Last year, we had a problem with our doe kidding. One foot was in the wrong place and no one could help. Even the vets tried and she ended up having a c-section and we lost the kid. It was very heart breaking. Our first year kidding with the Nigerian Dwarf goats. My question is, how do you help them?
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I will find Sweetlix. I was misinformed about copper too! Thanks, thats a big help.
Manna Pro is pretty low in copper and selenium. It only has 1350 ppm copper and 12 ppm selenium, whereas Sweetlix has 1800 ppm copper and 50 ppm selenium. Deficiencies in either of those can cause fertility and birthing issues. The goat feed should have at least 35 ppm copper, and many only have 10-20. Some local mills are still misinformed about the difference between sheep and goats and put zero copper in their feed. :(
The mineral is Manna Pro Goat Mineral. I also use some herbal supplements from Farmstead and once in a while, I buy the dumor goat block which they go nuts over. I switched feeds this year. I started using goat feed from a local feed mill. I've noticed their coats are better. What do you use?
A healthy 8-year-old shouldn't have any problems with kidding that a 3-year-old wouldn't have. A foot out of place is not a big deal, definitely not a reason for a c-section. A head twisted around over the spine could be a challenge, but a foot is small enough that they should have been able to manipulate it to whatever position. Not bagging-up at all until the last minute could be a hormonal problem, but then she wouldn't have dilated, and they should have told you that. What type of minerals do you use? Loose, block, or tub? Brand?
When we got her, that spring, we put her on Dumor goat feed with black oil sunflower seeds. Mineral supplement out in the pasture. I was told she never had problems and she had twins and one year triplets. Buck was purebred ND. I have Alpines and never had a problem with them. She is a small goat and she is now a pet. She is a great little pal to me and helps with chores. Another thing, she didn't bag up until the very last minute. The other doe did just fine and she did great this year. No rigor mortis. To be honest, I was in shock to hear everything the vet said. I just remember a foot out of place. We took her to the hospital for the surgery and two other vets tried to remove the kid and no luck. At the time she was 8 years old. I didn't think that was too old but maybe that was wrong.
A foot in the wrong place is not a reason for a c-section unless there were other things complicating matters. For example, had the presenting kid died long enough prior to birth that rigor mortis had set in and the kid was too stiff to be manipulated? If so, the dead kid was the problem, and it is unlikely to repeat unless you have some sort of nutritional deficiencies that could cause problems.
There are really only two reasons that you wind up with a c-section -- one is that the pelvis is too small and the other is that the uterus doesn't dilate. If the doe is two years old or older and never had kids naturally, and if the vet said her pelvis was too small, I'd sell her as a pet without papers and tell the new owners that she should not be bred again. I'm assuming here that she was bred to another ND, not a standard-sized dairy goat or boer, which is a very bad idea. If the kid wouldn't fit through the pelvis because it was dead and stiff and in the shape of a pretzel, making it impossible to get it out of the pelvis, that's not the doe's fault. If the doe doesn't dilate, that's probably related to nutrition. You're probably noticing a common thread -- with good nutrition and genetics, you are unlikely to have kidding problems. We've had about 300 kids born on our farm in ten years, and we've only had one c-section, which was a doe that wouldn't dilate. There was a dead kid presenting. The doe herself was on the overweight side, so that can cause problems as badly as an undernourished doe.
I probably help in less than ten percent of births. Most does do a great job of getting their kids out all by themselves. There is no generic advice on what to do because there are all sorts of odd things that can go wrong, but seldom do. If you wanted to give more details on your past experience, we might be able to offer more information on what to do in that particular situation.