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My doe is wasting away

4K views 20 replies 9 participants last post by  Frozenloc2 
#1 ·
Whats the best way to get weight on her? She is a pygmy and had triplets this year. The first for her. She is a older doe and these kids are sucking the weight off of her. She was wormed after she gave birth and wormed again recently. I am waiting for two of her kids to be picked up this week. I am retaining one of them. She has good hay at all times and I am feeding her 16% feed two times a day, 3 cups each feeding. She looks awful. Is there anything at home that I can feed her that will help put weight back on her? I would give horses a supplement and also add cornoil to there feed and such. What do we do for goats that need desperate weight? Its just her and her babies so she is not fighting for food from the other goats.
 
#2 ·
i would add some BOSS (black oil sunflower seeds) as they are high in protein.

You could try some calcium to as with all that nursing her body probably is pretty low in calcium unless you are feeding alfafa hay.

Some probios and some nutri drench would give her a jump start.

some does just put a lot into feeding kids no matter what you do they look thin. But those are some ideas to try to get some weight on her.

how much hay does she get?
 
#8 ·
I have an 8 year old pygmy/nigi doe that had triplet boys 13 weeks ago, 2 were sold as wethers 2 weeks ago and the third I retained as a buck.I started to milk her 2x a day 2 weeks ago and she looks like a boney old milk cow! Her kid is not on her for obvious reasons and I feed all my goats 18% plus freechoice mixed grass hay and all the browse they want, they get 2- 2 1/2cups 2x a day of the grain, the 5 year old I have isn't boney at all and had triplet does 12 weeks ago...some goats just put every effort into milk production....I usually wait til I see how they act before I decide to cut back to milking 1x a day...so far Boots is being her normal "hurry up and eat I might not ever get any again" self, with the exception of the hollow hipped look!
If your doe isn't herself then I would be thinking of weaning her kids and drying her off to get her back into condition, theres lots of advice on what to feed her to put weight on but I would make any changes gradually. I hope she improves for you and she should as the kids get older and start eating more on their own, or as you said, sold.
 
#11 ·
I had a doe that was 14 when she had her last babies. She was just like what you are saying, so thin, and it was very hard.
That i did was I fed mine Yes beet Pulp, I used the shredded and yes it was soaked in water and it had a little molasses in it. I would feed her with her babies but I worked her grain up to as much as she wanted. I put it in a bowl and I would lock her up until she was done eating. I did that twice a day, and then I started putting that oil in her feed that you use for horses to fatten then up, that really helped. I agree taking that babies off as soon as you think they will be fine. The older they are the more they will drain off her. My problem was my doe loved being a mom so much that it was so hard on her to take the babies away, so at her age I let her wean them, and I continued the grain until she started to put on weight and started looking good.
 
#12 ·
Mot sure about smaller goats, but my big does get as much grain, 16% as they want twice a day. The ones milking about half gallon a day uaually take about 4 or six cups. My gallon+ milkers take 9 or more cups. Those does are the ones that are capable of supporting twins.
Are your kids young enough to take a bottle? When you do seperate kids from mom, you may want to be checking her udder so that is does not get overfull. (we sold a doe kid at 11 weeks, and milked out mom once a day for about 4 days before her and the remaining kid adjusted.)
HTH, it is hard not being able to keep weight on a doe. If she has trips again, I would just pull and bottle feed one. :)
btw: Beet pulp offers more calories than hay, but less than grain.
 
#14 ·
I'm still doing some research on the best product to feed her. I was looking at the alflfa pellets and sunflower seeds. I'm leaning towards the BOSS for the high level of protein that it contains. I do not like pellets for fear of choke. I was also wondering if I could feed her some of my grain that I feed one of my mares that has loads of beet pulp in it. High fiber, high fat, low starch. Its feed that I feed to my rescue horses that are very thin. Adds weight quickly. Not sure if every ingredient is safe though.
 
#17 ·
Pennfield Fibregized crude protein 12% crude fat 10.25% crude fiber 15%

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