Hi all, the time for my first babies is almost upon me and I’m FREEKING OUT. I think I’ve over read and researched and now I’ve fried my brain. I can’t remember anything. 145 days sounds so far away until all of a sudden I’ve only got a couple of weeks left. The plan was to have my senior doe kid first as she knows what she would be doing and then when it was time for my first freshener to kid I would have one birth under my belt but as they say “if you want to hear god laugh tell him your plans.” My first freshener will go first.
I also over estimated the waiting list for my vet to come out so she will be here the first week of March. About a week before Sally could kid. The vet is coming out for there selenium injections, because she is so close to her due date does anyone know what should happen? Do the kids get a does after they are born? Is there anything else you would recommend I have the vet do while she is here? Maybe I should put the books and internet a way for a couple of days and then by brain might be able to sift through all the info floating around in there.
Replies
Thanks Deborah, Im not testing for CAE or anything else as my breeder is clear and we dont take our goats anywhere. I think ill give them the CDT and BOSE injections as this is my first time and then leave off the CDT and just give the selenium free choice in the future. Thanks for the calming words, I do know what I want to do just had secound thoughts in the 11th hour. Once I get through this first year I think ill be more confident and not question myself so often. Now if i could just get this darn hoof trims down. :)
Sounds like you've thought of all the most common things. Have you tested for CAE or anything else? If you decide to do that, be sure the vet sends it to a lab that does the ELISA test. (WADDL is one.)
I quit giving CDT after a few years ... probably about six years ago. Some people say tetanus is a good idea if you've had horses on your property in the past. Our farm was a horse farm before we moved here. I've never heard anyone say exactly how long the soil is infected with tetanus, but (knock on wood) we haven't had a case.
If you want to do a fecal, you might want to wait until after they kid. Research has shown the egg counts are usually the highest about two weeks after kidding. You can probably just collect a sample yourself and run it into the vet. If you sit in the stall after you give them hay in the morning, they'll usually start pooping within about 15 minutes.
If your goats got pregnant without a BoSe shot, they are probably not terribly deficient. I used to give BoSe shots during breeding season only, never before kidding, and I know from liver samples that my goats tend to be borderline low, and we've never had a case of White Muscle Disease. Have any breeders in your area had WMD? If you do BoSe the moms at the end of pregnancy, I personally don't see any point in doing the kids at birth. I know a lot of people do, but it seems pointless. At U of IL, they said the dose for a ND kid is .1 cc -- that's point-one or one-tenth of a cc, which is next to nothing. I personally have never injected newborn kids with anything because the idea of doing so with a 2-3 pound kid scares me. There is a lot of room for error, such as hitting a nerve in the leg or having an anaphylactic reaction. I know some people feel like BoSe at birth "can't hurt," but there is always a risk with any decision you make. You can get an oral selenium supplement through mail order, which was recently discussed in another thread.
Take a deep breath and relax! Goats have been giving birth for thousands of years without our help, and research actually shows that they can do it without our help about 95% of the time. So, the odds are in your favor!
Have you checked a selenium map to see if your area is deficient? What part of the country are you in? Do your goats have a free choice mineral supplement?