[Goatsmakemehappy]

We adopted 2 bottle babies 10 days ago.
We were assured they were given colostrum, now on bottles (milk replacer) 3x a day and had received selenium shot at birth.
Baby a- 1 week old
Baby b. 2 weeks old

long story long, baby a didn’t make it. I struggled with him from day 1. He died 3 days later . I tried everything even resorted to tube feeding.

baby b. She’s my tiny one. 6lbs. Now 3 weeks old. She STILL struggles with the bottle . We fight to get 3oz in her 4-5 times a day . I seriously think she would starve herself, but i won’t give up on her. I’vetried every type of nipple, position, she just hates the dang thing.
When we got her, she was covered in lice , muddy, diarrhea (yeah I know I never should have taken them, but I couldn’t leave them either)

I switched her to fresh goats milk , we had her on electrolytes (not with milk), b complex inj, probiotics , a dose of cylence for the lice...finally got diarrhea under control with a dose of spectrogaurd . As soon as diarrhea was under control—-I had. A baby goat ..bouncing around and having a grand ole time (she still fought me on the bottle, but was getting better with it)
After that great day (4 days ago) she has tanked again. Even though she was not being over fed (have I mentioned how much this kid hates bottles) she had floppy kid symptoms (sloshing in tummy—-grinding teeth NON STOP, flopping around in her bed). Treated with MOM, baking soda, and electrolytes for a full day. Never had a fever , famancha is great.
she started to perk up after the tummy got settled, she started pooping normally , and I thought we were back in the mend. But she’s not.
she’s still very lethargic, still fighting the bottles, barely getting 13 oz in every day...and that’s a fight ..she burps a bunch (smells so gross .. and grinds teeth right after she burps) her burps sound very wet like, She is about to throw up milk
I just don’t know what else to do. her tummy gets pretty solid after just a few ozs. I’ve literally never had any problems with goats and everyone I talk to including a vet , are stumped at this point.
I can’t “wait for her to get hungry enough” because she won’t, I’ve tried. Then I’m dealing with dehydration.
It’s still a 2-3oz at a time deal even after stopping bottles at 10pm
And waiting till 6am.

she’s been with me non stop since the day we got them....I just don’t know what to do for her anymore
Does anyone have any suggestions?
I’ll try anything at this point.

 

[Goatsmakemehappy]

She has a mild suck response....mostly chews on the nipples .

 

[toth boer goats]

Have you started her on a little grain and alfalfa hay?
I start creep feeding at 2 weeks old. She being 3 weeks old, should be started.
Maybe start a little calfmanna with a good 16 % grain like Purina goat grower.

Also at the ripe age for worms and cocci.

How are her inner lower eyelid coloring?

Any lice or mite issues?

 

[Tanya]

Ok. So lets start from scratch.
Temp is very important. Famancha. Have you checked her pellet. Maybe its not formed properly.
Check her worm load.
Make sure her bottles are at 101.
Maybe a small amount of baking soda in her first drink of the day.
Weigh her daily.
Put a shallow bowl of water and see if she drinks that way.
Put a handful.of pellets in front of her to toy with.

 

[Goatsmakemehappy]

Ok. So lets start from scratch.
Temp is very important. Famancha. Have you checked her pellet. Maybe its not formed properly.
Check her worm load.
Make sure her bottles are at 101.
Maybe a small amount of baking soda in her first drink of the day.
Weigh her daily.
Put a shallow bowl of water and see if she drinks that way.
Put a handful.of pellets in front of her to toy with.

Temps perfect 102. Famancha is great also. bottles warmed with baking soda in first one of the day.
I do weigh and she did gain yesterday, not sure about today. I'm about to go make bottle
Ive felt around her teeny little mouth and don't feel anything weird, but she does grind the heck out of the bottle when she drinks .

I Did not try bowl of the water .. I'll try that today. I also did not put pellets down yet. This past week
Has been a wild ride and I didn't even think about her being old enough to start nibbling at that
I do have a bowl of hay that she just looks at and I took her to the barn to see the other goats so that she might figure it out

 

[Goatsmakemehappy]

Have you started her on a little grain and alfalfa hay?
I start creep feeding at 2 weeks old. She being 3 weeks old, should be started.
Maybe start a little calfmanna with a good 16 % grain like Purina goat grower.

Also at the ripe age for worms and cocci.

How are her inner lower eyelid coloring?

Any lice or mite issues?

She did have lice. We gave cylence and appears to have done the trick .
famancha is great.

I'll send fecal to vet today. I wasn't even thinking worms because her kids were so good.

 

[ksalvagno]

Are you sure the milk is warm enough? It needs to be warmer than what you would do for a human baby.

I would also try feeding her milk in a bowl. While drinking milk from a bowl isn't ideal, at this point you need to get more in her. 2-3 ounces of milk 4 times a day isn't really enough to survive.

 

[Goatsmakemehappy]

Yeah, I take the temp multiple times. She’s super picky about the temp so I usually have to rewarm it.

I’m starting to think that the way she is drinking it (chewing on the nipple) is actually causing the milk to go in rumen. Hence the smelly burps. im going to give it a go of just a syringe feeding here nezt. I got 4 oz in her this am. (2 bottle, 2 syringe) but she was swallowing better with the syringe. ..I only push 1-2ccs at a time .

 

[Sfgwife]

Yeah, I take the temp multiple times. She's super picky about the temp so I usually have to rewarm it.

I'm starting to think that the way she is drinking it (chewing on the nipple) is actually causing the milk to go in rumen. Hence the smelly burps. im going to give it a go of just a syringe feeding here nezt. I got 4 oz in her this am. (2 bottle, 2 syringe) but she was swallowing better with the syringe. ..I only push 1-2ccs at a time .

have you tried a rabbit nipple? They are tinny tinny. But maybe she would suck it and you can just make the hole much bigger? Or a preemie nipple?

 

[Goatsmakemehappy]

have you tried a rabbit nipple? They are tinny tinny. But maybe she would suck it and you can just make the hole much bigger? Or a preemie nipple?

I have not. Heck I'll try it! She does have a tiny little mouth.
She's had 9 ozs so far today -I admit
I did syringe her 7 of those (it's just a theory I'm trying out at this point). She is not burping and grinding her teeth as much, but she's still just standing around being lethargic
I'll try the rabbit nipples.