Hey guys,
My Little ND kid is four months old but he only weighs 12 pounds. Is this Okay? I've read that NDs are uasally around 30 pounds at five months. So it this okay?
He is not that small at all. he's alone right now but we are getting him a friend.
And he's happy and eating well. Gets a small handfull of Noble goat chow twice a day and free choice hay. He had coci but that was reasolved a month a go. He's a weather and was bottle raised (had his colstrum) beacuse his mom died in birth. I got him from freedom star farm and boy is he a story. His mom is promise land Honey B.. And the father is a goat that could be registered, but is not.
if anyone has any thoughs...
~Corynn Lewis
Replies
Corynn, when I first had my does shipped in the smallest one was 6 months and she only weighed about 14 or 15 pounds and she is doing very well now. That was in Feb. and I haven't weighed them lately because everyone has been growing and doing well. I really need to do that soon just for recording. Hang in there.
Sorry i took so long to reply..
To answer your question, i talked to the breeder more about his birth, and the doe was dying and so she wanted to get the kids out to see if they were alive. Weighed him again, it said 13 pound but right now we are just waiting to see how he grows. Just hoping that he is just growing slow. I really don't care if he stays small, just want him to be healthy. Thanks for the advice guys!
Oh, Marin, that is so terribly sad. I so hate to hear that. As much as I hate it for you, I feel really awful for this poor doe to go through all that and have no babies. I am glad you payed such close attention and did go in, otherwise she may have retained or even ruptured and died. At any rate now she stands a good chance for recovery with such a good goat momma to care for her. Wishing you all the best, dear. And Big Hugs to you both!
Margaret,
I started to think that my guesstimate of 50 does kidding was a bit high so I looked at my records and yes, we had 39 uneventful kiddings, not 50. Tonight was our 40th kidding and it required that I go in. One of my does went into labour and delivered 2 kids very rapidly. One was born dead and the other one died shortly after. I don't think I have our selenium deficiency under control. The doe just didn't seem quite right. I "bounced" her and couldn't feel another kid, so I just sat there observing her. She wasn't really pushing, but she was pawing the ground and, well, just wasn't behaving normally. After half an hour I went and woke my husband up for an opinion and an extra set of hands. We watched for 5 or 10 more minutes and she did give a few half-hearted pushes, at which time I decided it had been long enough (probably about 40 minutes of "not right" behaviour since the last kid) and it was time to go in. It was good I did. There was a long dead kid with its head turned sideways that was no where near engaged in the pelvis. I pulled it and then checked for anymore, but that was it.
So, my record for assistance is now 1 out of 40 births.
Margaret Langley said:
When I first used COWP for my goats, I did notice a difference in the coat, but it was about two weeks after giving them the copper, and their coats felt noticably softer. Failure to shed is spring is a symptom of copper deficiency, and it seemed that after I gave them the copper, they lost all the old prickly hair, so they just had their nice soft new coat coming in for summer. Now that we keep up with copper, I don't usually see much variation before and after giving them the COWP because their coats don't get into such horrible condition (because they're not deficient).
Margaret Langley said:
Would it be possible for us to see some pics of the little guy? I'm curious, is he the same one you showed a picture of when you asked about naming goats?
thanks for all advice guys!
Uh, yeah i use noble goat and we aren't feeding him that much more, just what we know is safe.
Our vet specializes in Mini horses and Goats, so i'm lucky there. :)
Deborah, I have come to the conclusion that they grow in spurts just like our children. I am seeing that "Who is that?" happening too. That littlest one that I had come in Feb. has gotten so tall in the last month she is causing me to do double takes. It so happens that she and two others are close in color and now she is catching up in size much better. One that was one of the tallest has the same sire as she does and the same coloring and she is really catching up with her big sis. I am very pleased about that and I know the copper has helped them all so much. I did notice one thing I meant to ask about.
Has anyone ever noticed a strange feel to the coat after giving the copper? I suppose they could have rubbed something weird off a tree or whatever on them but I just have a feeling its from the copper. But for about 3 or 4 days after I gave the copper they felt ALMOST greasy.
I should weigh my little 4-year-old, Lil, and see what she weighs, but I'm guessing it's around 40 pounds, but only because she is overweight, being a dry doe at her age. She is about the same height as a six-month-old, but is very meaty! LOL! I won't breed a doe that is less than 40 pounds, and so far, I haven't had one that hit 40 pounds but was too short. Most of my does go through growth spurts where they are somewhat non-proportional around 4-8 months compared to adults. They shoot straight up and get really long legs and are almost as tall as their moms, causing me to be constantly saying, "Who is that?" because they seem too big to be a kid. But their body capacity and girth is nothing like an adult. whenever I have a doe that I think is too small, I just hang on to her for as long as I need, to feel confident about whether she is going to grow up to be a normal size or stay small.
Janel Rickey said:
I have intervened a LOT less in the past six or seven years than in the first two or three. My motto is, "if the goat is happy, I'm happy," so I sit on my hands a lot now. I know some people have time limits on various parts of labor or between kids, but if the doe seems happy, I'm happy. I really think this is why I don't have some of the problems that other people have. They get impatient and go fishing and find a "problem" that would have resolved itself in another ten minutes. We have only had one c-section, and I own a kid puller that I have never used. I took one doe to the vet to have a kid pulled -- and that is why I do NOT breed does under 40 pounds now. We're well past 300 kids and probably around 130 does kidding. The only kids I've ever had die immediately after birth were those born with birth defects (like no skull), and the only kids that have ever been born dead had been dead for so long that intervening in the birth process would not have helped. You know a kid has been dead for awhile if you can rub their hair off their body or their skin easily tears or if you see obvious signs of decomposition. So, based on my experience, serious complications happen less than 1% of the time.
The #1 reason that we lose kids is due to hypothermia (or suffocation) because we're not there when they're born, which makes me so mad every time it happens! It is really very simple but very important, especially for those of us who live in cold climates. And it is a terrible irony that the easier the does give birth, the more likely you are to lose kids because they shoot out faster than the doe can clean them up.
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