just acts different too. She just stares into space. She will eat anything you put in front of her though. She doesn't want to be around the other 2 goats we have though. She is most definitely larger in the middle on both sides (not only on the left side like it says for bloat). Tonight I was in the pin with her and I lifted her up onto my lap and she didn't fight me, she just laid there and then she sucked my thumb..not trying to bite literally just sucking on it. Poop looks normal too. We are so new at this..sorry guys. And no bag for sure. She is laying around a lot more but will get up when you come into the pin, most of the time. She is not vocal but wasn't ever really too vocal. The breeder we got her from said that the 1st time he saw the billy with her would make her due yesterday 8/22/12, but he was with her after too. They say she could have babies all the way up till Oct. based on when the billy was in with her. Could this just be late stage pregnancy? Maybe she's not about to kid but just starting to show? I don't know if all this info helps or makes it harder. I will try to post pics of her the day we got her and now tomorrow when it's light.
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