Saturday morning I went down to the barn to milk my 2 girls for their first overnight without their babies. I went down excited to see what I would get from them, I walk into the barn everyone excited to see me except my Dahlila. She kinda walked over to me, but would not get up on the milk stand, and definitely did not want grain. I thought this was really strange for her. She's not crazy about grain, but she is always willing to jump up on her stand. I watched her for much of the day and was pretty concerned. She wasn't eating, chewing her cud, but wasn't running a temp either. Around noon I found her laying down and she looked kinda bloated. I went down and took her temp again and her temperature had dropped a degree. I grew very concerned so I started to walk her around the field and ran up to the house and Googled what to do for bloat. I read several posts that suggested veg oil and baking powder. I put some stuff together and went back down to her. Administered the mixture and she seemed to perk up a bit. I continued to walk her around and called my uncle that works at a goat/cow dairy and he came over. He confirmed that it was bloat and said it could take several hours before we would see any drastic changes. By 4 we could tell that she was getting worse so we made the decision to phone a vet. I was way to emotional to make any phone calls, so my husband called and left a message on the emergency line. The vet called back and gave us some options. We decided to take her in so the vet could examine her. She feared the worse. When we got their she tubed her and relieved some gas out of her and a ton of junk from her rumen. She did and ultra sound and could see all kinds of junk in there. She gave her some meds through the tube for bloat and said she wanted to observe her for a while before we made any decisions. By this time Dahlila was super weak and would not even stand any longer. She made a comfortable bed for her and we left. I was a wreck! I knew I would never see my baby again. The vet called us at 7:30 and said she seemed to perk up a little bit, she was burping on her own and was holding her head up. She said she was going to leave and come back in a hour to check on her again. She called at 9 with the bad news that she was worse and was super bloated again.. It was time to make a decision. My poor baby didn't have to suffer anymore. Today we went and picked up her body and decided to perform our own autopsy on her to see what was stuck in her rumen. We cut it open and found she had eaten pieces of plastic bags. We have a neighbor that was evicted and all their trash keeps blowing into our field. We have done the best we could at keeping it cleaned up, but she got a hold of some. She was the best goat anyone could ever want. She was the sweetest, kindest most gentlest girl. She will be so missed on our farm. I cannot stop crying over the loss of this precious animal. She left behind her 2 babies. Luckily they both took a bottle this am and I have another doe in milk, so I am able to get milk from her to support her babies. I've attached a picture of what we found in her rumen. I feel so sad that my poor baby had this in her and suffered for so long before we had to give up the fight. I hope that everyone learns something from our poor babies death...
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So very sorry for your loss. Will be praying for you.
Hej from Sweden !
Hugs and kind thought are sent to you all the way from Sweden!
Still thinking of you. Constantly running around in circles when we take our babies out to play trying to keep up with where they are and what is going on afraid of them finding plastic and eating the stuff. *hugs* hope the kids are doing better now.
oh honey, I am so so terribly sorry....I can't imagine. At least you have her babies to carry on a little piece of her spirit! *hugs*
Isn't that the strangest thing...
It's such a sad thing... and it seems like it would be nice if it got easier... and then at the same time, you hope it doesn't get easier, because then you loose something of yourself. At least that's how I feel...
Janel Rickey said:
Jennifer, thanks so much for the prayers. The end of the week began to get a little easier. The babies aren't looking for her anymore and look to me for comfort. The little girl is doing great on the bottle and is such a sweetheart. Glad Dahlila gave me that precious little girl!! I know this is part of having livestock animals, and being our first real death it was really hard. I'm sure it never gets easy. Thanks again :0)
Janel, I just wanted you to know that I am still thinking of you and keeping you and those babies in my prayers. I'm sure you are all missing Dahlila. I hope you are managing with the babies and that their presence brings you some comfort. Warmly, Jennifer
:'( So sorry for you & your sweet goatie. **hugs**
At two months, I'm usually giving ND kids about 24 ounces a day split into three bottles about six hours apart, so they go 12 hours overnight. If you want to do it every four hours, that's fine. It's probably better for the kids to have the milk split up more. If one won't take the bottle, he'll probably be fine at this point. I'm sure that is heartbreaking to see them crying for mom! Hugs!
How often should I be giving them a bottle? They will be 8 weeks old on the 22nd of this month. The buckling is really large and doesn't really want the bottle, but the little doeling is screaming for it about every 2 hours. I've been giving her about 4 bottles a day and she eats about 4 ounces each time. Should I just feed her morning and night? She and her brother just walk around most of the day screaming for mommy! So heartbreaking to watch. She was such a wonderful mom, I'm sure they are missing her dearly. I know I am!
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