Friend lost 3 goats yesterday!

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My friend lost three goats yesterday. One just kidded in the past week with no outward sign of being ill. The other had not kidded yet and was found out in the mud, looked like it had struggled to get up and couldn't. The other was her older nubian buck that had been sick last week and seemed better. The buck had been on LA200.

Along another note she has had babies born this year that were perfect in every way but dead at a full term delivery. I did notice that her goats hair is a bit brittle and her kids from last year don't look as big as they should be at this age. Kind of looks like pencil type bones in the legs. Hard to describe. Anyone have any ideas? Mineral, illness or ?

They were in three different pens which get different kinds of feeds. Buck was on grassy alfalfa, kidded doe was getting alfalfa, unkidded doe was a meat goat in the field with free choice fresh grass & dried oat hay.

-- shari (smillers@snowcrest.net), January 07, 2002

Answers

Had she brought in any new stock? Pasturella pnemonia, shipping fever can have death like this. Pnemonia like this kills quickly, especially if you aren't really up close and personal with your goats to notice that they are off, have fever or are rattly. What kind of sick was the Buck? A friend of mine and myself went up to the dairy up north and purchased about 12 kids, 4 or 5 came home with me after dropping hers off at her place. She immediatly put them in with her babies, with the fenceline next to the adult milkers. I came home and put mine in the quaranteen pen. The kids never were sick, either hers or mine, but they did infect her kids and some of her milkers with pasturella multicidia hemoticulla, we ended up having to treat all her does with a cattle vaccine that left horrid abscess on the girls. She lost most of her kids and several of her best Alpine does. Lots were sudden deaths with the other girls getting horrid coughs and snot that literally reached to the ground. I kept my truck parked up at the top of her drive, and wore clothes and boots that I left at her house, showering and changing shoes again before getting into my truck. It was the worst thing I ever helped with. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), January 08, 2002.

Is there any chance they could be extremely short on copper? I think the article available at saanendoah.com under serious goat stuff says something about spindly legs being related to this rampant copper deficiency. Maybe you could have a look at it with your friend to see if it clicks.

How sad...I hope she finds out what is wrong quickly.

-- Doreen (animalwaitress@yahoo.com), January 08, 2002.


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