Educational Articles
A special "Thank-you" to Kay Orlando, DVM and Maxine Kinne for allowing me to share this information to all of you. Many of these articles have been printed in Memo.
Coccidiosis is a major cause of diarrhea, poor growth, and death in kids. Kids become infected the first few weeks of life with the highest incidence of disease between 4 and 7 weeks. Coccidia are protozoan parasites. They are quite host specific and do not cross between species. Kids become infected by ingesting food, bedding, or water contaminated with oocysts. These oocysts rapidly undergo maturation, multiply, and enter the cells lining the intestine. These forms in the intestinal cells break from the disrupted cells and can multiply further infecting even more cells. Eventually oocysts are formed which pass out of the intestine and contaminate the environment. Because the infected intestinal cells are destroyed, serious injury to the digestive tract can occur. Eventually the kid becomes immune to the organisms. But damage to the digestive tract can be severe enough to cause permanent problems or even death. And stress factors such as weaning, changes in diet, or moving can relax the immunity and predispose the kids to the development of clinical disease.
Control of Coccidiosis must be three pronged. First, the infection itself needs to be treated – most commonly with one of the sulfa drugs. Most are not effective in severe cases. Second, kids must be prevented from reinfection. Kids should be moved from contaminated pastures or pens. Measures should be taken to prevent fecal contamination of food and water. Decoquinate (Deccox) can be mixed in the salt or food. While Deccox does not treat an active infection, the drug will prevent reinfection by disrupting the organism early in the life cycle. New additions to the herd should be tested for coccidia and treated if needed. Third, frequent fecal exams should be done. One or two pellets from several kids will provide information on the severity of the infection in the herd. Coccidiosis is a disease that can build up and be life-threatening without preliminary signs.
-----By Dr. Kay Orlando, DVM
For those of us that grew up with pounds, teaspoons, and ounces, having to contend with medication with a metric dosage can be almost mind boggling. Some of us guess, others get out a calculator, and the rest just throw up our hands at the very mention of a kilogram. Here are a couple of ways that may help when the dreaded "K" word appears on the label.
A kilogram (Kg) is approximately 2.2 pounds. So if you know the weight in pounds, the weight in kilograms is that weight divided by 2.2. A 65 pound doe will weigh about 30 kilograms (65 divided by 2.2). As an example, the dosage for Panacur suspension is 15 milligrams (mg) per kilogram. If the goat weighs 45 pounds, it will weigh about 20 kilograms. And since you need 15 mg for each kilogram of weight, then the animal should receive 300 mg of Panacur (15 mg times 20 Kg).
If you are dosing several animals, it is sometimes easier to figure out how much medication is needed per pound of body weight rather than figuring each animal's weight in kilograms. By dividing the dosage per kilogram by 2.2, you will have the dosage per pound. Again using the Panacur dosage as an example: 15 mg per kilogram is approximately the same as 7 mg per pound (15 divided by 2.2). A 45 pound animal will need 7 times 45 or 315 mg of Panacur. According to its label, Panacur suspension is formulated to have 100 mg per cc or mi. A 45 pound goat would need 3 cc to get 300 mg of Panacur.
Medications sometimes come with a "package insert" containing important information about the medicine, dosage, problems, etc. These inserts should be read and posted or stored with the medication for future reference. At a minimum, be sure to read the information on the label, which always includes:
- Concentration of medication, such as 100 mg or units per cc or ml or oz
- Dosage in ml or cc per lb or Kg
- Expiration date beyond which the medication should not be used
- Contraindications or possible side effects of the medication and what should be done
COMMON CONVERSIONS FOR MEDICINE DOSAGES
1 kilogram = 2.2 pounds
1 teaspoon = 5 milliliters (ml) or 5 cubic centimeters (cc)
1 cc = 1 ml or 15 drops
1 tablespoon = 3 teaspoons or 15 cc
1 ounce = 2 tablespoons or 30 cc
16 ounces = 1 pound or 1 pint or 480 cc
Always be sure to read the label on any medication and follow the dosage given. Some medications are fairly safe and overdosing doesn't harm the goat but it does waste medication. Other medications are toxic if overdosed. Underdosing commonly does little good. Figure the dosage of medication (usually mg) the goat needs for its size according to the label instructions. Then figure how much medication is needed to give the correct dosage.
-----By Dr. Kay Orlando, DVM
Why Be There?
Maxine Kinne
Birth is the most dramatic and life-threatening event in a kid's life. Your presence during and just after delivery can save lives. Should it be needed, prompt assistance during delivery will help get the kids off to the best start they can possible have. The new mother will thank you for it, and you will avoid a lot of potential problems with both the mother and her new kids.
How do you know when it's time to show up at the barn for the action? With little or no kidding experience, if you pay attention to the signs of impending birth does generally exhibit, there is usually no doubt when she is gearing up to deliver. Drag out the audio baby monitor and wait. Working nine-to-five puts a definite cramp into being present at each birth, and some people induce their does to kid on a weekend.
The fetus lives and grows in a fluid environment in the uterus. The mother's placenta nourishes the fetus and eliminates its waste products. As the fetus is expelled during labor, it quickly converts from a "water breather" to one that functions on oxygen. Events that interfere with this delicate transformation can spell catastrophe.
Breathing is the kid's first step toward independent life. As the mother delivers each kid, clean off its nose and muzzle right away to eliminate barriers that may interfere with the important first breaths. A stiff piece of straw or hay inserted into one of the kid's nostrils should stimulate sneezing. Or pinch an ear to make the newborn cry. Kids take in big lungsful of air when they sneeze and cry - just what they need! Suspending the kid with its front end lower than the rear end uses gravity to help clear fluid out of a kid's lungs. Drape the kid over your leg or hold it in the air by its hips or hind legs for a few minutes.
Check each newborn for defects at the earliest opportunity. If this is done quickly at birth, defective kids can be culled right away, before they dry off, nurse and get too cute. I know this is really hard to think about, much less do, until you've got a number of years of goat breeding under your belt. A good reputation can be built on producing good goats; a questionable one is built on producing defectives and poor-doers, and it also reflects your breeding program.
The doe's preparation for kidding results in a nest of well-pawed bedding which exposes dirt and manure. Just before a kid is born, lay down a clean towel or some newspaper behind the doe for it to land on. This helps to keep the umbilical cord clean. Keep the kid on this sanitary surface until you dip its navel in undiluted 7% iodine which helps sanitize and dry the umbilicus. Born into a unsanitary environment, kids can pick up many kinds of bacteria that can travel into the blood supply via the umbilicus to cause navel ill, joint ill or generalized septicemia. Any of these can cripple or kill.
The kid's first meal comes next. Help it out by making sure groceries are available. The keratin plug inside each streak canal can be difficult for the kid to dislodge by sucking. Express one or two squirts of colostrum from each teat to be sure they can get something to eat. Some kids take longer than others to find a teat and start nursing. Make sure kids eat as soon as possible, and you'll avoid waking up to starving, hypothermic kids the next morning.
While you're still in the barn with the dam and her new kids, check the environment for safety:
- Are there places a newborn could get stuck or trapped? Fill the hay feeder so a kid can't get into it. Can it get under or through the fencing? Repair it now.
- Could a kid drown in that water bucket? I use a 6"-high, 1/2-gallon plastic tub. Small kids can tip these over - Pygmy kids can drown in a 1-gallon or larger bucket.
- Is it drafty? A dry kid with colostrum in its tummy can tolerate cold weather, but it is very prone to chilling in a draft.
- Can the kid see to find its mother? The kid's instinct is to go into a "dark corner" to find food; under the doe's rear leg is just the right spot. Leave a night light on the first night or two so mother and kids can find each other with no problems.
So why be there? To assist or call for help if the doe has birthing problems. To help the kid be born in a sanitary environment. To dip the navel to prevent infections. To make sure the teats are open so the kid can eat. And to make sure the kidding area is free of dangers you may not have thought to look for before.
May your kids arrive easily and enjoy a safe introduction to their new world!
Starting Newborns Right: Birth to Weaning
Maxine Kinne
The stork brings active, healthy kids most of the time, thank goodness. There are some basic things we can do to help them into the world and start them off right.
Be prepared! Kidding shouldn't come as a surprise. A healthy start begins in clean, dry, freshly-bedded privacy with supervision to make sure everything goes OK. If it doesn't, it is very important to intervene before a situation becomes critical. When a healthy doe gives birth easily, and in a good environment, most neonatal problems are due to chilling, starvation and bacterial infections.
Get Kids Breathing
Some fetal membranes are very tough, and the kid arrives like a gift inside a balloon. Break the membrane so the kid can start breathing as soon as it is born. Rub its face with a towel for stimulation, and stick a piece of straw up its nostril to make it sneeze. You can pinch an ear or the tail to get a few good yells out of the newborn. A little sneezing and hollering helps inflate the lungs. If a kid has trouble clearing its airways, pick it up by the hind legs and hold it upside down for a few minutes. A dark red or purple color of the gums is a sign that the kid is has been oxygen deprived. This symptom resolves with time.
Protecting Against Germs
As an extra hygiene precaution, I place a clean towel behind the doe for each kid's arrival. No kid is allowed off of the towel until its navel is dipped in 7% iodine. This helps prevent serious bacterial infections in early life. Iodine should be applied to the entire cord up to and including the belly wall. Use a small container for the iodine, like a plastic film canister or a baby food jar. Lower the kid's umbilical cord into the iodine, hold the jar against its tummy, and turn the kid upside-down to coat the umbilicus. I like to repeat this procedure when the kids are about one hour old.
Chilling
Cold-weather delivery, dystocia, and hypoglycemia can all contribute to reduced body temperature in newborns. Chilled kids won't eat, nor will the mother want them to. Hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) can develop because the kid won't eat. These conditions are usually avoided if the kid eats soon after birth. Chilled kids are lethargic and depressed. Feel the temperature inside the kid's mouth with your finger. If it feels cool, artificial heat must be used to raise its temperature to 102o F.
You are only 98.6 degrees, and it's impossible to warm a kid sufficiently inside your coat. Place the kid in a cardboard box and wrap a heating pad (medium heat setting) around it. If you can't get the pad around the whole kid, lay the kid on top of it. Cover the kid with towels to retain the heat. Thirty to sixty minutes of supplemental heat should do the trick. When the kid's temperature approaches normal, it should become more active and alert and display interest in finding something to eat. Electrical cords are very hazardous - don't leave the mother goat alone in the same area with the heating pad, or she may bite into it and electrocute herself.
Hypoglycemia and Starvation
Kids are born with very limited energy reserves in the form of brown fat. They must eat soon after birth - the sooner the better. Without food in the tummy, body temperature goes down and the kid becomes hypoglycemic. Without your help, the kid's condition will advance to depression, lethargy, coma and death. The best way to prevent this is to make sure the kid eats as soon after birth as possible.
A keratin plug in the streak canal of each teat is nature's way of protecting the udder against bacterial invasion. Remove the keratin plugs by milking one or two streams of colostrum out of each teat to be sure milk is readily available.
Colostrum is the thick, yellow "first milk" present in the udder when the doe gives birth. It is rich in maternal antibodies that protect kids against disease during the first few weeks of life. Kids absorb colostral antibodies through the intestinal lining. The body's ability to assimilate these antibodies begins to decline within two hours of birth. By the time a kid is 24 hours old, the gut can no longer absorb the large molecule antibodies.
After Day One
Because goats are relatively independent at birth, kids need to be socialized within the first four days to be tame and friendly. You will need to have their trust before you do all the rotten things to them listed below. The down side of friendly kids is that kids constantly swarm you and become proficient at untying shoelaces, or at least slobbering all over them, at very early ages. Handle them gently and often in those first few critical days.
Vaccinations need to be given at appropriate intervals, depending on your style of herd health management. Clostridium perfringens Types C & D and tetanus toxoid are the most essential of these. Some manufacturers combine these two, and that type of combination is called CD/T. Kids may need additional vaccines if the dam was not given prenatal shots three to four weeks before delivery. Talk with your veterinarian about giving injections of selenium if you are in an area of the country deficient in this trace mineral. Additional vaccines can be given for specific problems within a herd.
|
Timing Basic Vaccinations | ||
| Pregnant Does (30 days before due)
1 dose CD/T
|
 |
All Adult Goats (annual)
1 dose CD/T |
| Kids from Immunized Does
1 dose CD/T @ 4 weeks |
Kids from Non-Immunized Does
1 dose Tetanus Antitoxin @ birth 1 dose Tetanus Antitoxin @ disbudding | |
Disbudding is much easier on kids from 7 to 14 days old than on older kids. The success rate, defined by regrowth of scurs, is very good when they are disbudded at this age by someone who is proficient at it.
Castration method and age varies with the herdsman's personal preference. I like to castrate at 10 to 12 weeks old, giving the plumbing a little extra time to grow, which may help to avoid urinary calculi. If you have success neutering at other ages, you have found the right answer for your herd.
Coccidia and worms can be very harmful. Young kids are very susceptible to these and external parasites because their internal and external tissues are tender and succulent. It is a good idea to deworm the doe on the day she gives birth to reduce the number of oocysts in the barn and on the premises. Toward the same objective, it is advisable to treat does in late gestation for coccidia. Length and timing of coccidia treatments in pregnant does depend on which product you use. As the kids grow, monitor coccidia and worms with fecal analysis and treat them as needed. Regularly examine young kids for biting and sucking lice. Louse and tick powder labeled for cats is safe to use on young kids.
Food and Water
When there are too many goats for the amount of feeder space available, kids are the first to suffer. A separate area, called a creep feeder, can be situated in a corner with a feeder inside so the kids don't have to compete with adults for food. Kids often begin to pick at fine hay within a few days of birth and should have the best. A very small amount of grain can also be offered in the creep feeder or individually.
Like all goats, kids like to jump up on things, and they don't recognize the danger of a water bucket or trough. The first jump into one may well be the last. Use water troughs with vertical walls under 10". If they jump or get pushed in, they can get out. A death like this is a tragic and unnecessary loss.
Weaning
Kids should remain with their mothers until they are a minimum of 10 weeks old. The kid is born without a functional rumen and must be eating enough to sustain itself before weaning time. In these first weeks, the kid also begins to learn how to function within the herd. The stresses of weaning are great, as the kid is removed from her mother and the nutrition her milk has provided up to this point. Keep a close eye on internal parasites, as the kid can be quite prone to them during this stressful time. I never wean kids - they nurse until the mother gets sick and tired of them.
Many kids that seem to do poorly within the first few critical hours can be saved with a little extra attention. For their first three months of life, a good herd health program aimed at prevention paves the way to a darned good chance at a long, healthy life.
By 24 hours of age, newborn kids should be passing a dark yellow stool. If not, they may not be eating enough or, more commonly, the black feces in the bowel at birth (meconium) may be difficult to pass. This is more of a problem with small or weak kids. Use a 6 cc syringe (without a needle) to give an enema of 3 to 5 cc of warm water. Never give oil orally (especially mineral oil) to relieve constipation. Oil had little taste or feel in the mouth and is easily inhaled. resulting in a fatal foreign-body pneumonia.
-----By Dr. Kay Orlando, DVM
- 1 can evaporated goat milk + 1 can water
or
- 1 quart pasteurized goat's milk
Combine with 1/2 cup cream. Feed at the rate of 1 oz. per 1/4 pound body weight per day divided into 3 or 4 feedings. Increase with age not to exceed 20-24 oz. per day.
-----By Dr. Kay Orlando, DVM
Ketosis can occur just at kidding time and can be difficult to distinguish from normal labor. Signs of ketosis are those associated with low blood glucose (sugar). They include: subnormal body temperature, failure to labor well, lack of normal mothering instincts (ignores birth fluids or kids), separation, and dull, depressed appearance. Factors that put a doe at risk for ketosis are: carrying 3 or more fetuses, ack of exercise, overweight, and aged does with multiple fetuses. Does that fit into one or more of these categories should be watched by th owner for signs of ketosis. Ketosis is a very treatable condition if recognized. It can be fatal if left untreated. Sugar or molasses will give short term boost in blood sugar. Propylene glycol (available at most feed outlets) will give longer, more sustained elevation in blood glucose.
-----By Dr. Kay Orlando, DVM
Two is company, three is a problem, and four is a real crowd when kids are nursing their dam. Triplets and quadruplets are not uncommon in pygmy goats. But these multiple births may produce problems when it comes to making sure that all the kids get enough to eat. Knowing when to supplement is critical for the survival of all the kids. Triplets that consist of all does or two does and a buck will commonly get by without supplemental feeding if the doe has enough milk. If one of the kids is smaller or two of the triplets are bucks, then the kids need to be watched carefully. One or more kids in a set of quadruplets commonly will need more milk than it is getting from mom. If you think that one or more of the kids will need extra help, try feeding right away. If all the kids seem to be getting enough food, watch the group carefully for the first week to ten days. Buck kids commonly get larger greedier and stronger than doe kids by this time.
Kids that are not getting enough milk will appear to be hungry all the time. Instead of playing when mom is through feeding, they will be trying to get more to eat. When the other kids are off exercising, hungry kids will stick by mom and try to eat the instant they get a chance. Hungry kids don't have as much energy for the usual play and will hang back from the others.
Preemie baby nipples with the hole made a little larger work well for feeding kids. Since pygmy milk is higher in fat than dairy goat milk, add ½ cup cream to a quart of pasteurized goats milk. This seems to satisfy the kids for a longer period. Usually twice a day feeding is sufficient if the kid is getting some milk from mom. With quadruplets, it may be easier just to take a bottle out twice a day and feed any of the kids that are hungry. If the kid does not nurse at all from mom, then you may want to increase its feedings to four times a day. After about six weeks of age, cows milk with the added cream can be substituted for goats milk.
-----By Dr. Kay Orlando, DVM
Pygmy goat kids are born with a fairly low blood glucose level and very little immunity to anything around them. They need a rich source of energy and immune protection. Early feeding of colostrum provides both. Kids need colostrum early, preferably the first hour after birth. And they need a sufficient amount - about 2 oz. per pound body weight per day. This raises their blood glucose level and provides antibodies to the world around them. Colostrum contains higher levels of total protein, milk solids, lactose, globulins (antibody), and fat than normal milk. Kids are able to absorb colostral antibody for about 2 days.
Getting colostrum early and enough of it is not a problem if the kid is healthy and with the dam. But either for health problems with the dam (C-Section or death of the dam) or disease concerns (CAE, Johnes, etc.) the kids may not be kept with the dam. It is still vital that these kids get sufficient colostrum. Freezing colostrum from a healthy doe is an excellent source of colostrum for these kids. While antibody levels fall sharply when refrigerated more than 48 hours, antibody levels in frozen colostrum remain high for 13 months. Colostrum substitutes made from homemade recipes usually supply sufficient energy but no antibody protection and should be avoided. There are several commercial colostrum substitutes on the market that claim to provide good-antibody levels, but this is debatable. Colostrum can be pasteurized although this is difficult. It must be held at 132.8 degrees for 60 minutes. Cow colostrum can be fed. But not enough research has been done on disease transmission and possible antibody induced hemolytic anemia.
Planning ahead can prevent a crisis during the kidding season. Freeze colostrum from healthy does, especially those with a single kid. If the doe has kidding difficulties and may need a C-Section, milk out enough colostrum before you go to the veterinarian to feed the kids. If you don't need it, it can be frozen for future use. If you are facing a herd disease problem that requires kids to be removed from the dam at birth, get together with your veterinarian and decide the best way to provide these kids with colostrum.
-----By Dr. Kay Orlando, DVM
