Our smallest FF kidded in the night with a 2# doe and when I got out in the morning had a @ 1/2 buck hanging out of her back end. I helped her get the buck out and assessed the situation. She ate some grain and has had some water. Eight hours later there is still no placenta. I have milked her a small amount several times. She has very tiny teats but is quite tight.
She occasionally starts screaming and then quiets down.
There was no sign of impending birth last night and the four does are getting along well...I have seen no ramming or the like.
Any ideas?
Replies
Hurrah...she passed her placenta.
Her teats are very tiny but I am tenacious and she will be milked. Tonight we got a cup out of her. I know it will get better.
Wish I had one of those maggidans or the like though!
Kare at Chaverah Farm said:
I just take my bathroom scale out there, pick up the doe and stand on it. That's one reason I'm glad I have Nigerians. They say big goats should be 70 pounds before they're bred, so I don't know what I'd do with them -- use the weight tape, I guess.
If a cord is hanging out of her, that's the umbilical cord, so the placenta is still in there. If it's dragging on the ground, someone told me you can tie it in a knot or two to keep things a bit less messy. With the ewe that took a week to pass it, it seems to come out an inch or two more every day. It was excrutiatingly slow. Someone else also told me she had that issue with a ewe once. If she's calm, you might want to check her temperature every 12 hours or so, so you'll know if she starts to get an infection. Normal is 102. Good luck! I hope she passes it soon!
Jan said:
Deborah Niemann-Boehle said:
I didn't think the copper was the cause but it was the only change. I probably have fed too much. Next time around I certainly will do differently. I actually need to bring in more hay and not think they need the grain for winter warmth. (very cold and snowy here since Dec.) How do you figure out how big they are? She was a year old this week.
Well what's hanging looks like what was hanging after she passed the buck so I'm not sure. She's eating, drinking and behaving fairly well except for crying out every so often...I think she is calling for her kids. She is in with the herd and that has helped the crying.
Deborah Niemann-Boehle said:
I've never heard of copper causing a miscarriage, and there was even one study I read where they gave it to sheep in the last month of pregnancy. I also give it to my goats within a week or two of their due date and haven't had any problems. No teeth sounds early. I don't feed grain during pregnancy with first fresheners until a week before the due date. So many of them have singles, and I worry about it being too big. My rule for breeding is that they have to be at least 35 pounds, but 40 is better, because you just don't know how much they'll continue to grow for the next five months. Are the others first fresheners also?
Is anything hanging out of her back end? Normally, after the last kid is born, there is an umbilical cord hanging out of the goat's back end. If nothing is hanging out, she probably passed it and ate it. I had one goat that took 24 hours once, and I had a sheep that took a week six or seven years ago. The vet gave me something to inject the sheep with -- don't remember if it was lutalyse or pitocin -- but it did nothing. After 24 hours, I started giving her penicillin daily until she passed it. I know you said the buck was hanging out when you came in, but every now and then, a goat will pass the placenta before the last kid is born. Of course, any kids left inside would die at that point, which is why it's very rare. But if you never left her after the buck was born, I just thought I'd mention that as a possibility.
The buck came to live here on Oct 21 st so I know she couldn't be bred before then. The only thing I did was give this doe copper in a marshmallow on Monday. She was the only one who would take it. The babies teeth had not erupted and the bucks umbilical was torn and bleeding. She is 1year and very small. Her udder is grapefruit size and definitely full. I am not getting much out because her teats are tiny. I do think the kids were big for early arrivals and wonder if I have overfed. I thought she would have just one as she wasn't that big. My three others are huge. They are also due on March 20th(150 days) or earlier.
She still hasn't passed the placenta.
Oh, I am so sorry. I know how heart-breaking that is. Three weeks is just way too early. Even if you had been there, I've never heard of any surviving at that point. We unfortunately saw a lot of early births before we realized we had a problem with copper deficiency. The other possibility is some type of poisoning -- at least, that's always what the vets kept telling me. Any new foods, or did you give any medications? I know a lot of people give BoSe at the end of pregnancy, but the bottle says it causes abortions in pregnant ewes, so I don't do it.
I'm surprised her udder is so full. When ours miscarried, they never produced enough to milk them. We had one kid at day 130-something a couple years ago, and she never even bagged up. We couldn't get enough colostrum to cover the bottom of the bucket. Two pounds is also pretty big for two weeks early. Any chance she could have been farther along?