As at lot of us near the end of pregnancy for our goats I think this is a relevant topic. give your experiences and what you used to treat it. Plus any information you have gathered on the subject via research or input from others you know.
Here is a good web page on the subject. http://fiascofarm.com/goats/ketosis.htm I have never had to deal with this before and sure hope I don't. I am a firm believer that providing the best quality nutrition for our breeding goats is #1 and making sure that those does are in top notch condition when bred is very important too.
I had a doe with ketosis last year, but I didn't figure the diagnosis until she was quite bad. It was two weeks after kidding, Martha, a boer doe a little on the heavy side, went off her feed. I thought she was just being picky but pretty soon she stopped making milk(she had trips and TONS of milk) and started to get diarreha. I wracked my brain trying to figure out what to do for her, pretty soon she was down, and refused to get up and only did so to nurse her kids. I called a friend but she didn't know what it was, she recommended to put her on a series of pen shots(wish I didn't do that) I kept giving her B/thiamin shots, gatorade, MOM + olive oil but she wasn't getting any better. She was getting pretty bad so my mom gave her a dose of a remedy, it starts with P, I can't think of hte name of it right now, but it is for extremely septic cases when the animal is in danger of death. She started to get a little better. We looked up in the book and the remedy Lycopodium covers ketosis, but also covered the rest of her symptoms, such as not eating, diarreha, and no milk. Giving Lycopodium to her 3x a day, she was back to normal in a couple days. Lycopodium should be given in the 30c potency, we give it to any pregnant does that act off or go off their feed, and it usually brings them back to normal. Remember that ketosis doesn't strike just fat does, it also can happen to skinny does.
I hestitated to post here because I have trouble with Timber and hypocalcemia- but it has never progressed to ketosis that I know of. This year was typical with her- I was letting her eat free choice alfalfa along with alfalfa pellets twice a day with some whole oats for the phoporus ratio as she had had problems with this the year before last year. But then the vet can and mentioned in passing that both my goats were too fat. So I panicked and took away the alfalfa, switching to grass hay. Within a short time, she wasn't eating much and seemed to be stiff in her rear legs- she was simply laying around (which is not that abnormal for her.) When she walked, she dragged her rear toes. I at first though I had done her in with having her too fat but then it occured to me- she's missing the calcium. I needed to give her calcium without making her so fat. So I kept the grass hay but added alfalfa pellets (none to the other goat) and started crushing Tums extra strength into them. Voila- she was back to normal within two days. So now she gets 4 Tums crushed into the pellet/oat feeding twice a day. I know I've heard that Tums don't work but I think they do for her. When she kids, I will up the Tums. I have read that a slow labor can be due to a lack of calcium which I also think is true- this doe simply needs more calcium- all I can provide.
I just came back from the Northwest Oregon Dairy Goat Association Conference. I have had does with ketosis from time to time and I was always trying to get propylene glycol down them That stuff tastes so horrible that it was very stressful giving the doe this treatment and just as stressful to me. One pygmy breeder at the conference gave all her does 1 oz twice a day about a week before they were due to kid. Dairy breeds 2-4 oz twice a day. Propylene glycol can be toxic if the doe is given too much. (3-4 times a day). Dairy cattle people give niacin and one goat breeder would take a Niabol and grind it up and measure out for the weight of the goat. Niacin helps energy pathway. Some people give nutri-drench as it has glucose in it. One long time alpine breeder would give CMPK orally just before they were due to kid. (says this won't hurt them even if they didn't need it) Early stage of ketosis propylene glycol or glucose is the treatment for energy and hypoglycemia. Late stages of ketosis the glucose may be ineffective or dangerous as the blood sugar levels may be very high. It was recommended to feed small energy dense meals and feed a high quality roughage so the doe is not filled up with feed that will not provide much energy. Many different topics at the conference. I was told that 370 people attended this year! Sue
