Month: January 2010

Disbudding Kids by Irene Ramsay

The age to disbud kids varies from breed to breed. An approximate guide is:

BUCK KIDS
Breed
Toggenburg 1-7 days
Saanen & Boers 2-10 days
Alpine 4-18 days
Nubian, Angora, feral 5-20 days

DOE KIDS
Breed
Toggenburg 2-10 days
Saanen & Boers 4-21 days
Alpine 6-21
Nubian, Angora, feral 7-25 days

Toggenburgs have a much broader horn base than the other breeds, which is why their hornbuds ripen earlier. Some bloodlines in all breeds have early maturing hornbuds, and some have slow maturing hornbuds, hence the wide timescales I have given. I have both fast and slow maturing hornbuds in my herd, and sometimes when I have crossed the two lines, I have had one twin needing early disbudding, while the other has been left another week.

It is important not to disbud too soon. If you do, you will find the hornbuds difficult to remove, and there will be a lot of scur regrowth – more than if you do the disbudding a few days later than the optimum for that particular kid.

A hornbud which still looks no more than a tiny pinhead pimple on the skin is too immature to do successfully. Wait until you can feel a raised area forming under the pimple, which will also broaden. Kids which are born overdue may need disbudding earlier than the guide says. Kids which are born prematurely should be left until their official birth date or longer, if possible, as prem kids often have noticeable hornbuds because their skulls haven’t grown into them. The worst case of regrowth I ever had was doing a prem kid’s horns a week before he should have been born.

It is possible to disbud horns which have emerged through the skin to a height of about 2 cm but it can mean some messy regrowth in the wider hornbase breeds (Togg, Saanen), and is a longer job for the kid to suffer; not to mention the bruises you’ll get because the kid is bigger and kicks harder.

Disbudding irons may heat off car batteries, gas bottles, electricity, a blowlamp or an open fire. The old-style open-fire types are very heavy and the working head is too small in diameter for kid buds – newborn calves’ hornbuds are smaller.

The irons I use are adapted soldering irons. The 50 watt iron has a head 19 mm in diameter, which experiment showed was the maximum size for that wattage. It does most doe kids. The 90 watt iron has a 22 mm diameter head and is used for buck kids, and doe kids with wide or overripe hornbuds.

Any wattage lower than 50 does not seal the wound sufficiently as it isn’t hot enough.

Some breeders like to use up to 200 watt heat, but it is necessary to work very fast because the extra heat can cause brain damage, and the faster you work the less likely you are to do a thorough job, unfortunately. Also, a 200 watt iron is much too heavy for most women to use with dexterity. Like footrot shears, disbudding irons need to be matched to their users.

My irons are both concave, so that they burn round the edge of the hornbud. This type has the advantage that you can feel when you have burnt through the skin to the skull, and can flick the hornbud out. I have used a flat-head iron but found it slower, and hard to judge when I had reached the skull. As the hornbud is not flicked out with this type of iron, if you don’t go deep enough, regrowth is considerable. I don’t recommend it for novices, although you may find you prefer it after doing a few dozen kids with a concave iron to get your hand in.

An electric iron takes 20 minutes to half-an-hour to reach full heat, depending on its diameter, and you won’t get a good result if you try to use it too soon. If you are using it outside, a cold wind can stop it from reaching full heat, too.

I now plug my irons in through an anti-surge plug, because they were affected by power fluctuations in this area. Whatever form of heating your iron uses, you can test it on a piece of wood – if it leaves a dark burn mark, it is hot enough.

You will also need:

  • a sharp penknife
  • a small bottle of methylated spirits (methyl alcohol)
  • a pair of sharp short-bladed scissors for cutting the hair off the hornbuds
  • a water-base felt tip pen – I prefer a green one as this shows up on all skin colours
  • and a powder dressing for the wounds

I use Aureomycin Pink Eye Powder as I’ve found the Terramycin itches and the kids scratch the wounds with their hooves. Charcoal powder from the pharmacist is also good. It is wise to have Negasunt on hand for the rare kid which bleeds and won’t stop, as it is a good clotting agent as well as a wound dressing, but care must be taken not to get it in the kid’s eyes. I haven’t used Negasunt more than a dozen times, and I’ve done 100’s of kids by now. [Negasunt now requires a vet prescription. You’ll get the same result with baking soda, cayenne pepper, or flour, just don’t get them in the kid’s eyes.]

You will also need something to lay the hot iron on when you aren’t using it – a thick piece of wood or a coal shovel are popular. It helps always to lay your tools out in the same order, so that you can work without hesitation – the less stress on the kid, the better. I also have an old sack to kneel on; this is easier on my knees and more comfortable for the kid, as I tuck the kid between my legs and sit on my heels to hold it in place ( the sack also soaks up the occasional little accident, buck kids are worse).

You may prefer to have someone else hold the kid, or use Val McMillan’s tattooing box. I’m short-sighted enough to be a danger to the head and hands of another holder – at least my left hand knows what my right hand is doing and it has to be a very wriggly kid for me to burn myself by mistake.

Always pick a place with good light, preferably at an angle across the kid’s head towards you, so that you don’t have awkward shadows.

Now, the tools are laid out ready, the kid is restrained by whatever method you’ve chosen, you are ready for stage one:

  1. Open the penknife, dunk the blade in the meths and lay it aside to dry.
  2. Put the top back on the meths bottle, you don’t want to start a fire by mistake.
  3. Next trim off all the hair round the hornbuds. Be generous, cut off plenty, so you have a good view of the working area. It is best to have at least 5 mm of clear area beyond the diameter of the iron. The less hair to get into the wounds, the less likely an infection can occur. Take your time, and trim off all the hair between the hornbuds. For buck kids, trim further forward and further back than for doe kids, as the procedure is slightly different.
  4. Mark the centre of the hornbud with the felt tip pen. For some kids this mightn’t seem necessary but it is a good habit to get into, because with coloured kids and all buck kids, you will need the dot as a guide.
  5. Next, fold the kid’s ears back under your spare hand and hold them tight to the sides of the head – this keeps the ears out of your way, and the head still. I also rest the kid’s chin on my thigh.
  6. For doe kids: aim to get the green dot in the centre of the iron when you lower it firmly to the head. If you aren’t firm the kid will wriggle out from under and the wrong things are likely to get scorched. The kid will undulate and yell as you press down, rotating the iron slightly until you feel it grate on the skull. Make sure the grating is right round the circumference of the iron. Once you are through the skin all round, the kid should stop yelling (Alpines don’t always) as you have killed all the nerves.
  7. Lift off the iron and use the edge of it to flick the hornbud out of the centre of the burn. If you don’t flip it out, it can re-attach and the kid grows horns.
  8. Once you have flipped the bud out, use the edge of the iron to sear the damp skull dry. This helps seal off the temporal artery if your original burn hasn’t completed the job. Some kids can bleed slightly, but often just on one bud.
  9. Now that the bud is done to your satisfaction, use the penknife to clean any detritus from the iron. Make sure the muck doesn’t land on the kid’s head.
  10. Now do the other hornbud the same way. Dust the wounds with the powder of your choice and return the kid to its owner/mother/mates.
  11. Clean the iron again, wipe the penknife and dunk the blade in the meths. You are now ready to do the next kid.
  12. Bucks grow their horns in ridges forward and inwards, and their musk glands are inward and backward, so disbudding aims to deal with both horn growth and demusking. If your iron is small diameter, you may need to do three burns. A wider diameter iron will need only one burn, but it must be in the right place.
  13. The green dot on the hornbud needs to be off-centre of the iron this time, with more of the iron’s head towards the centre of the skull and slightly forward. If you are behind the kid’s head, like me, the left green dot should be 8 o’clock from the centre of the iron, and the right green dot at 4 o’clock. See diagram.
  14. At first sight, it seems simpler to hold the kid’s head still by gripping the nose. But, if it wriggles hard enough, or the disbudding is a long job for some reason, you can restrict its breathing, so this makes it panic and wriggle harder, or throttle it altogether (I know 2 men this happened to), or leave a deep groove across the side of the nose from your thumb pressing into the soft bone, and the goat goes through the rest of its life with a wry face. I did this to one of mine, which is why I developed the over-the-ears grip.

Working from behind the kid means you are at a better angle to the buds, as they slope backwards and it is easier to burn through to the skull at the back if you are at that angle, especially if the buds have been allowed to get a little too big.

Disbudding is usually done cold turkey because goats are bad subjects for anaesthesia. For safety’s sake the kid needs to be at least a week-old for anaesthetic, and by this time the hornbuds can be well overripe especially in bucks.

Disbudding takes about 2 minutes all up, and once it is done, the kid isn’t bothered (I’ve heard a human baby scream for 20 minutes after being vaccinated) – it is much like a trip to the dentist, except for a kid, it only happens once. However, a kid will take 12-24 hours to throw off the effects of a general anaesthetic, during which time it must be kept warm and carefully monitored in case of pneumonia from lying around too long. If the weather is very hot heatstroke is a real risk post-anaesthetic, too. The kid may be slow to start feeding. A kid under general anaesthetic screams and thrashes round more than one done cold turkey, something to do with the way goats’ nerves work, so that the tendency is to increase the anaesthetic which endangers the kid’s chance of survival.

Using local anaesthetic infiltration round the hornbuds appears to cause as much pain as it saves, and has the disadvantage of making the working area (the tissue being burnt) thicker and wetter, with a greater chance of infection because of this. Also, local anaesthetic has an anti-clotting action on the blood and the temporal artery may prove difficult to seal in consequence. I haven’t heard of anyone using spray-on anaesthetic, principally because of the cost factor, I should imagine, as the strength required would probably be about $30 per kid just for the drug. Cold turkey is kinder on both kids and their humans.

Disbudded kids need to be kept dry for a few hours after the job so that the body’s own healing liquids can seal off the wounds to prevent infection, so don’t disbud on a wet day if you can help it.

DO NOT TOUCH THE WOUNDS AT ANY TIME with fingers or cloths FOR ANY REASON.

Be careful not to let milk splashes get into the wounds.

These precautions must be maintained until the scabs drop off, usually about 6 weeks later. Occasionally a kid will knock a scab off early and bleed. Dust the wound with your chosen antibiotic powder.

More occasionally still, a kid will get an infection. This usually looks like grains of raw sugar and the surrounding skin will be reddened. The kid may throw its head from side to side and yowl. Drench it with ½ a soluble aspirin in a little water to fix the headache and lower the inflammation, and spray the infected wound with iodine, having first put your other hand over the kid’s eyes. The iodine dries and heals the infection. If all your kids get infections, the questions are:

  • Was the iron hot enough?
  • Did they get milk splashes?
  • Did some stupid * put fingers or cloths in the wounds?

I always instruct children as well as parents that they must not touch, because it is an unfortunate fact of modern life that many children don’t obey their parents any more, and in extreme cases, kids can die of disbudding infections which shouldn’t have happened in the first place.

Regrowth of scurs is fairly common in bucks as they have such strong horn growth, and sometimes happens in does. The bits are usually loose and get knocked off in the ordinary give and take of herd life. You should not need to interfere unless a scur does a U-ey and starts growing into the goat’s head. The easiest way to remove it is to grip the scur firmly with a pair of slip-joint pliers, the goat does a big objecting wriggle complaining mightily, and you should be left holding the scur while the goat scarpers, somewhat bloody but unbowed. If the scur is firmly anchored to the head, use a bolt-cutter or wire saw to cut through the scur at the arch of the U. That way you are releasing the pressure on the skull, but you shouldn’t hit blood. The scur often grows off in a different and safer direction. If you do hit blood and it pulses out (that temporal artery again) slapping on some stockholm tar (from the saddler) will stop it. A scur which has come off with the slip-joint pliers is only a surface attachment and the blood will clot in a few minutes. On the rare occasion it doesn’t, Stockholm tar is again the best dressing.

It is not a good idea to disbud for an audience unless they are well out of your light, and far enough back so that if they faint they won’t flatten you and the kid with the hot iron under you. For preference, any viewers should be seated, or at least those closest to the demonstrator.

– Irene Ramsay.
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Irene asked that I include her email address for anyone that has queries. Her email address is shown below in an image, you may also use this contact form.

I am acquainted with Irene Ramsay through the Holistic Goats list on Yahoo Groups. I read all of her posts as they are always full of wisdom and natural remedies for healing. I am honored that Irene Ramsay has agreed to allow me to publish some of her articles on my website. I hope they will be as helpful to you as they have been to me. Thanks, Irene! Please note that Irene lives in New Zealand and sometimes the items she recommends won’t be available in the US under the same name. Copyright 1974-2020 Irene Ramsay. All Rights Reserved. Do not copy without express permission of the author. Thank you.

Your Buck’s Health by Irene Ramsay

The first and most obvious steps in protecting your buck’s health are to worm him regularly, and trim his feet regularly. Bucks are usually kept in fairly restricted quarters, so that they are constantly eating over their own wastes, and therefore re-infecting themselves with worm larvae. Give your buck a hay-rack, rather than putting his hay on the ground, and this will keep his worm-count down, and be less wasteful of fodder. Give him pine or cypress or other aromatic branches to eat, and this will keep his worm-count down, too. I worm my boys before the breeding season starts, and in the spring. If a buck is very busy, he   may need an extra worming part-way through the breeding season. My does get wormed before breeding, and 24-hours after kidding, some years they may need more depending on the weather. However, your worming regime may vary considerably from this, depending on your climate, so the bucks should be wormed when the does are.

Bucks rarely get enough exercise because of the size of their living area, so their feet grow very fast. During the breeding season, it pays to trim the buck’s feet every 3 weeks. A buck with a wormy belly-ache and long sore feet won’t perform well, so it is in your own interest to keep these routine jobs up to date. Bucks’ feet are notoriously hard. Either trim after rain or heavy dew, or scrub his hooves with a nail-brush and warm soapy water. By the time you scrub hoof number 4, hoof number 1 will be soft enough to trim easily. I use footrot shears and a hoof knife for the boys’ feet, with a surform plane if they are so hard I just can’t cut them. In extreme cases, people have been known to use an orbital sander. In summer, my boys have generally let me cut their feet any old where they happened to be, but in the breeding season, each one needs anchored so they can’t ‘help’ or pick a fight with the current victim. You may need acompanion to talk to a sexy buck while you trim his feet, as it is difficult to pedicure while your victim corkscrews round to nibble your ear. And try not to trim male feet when you are menstruating, they generally get rather excited! Most bucks object to having their hind feet trimmed. I think the reason is that they are vulnerable to attack if one hind foot is being firmly held off the ground, and their defensive instincts warn them they aren’t safe in that position. Hence making sure no other goat can get close enough to ‘help’ you, before you start. They don’t object to front hooves being trimmed because they can fight with one front leg off the ground.

Exercise is important to keep your buck healthy. If he has to be tethered or penned all the time, take him for a daily walk, NOT where there are female goats, preferably where he can eat along the way (bushes, prairie grass, etc). If you take him past the girls, he will be so busy ogling them, he won’t eat or exercise, just put up his blood pressure.

Food must be of good quality. Your buck should get the same concentrate rations as your milkers, up to 2 lbs daily if he’s getting a lot of work, less if he’s not, and plenty of well-made weedy hay or feed straw. He will need tempting to eat in the breeding season, so if the food offered is not clean and good, he will just ignore it. You are better to get a well-made hay or straw with weeds through it (which conventional farmers don’t like and sell more cheaply), than to buy a ‘pure’ (weedless) hay that has been rained on, because its actual feed value and palatability will be less. It is better to avoid concentrated hay such as lucerne (alfalfa) or clover, which are rich in protein but don’t have enough roughage. Most bucks receive such a concentrated diet, because of their restricted quarters, that they grow into very narrow, fine-boned animals, and a buck should be broader and heavier boned than his sisters and daughters. If you see he gets plenty of roughage and exercise, he will grow breadth and depth and bone, and live longer. Just think how long you would last if you lived on an exclusive diet of cream cakes and pavlovas. If your buck gets nothing but dairy meal and lucerne and clover, you are doing that to him.

It is not wise to feed any root crops except carrots to bucks (or wethers). Fodderbeet, sugar beet, Swedes, turnips and other roots, in fact all the beet and brassica families, produce insoluble oxalate salts which form crystals in the bladder and cannot pass easily down the male’s long narrow urethra. As the sperm pass down this tube as well, any blockage will make the buck sterile, if nothing worse. If you do need to feed root crops, make sure the males have access to plenty of fresh clean water, and that they drink it! Urinary calculi is a subject I have covered in a separate article, the information would take too much space here.

I do not like feeding any of the leafy beets and brassicas to bucks, either, especially in the mating season, because apart from the oxalates, they tend to give bucks loose bowels. The worst thing that can happen is a scouring buck in the mating season, he’s so centred on sex it is jolly hard to stop the scours! Your buck will enjoy all the branches and other browsing you can cut for him. Always tie things to the fence or put them in a rack; he will eat more and won’t soil it. My bucks got lots of apples because we were in an orcharding area, also carrots and squishy bananas, pears and plums when available. It is worthwhile finding out what is going spare in your area, your buck might fancy it!

Bucks need water. Many drink nearly as much as a lactating doe, if given the opportunity. During the breeding season, when they are often fussy about feed and drink, you may have to give warm or hot water for drinking, to make sure they drink enough. Timothy got UC one cold winter ‘cos he wouldn’t drink cold water on a frosty morning – don’t blame him actually – so from then on I made sure I carted a bucket of warm water out just for him, on cold mornings for the rest of his long life (12½ when he died). During the breeding season, when their heads and beards are filthy, they soil their drinking water frequently, and don’t want to drink it after that – who can blame them. So I use old kitchen sinks as water troughs for males. They hold only 4 gallons, so it is no great loss to have to chuck out a gallon of soiled water twice a day. If your trough is much bigger and you have to chuck out 20 gallons for 1 gallon drunk, that is not just wasteful, it is hard work doing the cleaning.

Overfeeding calcium to your buck, either as milk to a kid, or a calcium supplement, or a high-legume diet, can lead to a lower number of viable sperm being produced, and will pre-dispose to more buck kids because male sperm flourish in an alkaline environment. The buck determines the sex of the kids. Too much calcium, when there is sufficient phosphorus in the diet for the calcium to be absorbed, tends to make an animal sluggish, and can cause bone deformities such as bendy-leg.

Overfeeding phosphorus (lots of grain, dairy meal, etc) will increase your buck’s fertility, but will also drain his bones of calcium, so that he could collapse and die suddenly. Too much phosphorus makes a goat hyperactive, so that it gets worked up at anything, and gallops everywhere.

If you have to feed your does extra minerals (copper, cobalt, iodine or selenium for instance) your buck will need them too. Bucks need a source of salt just like does.

A buck will grow until he is 5-7 years old if he is left to mature naturally, with good balanced feeding. He will live much longer than a buck who is ‘forced’ for the show ring or to make an impressive sale.

The most usual cause of scouring in a buck in the mating season is excitement. Buck kids are especially prone, as their first season is spent dreaming of girls, however few or many wives they may have. In my experience, the buck kid with a few wives is more likely to scour than one with many, because he is frustrated. Once a buck starts to scour in the mating season, whether from excitement, feeding, a chill, or whatever, it is very difficult to stop him. But if you don’t stop him he will wear away to skin and bone in a matter of hours, and because eating has little interest to him at that time of year, it is hard to make him eat binding food to cure him.

It is a good idea to check the bowels of your buck regularly twice a day, morning and evening. Even if your drenching programme is up to date, worm him first, because the worms will party on his stressed guts if you don’t zonk them quick. If you suspect poisoning, deal with that (see Rhododendron Recipes article). If it’s sex, the most effective remedy is often cornflour (cornstarch). It doesn’t just thicken gravy… : Dose for an adult goat is 2 very heaped tablespoons of cornflour mixed to a liquid with about 20 mls of water, and drench. This can be repeated twice daily. Usually works in 24-hours (2 doses), but I have known a very stubborn buck to take 4 days to get back to nannyberries from squish. I prefer maize cornflour but wheat cornflour works, too.

Or you can use electrolytes at the maximum dose on the container as frequently as it permits. If you also require a re-hydration mixture, the following works quite effectively (it is also a good painkiller if you ever need it)

* to a cup of warm water add
* 1 tablespoon vinegar (apple cider vinegar is more nutritious, but white
vinegar works fine)
* 1 teaspoon honey or sugar
* 1 good pinch each of salt, baking soda, and ground ginger

This recipe can be given as often as you like. It may induce sleep in an animal or human who has not been sleeping well, so don’t worry if the goat flakes out on you for a few hours. Sleep is healing.

If your buck gets scours, don’t just say ‘we’ll see if he’s better tomorrow’ because he could be dead by then. Scours will lead to a bellyache, and a buck with a bellyache will not fight his illness, but will get de-hydrated, his blood pressure will drop, and he will die. In an extreme case of bellyache, such as colic or poisoning, if the vet can’t come immediately you ring him, give 4 soluble aspirins in water to a buck kid (6 months to 1 year), or 6 soluble aspirins to a mature buck. This will kill the pain, and once the pain is under control, you can treat the cause of it. Bucks are very susceptible to pain, they will die of it. I once had Kinross down with colic and mild poisoning from eating lilac buds; I kept his pain under control for 72-hours while the lilac worked out of his system. If I hadn’t done this, or alternatively got the vet to give him a painkiller, he would have given up the ghost in 12 hours. Every time the aspirin was wearing off, he’d look at me as if to say ‘I’m gonna die’ so he got another dose. I found the 6 aspirins lasted about 24-hours with him, though I expect it would vary slightly from goat to goat. Aspirin is not the ideal drug for bellyache, as it can rupture the gut in some cases, but when it is a case of that or nothing, use it – at least the animal will not die in agony. Dutch Drops (15 mls) may also help in colic, as does milk of magnesia (2-4 times the adult human dose by weight for an adult goat). [Dutch Drops is a mix of terebinth (vegetable turpentine oil) and flowers of sulphur (yellow sulphur powder) and is a strong anti-colic and diuretic remedy].

A sick buck is susceptible to cold. If you have electricity in your goat house, you can rig up a heat-lamp, but for most of us, it is a case of covers, sacks and hot-water bottles. If he is too weak to stand, you will have to turn him every half hour to keep his circulation going. I like to prop a goat on its chest, because it is less likely to get fluid on its lungs and develop pneumonia in this position. I once had a sick buck kid who had to have a nightlight and have several times left a radio tuned to an easy listening station, turned low, near a sick goat for company, while its human and herdmates are off doing something else.

Unless there is no other choice, you should never give your buck antibiotics (penicillin, tetracycline, etc) from about midsummer on through the breeding season, as they can render him sterile for 2 months or so after the last treatment. Should you have to give him antibiotics for some reason, do not stand him at stud for outside does until he has got one of your own does pregnant (she has been served and has gone more than 21 days without return to heat). It will do his, and your, reputation no good if people keep bringing their does back for return services because the drugs have killed his sperm. They are likely to decide your buck is no good and go somewhere else instead, and spread the word widely, which is worse.

Sulpha (sulfa) drugs do not affect fertility in bucks, I have found. They can usually be used as an alternative to antibiotics. Personally, I prefer sulpha drugs anyway, as many goats take up to 2 months for their rumen bacteria to recover from antibiotics, where sulpha only affects them for about a week. Nowadays we replace the rumen bacteria with probios or yoghurt or yeast, but no-one had thought of that when this article was originally written in 1980.

A buck should never be given steroids – cortisone, for instance – these have been known to affect fertility in stallions from 2 years to life, and I would imagine a similar effect in bucks. TLC (Tender Loving Care) is 90% of the success in treating sick bucks anyway, they are awful wimps when they are sick.

A high fever, for whatever reason, can kill off developing sperm and render a buck temporarily sterile. If this happens in the heat of summer, he will go into the breeding season shooting blanks, which is very frustrating when he has half the county booked in to him. This happened to one of mine when he got a touch of the sun one year! Sometimes a buck will get a sore on the tip of his scrotum, which is the result of burning from ammonia-soaked bedding. It can be cleared up by applying Vaseline, vitamin A ointment, or Rawleighs yellow salve. Frequent clean bedding will stop a recurrence unless you have a buck who does a great puddle on his straw, then lies down on the wet bit. This habit can cause pizzle rot as well. I’ve found a good squirt of iodine works great to dry up the gunge, and the buck doesn’t seem to mind the sting because it stops the itch! Long grass with seed heads, or wet long grass, can also cause pizzle rot, though this cause more often affects fibre goats because the belly fibre is wet and helps to incubate fungal organisms round the pizzle area. Keeping the belly shorn short helps – that fibre is very low grade, anyway, so is no financial loss.

Scrotal mange is usually treated by dosing with an avermectin. Topically, you can apply the avermectin as well, or alternatively, mineral oil to smother the mites. If the buck licks some of this off,
he may have loose bowels next day.

Some bucks have very little hair on the scrotum; in such cases applying sunscreen is a good precaution, you don’t want skin cancer to develop. Some bucks get a hard substance, often black, round their teats and scrotal attachment. This is a type of wax exuded by the body to protect the area, but if allowed to build up, can become most uncomfortable and even lift the skin. It can be removed by bathing gently with warm soapy water to soften and loosen it. Dry him afterwards, and if he looks tender, apply vaseline. Depending on the humidity in your area, your buck may never need this done, or you may have to do it every six months, or for shows.

Sometimes a buck may fall in serving a doe and damage his penis – usually gravel rash (that doesn’t mean he landed on gravel, it means the penis is scraped). He will feel uncomfortable for about 2 weeks, so it is best to rest him, as he is likely to refuse to work anyway. If you try to make him serve, and he finds penetration hurts him, you may damage his performance for life, so it is in your own interests to give him a spell. Bucks are very fussy about cleaning the penis, unlike stallions who have to be cleaned by their handlers, so you do not have to worry about the build up of ammoniate crystals which can cause scratching to the wall of the female’s vagina during mating.

Some bucks burn the skin off the backs of their front legs and nosefrom spraying. To a pint of warm water add 1 tablespoon white vinegar and wash the affected areas. Vinegar is soothing on ammonia damaged skin. Dry and apply vaseline or diaper cream. Some bucks get dry, cardboardy skin in various parts of their bodies. First wash off any scurf (dandruff) with warm water containing anti-fungicidal pet shampoo, dry well and apply vaseline or mineral oil. The old-fashioned remedy of goose-grease would probably be even better!

A bucks who doesn’t seem interested in his work can have his libido (love-making urge) toned up by giving 6 kelp tablets daily for 10 days (adult dose) and rainwater to drink instead of your usual supply. The buck is usually in fine fettle after about 4 days! Have a close look at his diet; it is probably too high in calcium, or the legumes it contains are unusually high in oestrogens.

Mud scald between the claws of the hooves and even further up the legs, usually responds quickly to iodine. If it doesn’t, because that particular fungus is not sensitive to iodine, try zinc diaper cream, 10% copper sulphate (sulfate) solution, 1% alum solution, gentian violet, or a paste of flowers of sulphur and lard. If none of these work, there are plenty of ideas – some people find athlete’s foot ointment works, for instance. When the skin starts to heal, it will shed the hair and often go bright pink, but it is not as sensitive as it looks. The new hair starts to grow in a couple of weeks.

Your buck’s mental health is as important as his physical health. If he is bright and alert and happy, he will work better. He needs to see plenty going on around him, and lots of physical contact with his human slave (walks, head-scratching, etc). The more handling you give him, the better for his peace of mind, and he will be easier to treat if he gets ill when he is used to plenty of handling.

Don’t hurt your buck’s feelings by laughing at him as he works, or make rude remarks. Don’t let other people do so either. I’ve seen a serious-minded buck so upset by human hilarity that he couldn’t complete the job, and he was normally extremely efficient. Sure, some bucks do have comical foreplay, but would YOU like to be laughed at when mating? Don’t smack his penis if he sticks it out when you don’t want him to. Animals are not embarrassed by sex but they are sensitive to human atmosphere. I know of one buck who got so sensitive about his function
in life, because of his owner’s attitude, that he took to loving himself, and was no use at all if presented with a wife. He died aged 4 years, of premature old age brought on by frustration.

Finally, consider giving your buck a medical each summer. If it’s done then, he won’t smell, and won’t try to ‘do’ the vet either. That way, you may pick up on a possible future problem (such as a heart murmur developing) before it becomes one.

– Irene Ramsay.
This article was originally published in New Zealand in 1980. Updated January 2007.

Click here for all the Wisdom of Irene Ramsay articles

Irene asked that I include her email address for anyone that has queries. Her email address is shown below in an image, you may also use this contact form.

I am acquainted with Irene Ramsay through the Holistic Goats list on Yahoo Groups. I read all of her posts as they are always full of wisdom and natural remedies for healing. I am honored that Irene Ramsay has agreed to allow me to publish some of her articles on my website. I hope they will be as helpful to you as they have been to me. Thanks, Irene! Please note that Irene lives in New Zealand and sometimes the items she recommends won’t be available in the US under the same name. Copyright 1974-2020 Irene Ramsay. All Rights Reserved. Do not copy without express permission of the author. Thank you.

Natural Ways of Treating Mastitis by Irene Ramsay

There are many forms of mastitis in goats, and not all are caused by bacteria. Probably the commonest cause is pressure and the resultant bruising. When the udder is holding more milk than it has ever done before, the outer skin becomes stretched and painful. Unless the pressure is relieved the stretched skin will become tight and inflamed and the milk inside overheated so that it comes out in lumps. This can happen to maiden milkers who aren’t milked, to does who have bagged up long before kidding and haven’t been pre-milked, and to heavily-producing does who have missed a milking.

Bruising is more common in pendulous udders but can happen as a result of a fall or a fight especially if the udder is full at the time. Some kids are rough feeders and therefore cause severe bruising by bunting the udder. Bruised tissue produces less milk so the kid bunts harder, increasing the bruises and compounding the problem.

Wounds to the udder cause inflammation due to trauma or foreign bodies (from sitting in hawthorn, gorse, or thistles, for instance) or bacteria entering the wound. Bacteria may enter the udder through scraped skin or the teat orifice – the cause of ‘summer mastitis’ is usually a combination of warmth, humidity and dirty-footed flies.

A careful goatkeeper can usually detect the start of mastitis by a slight thickening of the skin of the teat or udder. If you are well acquainted with the feel of each goat’s udder in a healthy state the change in texture will just about jump up and shout at you. Not all udders get hot at this early stage and some may just have patches of thickening no bigger than a ten cent piece.

If you treat the udder at this early stage, in most cases it will be normal again by the next milking. The treatment I have found most effective is to drench the goat with some of her own fresh milk – 20 mls will do – as soon as I detect an abnormality in the udder. This challenges the goat to produce antibodies against whatever caused the mastitis and is very effective. It is cheap, with no withdrawal period unlike drugs.

We discovered this treatment for mastitis in 1972, when two of our first kidders had post-partum mastitis (usually caused by over-stretching). One of them had rickets so we fed some of her milk back to her to help the rickets and the mastitis cleared up. The other doe was treated with conventional cow drugs and lost the use of that half of her udder. Part of that, in hindsight, was because we did not manage to strip all the gunk out properly each time she was milked; we were too kind to persevere when she was obviously in pain being milked. Later cases of mastitis, including those caused by wounds, have also responded rapidly to the milk drench.

In 1975, I told a visiting Australian breeder about this treatment, and I could see he was doubtful. In 1978 he came to visit us again and the first thing he said was that my mastitis treatment was marvellous. When he had got home from his previous trip he was greeted at the airport with the news that his best milker had cut her udder badly and although stitched up was in a bad way with mastitis in spite of the drugs she’d been given. Her milk yield had dropped dramatically. With nothing to lose, the breeder decided to try giving her back her own milk, the mastitis cleared up, and all she had to do was heal. He was thrilled that her milk yield returned to its previous level and she had no udder problems in subsequent lactations.

The only type of mastitis the milk drench will not treat successfully is black mastitis because it is a form of blood poisoning (septicaemia). For this you do need to resort to antibiotics and antitoxin. It is important to milk all the gunk (blood, serum, pus, bad milk and dead tissue) out of the udder at frequent intervals, using massage with some form of lubricant. The old remedy was to use goose grease (you will find a case history in one of the James Heriot books about a cow with black mastitis; after sulpha drugs were given the owner massaged and milked the udder for 24-hours and she recovered). Nowadays most of us would use aromatherapy oil or cooking oil for the same job. The drugs alone will not cure the udder, you have to use the natural methods as well.

When the udder is hard and/or inflamed bathing it with a soothing liquid helps to cool and draw it. As an emergency measure (when first discovered), you can use epsom salts – one tablespoon to 600 mls warm water. A kitchen sponge is a good way to apply it. The herbal remedy is one good handful each of dock leaves and elderberry leaves in 600 mls of water. Bring slowly to the boil in a stainless steel or enamel pot and simmer for five minutes. Cover and leave to stand for a minimum of four hours. Drain off the liquid into a bottle or jar for storage and keep it in the fridge. This amount will bathe the udder for three or four days, and by that time the udder should be better. The brew starts to go off by this time and should be discarded. When our elder was cut back one year, I gathered all the leaves, and raided the neighbours’ gardens for dock leaves and made up a huge brew which I froze in 250 ml lots and stored in the freezer ready for emergencies. Let’s face it, Murphy’s Law causes inflamed udders in direct proportion to the unavailability of the deciduous elder!

However long it takes and however many kicks you suffer, you must milk off all the milk, cheesy lumps, blood, gunk and little lumps of decomposing flesh which emerge from the teat orifice, if you are to have any chance of returning the udder to normal milk yield. If you don’t get rid of all the bad stuff at every milking, including lengthy massage
to release more secretion, it will do irreparable damage to the milk producing tissue, thereby giving the goat a one-way ticket to the dog-tucker freezer, as she will no longer be profitable to milk.

After the udder has recovered and the milk is back to normal, it is usual (so don’t panic) for some damaged internal tissue to slough off and come out of the orifice as irregular lumps which may be blood spotted. This is part of the healing process, just like when a doe sheds the uterine lining after kidding, so has a bloody tail for a few weeks. As a precaution, dose the doe with her milk while this is happening as the sphincter of the orifice is stretched letting hese
lumps through and may pick up bacteria because it will take a little longer to close than normal.

It is also usual for the outer skin to peel off if the udder has been inflamed. Some goats get touchy while this is happening as the new skin is tender. It is also susceptible to sunburn whatever the skin colour. You may be wise to use a soothing sunscreen on the udder until the skin is normal.

Sub-clinical mastitis shows up as white grit in the strainer when you are putting the milk to cool. The most likely cause is cobalt deficiency. To find out, give the goat a teaspoonful of Marmite or Vegemite or dried yeast. You can use ‘unimproved’ baking yeast or brewer’s yeast, 1 teaspoon daily, just as with the Marmite or Vegemite. This is only an interim test to check for cobalt deficiency, as prolonged use of yeast/yeast extract will cause phosphorus poisoning – guess how I discovered that????

You can spread it on a sandwich or make it into a drench if you like. Within 24-hours the grit in the strainer should have disappeared or lessened considerably. Dose the goat with cobalt, whichever method you prefer, so that she can make her own vitamin Bl2. It is cheaper than using any form of B12 supplement.

If this doesn’t work, the goat is probably under some kind of stress. Parasites, other mineral problems, poor milking techniques (hand or machine), or difficulty in getting on to the bail are all possibilities. Eliminate the cause and the sub-clinical mastitis will disappear.

A treatment I will have to add, is the use of Bryonia for long-standing abscesses and scar tissue. The form I used was the liquid given to nursing human mothers, and the goat was given 5 mls twice daily. The abscess had been hanging round for months, so deep inside the udder tissue it was undetectable. It ripened in 5 days and I lanced and
cleaned with peroxide. For the week the doe was with me I had ‘milked’ pus out of her twice a day and was hopeful of finally getting past this back to milk, but her owners did not persevere with the treatment and that half of the udder packed up completely. They had already had this happen to their other milker, and neither the vet nor I could detect the original cause. I am of the opinion that marginal cobalt deficiency (common in this area) was a factor in prolonging the problem, as the doe had the typical acetone smell when she arrived (not when she left, I’d
dosed her with cobalt).

– Irene Ramsay.
Updated 7 April 2000.

Click here for all the Wisdom of Irene Ramsay articles

Irene asked that I include her email address for anyone that has queries. Her email address is shown below in an image, you may also use this contact form.

I am acquainted with Irene Ramsay through the Holistic Goats list on Yahoo Groups. I read all of her posts as they are always full of wisdom and natural remedies for healing. I am honored that Irene Ramsay has agreed to allow me to publish some of her articles on my website. I hope they will be as helpful to you as they have been to me. Thanks, Irene! Please note that Irene lives in New Zealand and sometimes the items she recommends won’t be available in the US under the same name. Copyright 1974-2020 Irene Ramsay. All Rights Reserved. Do not copy without express permission of the author. Thank you. Please note that Irene lives in New Zealand and sometimes the items she recommends won’t be available in the US under the same name.

Polioencephalomalacia – Our Experience

Goat Polio
DISCLAIMER: PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS DOCUMENTATION IS NOT MEANT AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR CONTACTING YOUR VETERINARIAN. THE SOLE PURPOSE OF THIS DOCUMENT IS TO SHARE OUR PERSONAL EXPERIENCE WITH POLIOENCEPHALOMALACIA/THIAMINE DEFICIENCY/PEM/GOAT POLIO, WHAT WE DID FOR OUR DOE AND HOW HER RECOVERY PROGRESSED. COPYRIGHT U-SAY RANCH.

Brooklyn, 18 month old dry yearling Nubian doe, exposed to buck 5 weeks prior. Estimated weight 6 days prior to onset of polio: 170# (tape measurement of chest was 39.25″)

Things we used for treatment:

  • 12cc syringe
  • Needles
  • Injectible B Complex
  • Bottle for forcing liquids
  • Thermometer
  • Fresh Ginger Root (for soothing stomach)
  • Baking Soda
  • Nutri-Drench
  • Probios

Here’s the super short version, I’ve documented the entire crisis and her progress over the next week below.

Our goat Brooklyn had been acting “sad” – moping around for a couple of days, but we had been replacing the fencing around the goat pen. This sometimes spooks the girls, so we just kept an eye on Brooklyn. Usually when we notice them acting depressed/sad/mopey we give them a dose of probios (acidophilus for cattle); we neglected to do that this time. I don’t know if that is why she got as sick as she did, but we will be more careful in the future to watch for them acting sad or depressed.

By 2pm, she had her first seizure. She was lying on her side with her four legs sticking straight out from her body. The seizure would cause her front legs to paw the air as if she were running, her back legs would stretch out until they were sticking straight behind her, parallel with her back.

We started treating her for Polioencephalomalacia [this is the correct spelling, btw] by 6pm with an injection of 1cc B complex. Later we were to discover that the dosage “in an emergency” i.e. you cannot get Thiamine (B1), was 12cc every 8 hours when using injectable B complex. Ideally your veterinarian would diagnose and prescribe Thiamine (B1) as goat polio is strictly a Thiamine (B1) deficiency. Within an hour she responded to the injection of B by lurching herself into an upright position, lying on her chest, with her front legs propped straight out in front to brace herself from falling over. Her neck was still stiff and drawn over to the left side. Prior to this, she was lying on her side, totally unaware of anything, enduring seizures about every five minutes. With the second injection of B complex (3cc, at this point we still didn’t know how much to give her) she managed to hoist herself into a standing position. She was blind, weak and managed to stand only a few minutes. We gave her a third injection of B complex (3cc) and this time she got to her feet and stayed on her feet for the next eleven hours. Please continue to read on if you would like to read detailed documentation of her illness and how we cared for her.

I work for an agency that provides services for adults who are blind and visually impaired, so I understand the difference between “blindness” and visual impairment. Most people assume a person with vision loss is “blind” and make the assumption that the person sees nothing but total blackness. The fact of the matter is that only 15% of the “blind” population is totally blind, seeing only blackness. At any rate, I couldn’t bring myself to say Brooke was blind when I could tell that she had impaired vision.

Click here for links to more information on Polioencephalomalacia/Thiamine Deficiency/PEM/Goat Polio.

DAY 1 Thursday, November 20, 2003

6:00am: Brooke isn’t up with the other goats, lying down alone by herself. This was the first thing that caused us to suspect something was awry.

9:00am: Brooke is listless and not at all feeling like herself. We have perused our two goat books and haven’t found much information, maybe she is aborting? She did get up and walk around, urinate and had normal goat berries. We gave her some Nutri-Drench in water, as she was acting lethargic.

2:00pm: We panic, assuming Brooke is dying and in her death throes — she has just had her first convulsion.

3:00pm: We now suspect bloat, and drench her with 1/2 cup of olive oil, and then tube her. We got out about 1-2 cups of yellowish-green liquid. She had been lying on her side convulsing every 5 minutes or so. She was totally out of it. Her neck was twisted upwards, and when she would have a convulsion her front legs would peddle fast, and her back legs would stretch way back until they were in line with her back.

We knew Brooke needed to get up off her side. We tried to make a sling to hold her upright, but it didn’t work out. She did urinate while in a semi-upright position.

Three factors kept us from calling a veterinarian. 1) We have not yet established ourselves with one, 2) We have heard nothing but complaints about veterinarians in our area — that they know little about goats 3) We couldn’t afford to take the chance of calling a vet when we could probably do just as well or better, on our own. Ideally, I would have 1) preferred to have had ourselves established with a knowledgeable veterinarian, so we could have called for advice and access to prescription medication 2) had the money to be able to afford the vet.

4:30pm: I stayed outside with Brooklyn for awhile longer, but then felt like I had to get indoors and start researching the Internet to see if I could find out what was wrong with her. Just a day earlier on one of the goat lists I’m on, someone had a doe down with Brooke’s symptoms. It was suggested that this other doe could have polio, listeriosis, tetanus, or poisoning. I decided that we would start treating with the “cure” for polio, which is injectible Vitamin B – three doses in a 24 hour period. It should be B1, but B1 (Thiamine) can only be obtained through your veterinarian with a prescription. We gambled by not giving Brooklyn antibiotics, because if she had listeriosis she would have gotten sicker. Another person on a list I’m on had a buckling with listeriosis at the same time. She told me that they too started out with only the injections of B1, but her buckling got worse.

5:00pm: We pick up injectible B from the local feed store, syringes and Red Cell (for selenium, as our area has a deficiency). This is the B I got:
Durvet Maxi-B 1000 Injection NDC 30798-324-10.
Contents 100ml. By the way, ml are equal to cc
Each ml contains:
12.5 mg Thimaine Hydrochloride (B1)
Niacinamide 12.5mg
Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (B6) 5.0mg
d-Panthenol 5.0mg
riboflavin B2 2.0mg
cyanocobalamin (b12) 1000mcg
benzyl alcohol as a preservative
Dosage per bottle: 1 to 2 ml per 500 pounds of body weight.

[When we went for the second bottle of vitamin B, we discovered that there was a less expensive kind that did not contain B12. The feed store owner told me that horse owners would go for the B12, as that is what horses need. So when I compared the bottles, and both had 12.5mg, I figured the less expensive B would work as well.]

6:00pm: Brooke has her first injection of B complex. We had never given a shot, we had no idea how much to give, so started out with 1cc [especially since the bottle said 1-2cc for 500 pounds of animal, this was instructions for cattle, though]. She’s still lying on her side, having spasms every 5 minutes or so, front legs peddling, back legs stretching way out parallel to her back.

6:30pm: We decided to bring Brooklyn into the house, because the temperatures were going down into the 40s, and so we could keep a close watch on her. We put her in our dining room. We brought in a piece of linoleum, then put a blanket over that.

We decide to carry her inside, no small feat, as she is a big doe. The last tape measurement estimate for weight was 170#. We found out that she actually needed a *lot* more of the injectible B, since it was primarily a deficiency in B1. The B complex I’d gotten only had 12.5mg of B1. But we were still leary of giving the shots, giving too much (knowing that B is water soluble didn’t seem to help much with the worry). Check Saanendoah for information on the correct dosage.

Once she got inside, after lying on her side for 15-20 minutes, she lurched herself up into an upright position onto her chest. Her front legs were propped straight out in front of her, with her back legs curled up near her body. This was a definite improvement, with only 1cc of B complex (12.5mg B1). Her neck was still stiff and arched to the side, but much less stiff. I put a beanbag chair under her head to help her hold it up since it kept slowly moving down, then she’d lurch it up again.

8:00pm: Brooke is bleating out every few minutes, (a painful sounding bellow sort of bleat) and acts as if she wants to get up. She has begun to grind her teeth, (this indicates stomach problems) she is keeping her head upright now with her eyes closed, she is obviously blind. Her pupils do not react to light. We’ve learned that she needs much more B (from 12cc to 64cc depending on who’s giving the recommendations). We gave her 3cc. At this time we didn’t know that the needle disconnected from the syringe, and were reluctant to poke her again right away, even though I knew she was going to need much more B. After the 3cc, she lugged herself onto her feet, but was very weak and swaying back and forth. She almost tipped over onto her head at one point, and soon laid down again (practically falling down). I also have given her a dose of probios. Her neck is no longer stiff at all.

10:00pm: We decided to give Brooke another 3cc of B. I was extremely confused about how much to give… 1) it should have been only B1 2) I was getting estimates of giving 12cc of B Complex — but only if it was “fortified” — all the way up to 64cc. The bottle I’d purchased only had 100cc, and was $8.25. Unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of money so I was panicked at the thought of having to give 64cc three times a day for days! I guess all the advice was confusing me more than helping. But at least we were seeing improvement, even though our doses were not the recommended. I gave Brooke another dose of probios. [Later I learned that it is only necessary to give probios 1X in a 24 hour period. I was giving it to her because I was afraid of her rumen shutting down, and hoped the probios would keep it going to some extent.]

I got advice to give “ginger mixed with 10 ccs warm water as an oral drench just in case it is poisoning as this works on the toxins”. I had fresh ginger root on hand and made a tea of it. [2 cups of water and 5-6 thin slices of ginger brought to a boil, and steeped for 15 minutes). We were forcing liquids — water with a bit of molasses and salt mixed in (for an electrolyte effect). We were using a mustard bottle, putting the nozzle into the side of her mouth, holding her head up and squeezing it into her mouth. It helped to hold a towel under her mouth to catch the drips.

After the 3cc, she again stood to her feet. She is still grinding her teeth, her sides are sunken way in.

DAY 2 Friday, November 21, 2003

7am: 6cc of B complex. I’ve been up with Brooklyn on and off, all night long. I couldn’t sleep but a few minutes at a time. Every time I get up to check on her, she’s moved to another spot. She seems to be staying on her feet and slowly walking. Normal goat berries this morning, but she hasn’t urinated since yesterday afternoon. Brooke’s vision is definitely compromised. She acts as if she is blind, but she does have light perception now. Her pupils react correctly to a beam of light.

8am: We thought Brooke might want to go out onto the porch, she seemed to be interested in the open doorway, but it is still too cold for her. She began shivering, so I made her come back inside.

9am: Brooke finally laid down once we brought her back inside. She was on her feet from 10pm last night. She felt cold to the touch (still had not located or been able to leave to buy a thermometer!) so I put a comforter blanket into the dryer and heated it up, then draped it over her. I gave her another dose of probios.

11:30am: Since she hadn’t urinated in such a long time, we realized that we needed to start forcing more fluids, so we got 2 cups of water with molasses and Nutri-drench into her with the squirt bottle. I’m extremely worried about her rumen shutting down, since she hasn’t eaten in such a long time. I’ve been offering her grass hay every hour or so, (she normally eats alfalfa) but she is not at all interested in it. I even offered her a baby carrot, which she usually loves, but no luck.

12:30pm: I remembered reading on a list about how if your goat’s rumen is shutting down, you can sometimes help by stealing a cud from another (healthy) goat and give it to your sick goat. So we went out to the goats… we’ve figured out how to get the goats to hawk up a cud. If you rub gently on their neck, from their chest to their throat, scratching and rubbing, they like that, and eventually get starry-eyed and hawk up a cud. Our youngest doe, Lightning, urped up a cud, and I tried to get it, but she swallowed it right away. I waited for a few minutes, then tried again. I got a chunk of her cud, about the size of a peach pit. Lightning was NOT happy about this. 😉 We went back inside, and I tried to put the cud into Brooke’s cheek… she didn’t like the “ABC” cud anymore than Lightning liked having it stolen from her. Brooklyn spit it out, but I put it back into her mouth on her tongue, and just held it in her mouth for a couple of minutes. Brooklyn had been lying down since 9am, but stood up while I was trying to give her the cud. She still hasn’t urinated.

2pm: More ginger tea with baking soda. (About 1/8 cup tea, 1/8 cup water, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda). We forced 2 more cups of water into her, with molasses and Nutri-drench. Finally, I realized that we need to get her most favorite foods to entice her to eat. There is one kind of tree on our property (we only have two of this certain type) and the goats really love them. So I went and cut a branch for her. She was interested! But she wasn’t chewing off the leaves and twigs herself, she was just licking and nibbling gently on the branch, so I took bite-sized pieces off for her. She finally ate! She ate about twenty little bunches. I then gave her more probios. She pooped again, normal berries.

2:15pm: She finally urinated! Quite a bit, at least two to three cups, dark yellow. I attributed the color and strength to not getting enough fluids, plus an excess of B vitamins always color the urine bright yellow. We caught much of it in a bowl we had for just that purpose. Now the next improvement we’re looking for is to see her chew her cud. She is also nibbling on grass hay, and finally drank water on her own.

3pm: 6cc B complex

3:15pm: We decided Brooke would benefit from some sunshine, and guided her out onto the porch. We thought it might also be beneficial for her to have a visit from her herdmates, so we brought our other two does up onto the porch for visitation. 🙂

8:00pm: Brooke is lying down in the hallway, we observed her hawk up a cud and chew it, three times. This is very good! She is still visually impaired.

11pm: 12cc B complex. Earlier today I finally bought a syringe that holds more than 3cc! So I was able to give her the full 12cc’s that was recommended on the Saanendoah site.

DAY 3 Saturday, November 22, 2003

7am: 12 cc B complex. Brooke is still not drinking on her own, or eating without our enticing her with her favorite foods. So we’re pushing fluids orally, and giving her favorite tree leaves. We also gave her some chapparel twigs, she ate just a couple of those, her favorite tree, and sunflower seeds. We will continue to force fluids today every couple hours.

3pm: 12 cc B complex. We discover that Brooke loves sunflower shells (yes, the shells — the seeds have already been removed). I took Brooke’s chest measurement, it’s now only 36″? That indicates weight loss of FORTY pounds?!

5pm: We decided since Brooke is walking around the house at a pretty steady pace, and bleating questioningly — as if she was looking for her herdmates — that we should take her outside to see how she would do in her own environment. Taking her out to her own home seemed to do Brooke a world of good. Her appetite perked up immediately, and she began hogging down alfalfa like she usually does.

Since Brooke seemed to be responding so well to her own home, we decided to set her up in a private stall in the barn and see how she would do for the night. It is not possible to leave her with her herdmates at this point, as she cannot see if they try to headbutt her. I’m really torn between having Brooke in the house one more night, since it is supposed to get down to below freezing tonight, and letting her stay in the barn. I put her sweatshirt back on.

Brooklyn in her sweatshirt, Day 3

8:30pm: 8cc B complex. We are all so exhausted and it’s so cold out, I don’t know if we can get out to the barn at 11pm, so we decided to give her a reduced amount of B, at an earlier time. When we got into the barn, she was lying down, and seemed comfortable. She isn’t shivering, and it’s quite a bit warmer in the sheltered part of the barn that she is in, in comparison to outside the barn, where the other goats prefer to spend the night — even with the wind blowing at 20mph!

DAY 4 Sunday, November 23, 2003

7am: 12cc B complex. Brooke did very well last night. She is up and talking, but still blind/visually impaired. This private stall opens out into a private yard. We let Brooke out into this small yard so she could get some sunshine. She is eating okay, but it still doesn’t seem she is drinking, or maybe just not very much. So I’m continuing to force liquids into her.

3pm: 6cc B complex. We’re running out of vitamin B. I didn’t realize it until the feed stores were all closed today. I cut her dosage to 6cc, and this hopefully will leave enough for the next 2 doses. I work tomorrow, so I won’t be home to get more until around 5pm. Brooke is eating her hay voraciously. It doesn’t seem she is drinking water, so I’m still pushing fluids, a cup or so at a time. But she is urinating and defecating, so she must be getting enough fluids. She is really disliking my forcing her to drink. She’s beginning to fight me. She still appears to have vision loss. I think she can see blurry shapes, but of course there is no way for me to determine that.

Brooke had one more injection of B, 6cc in the evening. We pushed/pulled her into the barn for the night.

DAY 5 Monday, November 24, 2003

We decided to give Brooke 2 daily shots of B, 12cc at each time, starting today. She’s much better. We still forced some fluids, but she is eating alfalfa voraciously. We attempted to put her in the barn tonight, but she fought mightily. After we finally got her in the barn, she pushed her way back out in the yard. I guess Brooke wants to sleep out under the stars tonight.

DAY 6 Tuesday, November 25, 2003

Two injections of B complex today. Brooklyn is eating and drinking on her own. We took off her sweatshirt today, and let her spend time with her herdmates. The youngest doe, who was number three, is trying to move up into Brooke’s position – #2. Brooke is having none of it, and even though she is still not seeing very well, she is trying to shove the youngest doe. Brooke is moving around her private yard much quicker, so it seems her vision has improved. But at dusk, she is still bumping into the chain link fence, so her vision isn’t back completely. We’re still hoping that she’ll recover fully. Some research I’ve found says that it can take up to a week for full recovery, so we really hope to see her vision return.

DAY 7 Wednesday, November 26, 2003
Brooke is doing much better today. We can tell that she is still experiencing some vision loss, but it is obvious that her vision is returning. She is feeling well enough, and can see enough to re-establish her position on the totem pole with the younger doe. After spending a few hours with them together, we decided she would be okay to stay with her herd. She’s doing very well.

DAY 8 Thursday, November 27, 2003
I observed Brooke eating and drinking normally today. All of the goats are gingerly lapping up water… I guess it’s too cold to take big slurps of water like they usually do. As she is still experiencing some vision loss, we are still giving the B complex injections. The information I’ve gotten online says to continue until the symptoms disappear.

DAY 9 Friday, November 28, 2003
We are cutting Brooklyn’s dose down to 6cc twice a day. She is moving quickly around the goat yard, but it is hard to tell if she has her vision back totally. She is in with her herd, eating and drinking well. I think we’ll give her B complex for a few more doses, and continue watching to see if she looks like she has her sight back completely. I observed her today walk up one step, across a platform, and then when she got to the down step, she seemed to be just slightly off, as if she hadn’t seen the drop off.
DAY 26 December 15th, 2003
Brooklyn began aborting today. I had wondered if her ordeal would affect her pregnancy, and possibly it did. She aborted at 8 weeks.

UPDATE

February 14th, 2004
To look at Brooke today, you would *never* imagine she’d been blind, and on death’s door. I am so grateful we were able to bring her back to health. We had her bred again and her new due date is June 21, 2004.

More information on Polioencephalomalacia/Thiamine Deficiency/PEM/Goat Polio

[HDG911] Polio from Animal Disease Diagnostic Lab
Polioencephalomalacia Reprint The Goat Magazine June/July 2000
Saanendoah
Goat Connection
On-line Medical Dictionary
Metabolic and Nutritional Diseases of Goats – Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food
Onion Creek Ranch Tennessee Meat Goats – Goat Polio or Listeriosis?
Diagnosing and Treating Listeriosis

Lighting’s 3rd Kidding – 2006

DOB: 4/8/03
Age: 3 years
3rd Freshening: 151 days gestation, 1 buckling
Previous Freshenings:
1st Gestation 149 days; 1 buckling, 1 doeling
2nd Gestation 149 days; 2 doelings

I was away from home when Lightning went into labor. I had to run three errands on the way home, and my son asked me to stop by the store and get a few things, and I was supposed to go to the puppy training class, but since the wind was blowing so hard, the puppy training lady called and cancelled the class until next week. Thank goodness she cancelled!!!

I went out to check Lightning as soon as I got home and it was obvious to me that her bag of waters had broken (there were a couple of puddles of thick fluid on the ground, plus she had a long string hanging). I called my husband (called the home phone using my cell phone) and asked him to bring the towels and sheets out that I’d set aside for the birth. He came out, and our younger son came out with his camcorder. It took her a while (over 5 minutes of pushing), but finally she was able to get her single buckling kid out. Mom and kid are doing fine. WHEW.

Lightning is doing great… I still can’t believe she only had ONE kid in there. There is this “bumping” thing you can do, where you put your arms around their belly and bounce the dam’s belly up and down. You can only do it after they have had one kid since their belly muscles are relaxed. So I thought I would try it, after she had this one baby, because I was sure there were more inside. Nothing. Dh tried and he felt nothing either. She stopped having labor pains as soon as the kid was out. Nature demands if there is another kid in there (as long as the kid is positioned correctly, or not dead), that they will continue on with labor pains, because the uterus needs to shrink back down to normal size which is I would guess the size of a grapefruit, not big enough to hold kids. So, we felt pretty confident that she was done.

This little boy was born somewhat selenium-deficient. You can see his front legs are kind of bent funny. He was fine within a few days. I gave him a selenium-Vitamin E supplement that is given orally. Normally we use BOSE which is a prescription medication, and is given by shot SQ.

All in all, an uneventful birth.

Brooke’s 2nd Kidding – 2006

DOB: 5/2/02
Age: 3 years, 11 months
2nd Freshening: Gestation 152 days; triplet doelings
Previous Freshenings:
1st Freshening 135 days gestation; 2 bucklings, 1 doeling all stillborn; headbutting to side brought on premature labor

Milk Fever by Fias Co Farm

Milk Fever Strikes

More Feedback on Hypocalcemia by Muriel Sluyter Good article showing what signs to look for; however, doesn’t indicate which kind of calcium gluconate.

You might not want to read this story as unfortunately we lost Brooke to milk fever 26 hours after she kidded. I debated chronicling her kidding story because of the tragic outcome, but one of the reasons I tell the story of our kiddings is the hope that someone else can learn from our experiences, either good or bad.

Things I learned from this kidding:

  1. Reminder to pay attention to my instincts
  2. Recognize slow labor as being calcium deficiency which can lead to hypocalcemia aka milk fever
  3. Does that produce more than twins are more prone to hypocalcemia
  4. Always make sure the doe is eating her hay after kidding or suspect there is a problem
  5. Heavy producers are also prone to hypocalcemia
  6. Always have CMPK or calcium gluconate ON HAND before kidding
  7. Our first experience with a weak kid at birth

My family reported to me by phone around 3:30pm that Brooke had been acting like she was in labor since about 1pm. She was nesting, was walking around slowly, hunching, her sides were hollow.

I arrived home around 5pm and she looked to me like she should kid within a couple of hours, certainly by midnight.

She kept hunching and arching her back. With Dallas’ 2005 kidding, one of my goat mentors told me she only waits for three of those hunches/arches/stretches and checks to see what is going on inside. But I couldn’t remember if that was BEFORE she saw the doe actually pushing, or AFTER. I’m really reluctant to “go in” if I don’t have to, I’d rather not. Actually, for some reason I was having something akin to paranoia about having to “go in” and was really stressing out about it. I called another goat person around 8pm and she agreed with my dh that Brooke was probably still in early labor, since she didn’t have any mucous discharge. I had been debating just doing a finger check, to make sure no kids were blocking the birth canal. But I decided to go ahead and just let her labor. I went to bed and was up at 10pm to check on her. She had a bit of mucous discharge at this time, and she was still hunching/arching.

I went back to bed, and my dh woke me up at 2pm, told me he thought she might go soon. So we went out and sat with her for a while. She was still doing the same thing, no big pushes. I was nauseated because I was tired, stressed and really scared that this birth was going to be a repeat of Brooke’s first kidding. I finally worked up my nerve and told my dh that I thought I should at least do a finger check around 2:45am. I cleaned Brooke’s bottom carefully using this method, and cleaned my hand. With just two fingers, I couldn’t feel anything inside, no baby heads or bodies. I was preparing myself to go ahead and put my entire hand in to make sure she didn’t have any tangles going on in there.

Doeling #1: I guess the stimulation helped Brooke’s pushing urge to get started because within 15 minutes she had pushed out her first baby. Doeling #1 came out head first with one leg under her neck. Her little tongue was sticking out and it would wiggle every time. Brooke pushed and pushed, the baby moved out and back in, out and back in. I finally helped by pushing the perineum up every so gently each time until it was over the baby’s forehead. Soon the entire baby slipped out. I wiped her face and gave her to Brooke. Brooke was so happy about her baby, licking her and nanny-talking to her. Doeling #1 had frosted white ears.

Doeling #2: Soon Brooke had another pushing urge and a bubble came out with the baby’s head and feet. This second baby was born in the sack of waters, completely intact. I tore the membranes with my fingernails and started wiping the baby’s face. This baby was limp and I was afraid she was dead when she was born. But I started rubbing her whole body roughly with paper towels and soon she lurched up her head and coughed. I moved Doeling #2 away from Brooke’s focus and put Doeling #2 right in front of her and she began licking her thoroughly. Doeling #2 had one spotted ear and one brown ear.

Doeling #3: Very shortly after Doeling #2 was born, Doeling #3 was born, and she came out hind feet first. She was so alert, as soon as she was born she tried to stand up. Doeling #3 had two brown ears.

Everything seemed to be okay. I milked Brooke (didn’t strip her out) and got over 2 cups of colostrum. I poured 2 cups into a pop bottle so I could bottle feed her kids. I like to get them to take a bottle in case we have to bottle feed them for whatever reason. Also, since Brooke had triplets, I wasn’t sure how she was going to do at nursing all three of them.

We gave Brooke some warm water with molasses, which she sucked down and she also had some of her colostrum. She wasn’t interested in the rolled barley we brought her. Usually our does gobble grain (especially Brooke!! she loved grain more than any of our goats) when they are being milked.

So the first indication of a problem was the labor failing to progress. But I kept telling myself that Lightning had a slow labor last year and she was just fine. And maybe I was just making too much of a fuss out of this. (Doubting my instincts!) In hindsight, I now know that labor failing to progress is a concern. On a goats list that I’m on, one of the members says she gives one ounce of calcium to her does at the beginning of their labor and another ounce if they fail to progress. Before we started kidding season, I read Ellie Winslow’s book where it talks about hypocalcemia and the protocol of administering CMPK and I meant to have it on hand before kidding, but I forgot to order it!!

The second indication of a problem was Brooke’s disinterest in eating. Not eating grain is fine, but definitely indicates her body trying to balance the calcium “By the way, once her calcium level has been regulated and she resumes eating, she may initially refuse any grain that is offered. That should not cause you concern because her instinct is still trying to regulate her calcium-deficient condition. She is the best monitor of that.” from Ellie Winslow’s Making Money With Goats.

Also, I did not catch that Brooke was not eating her hay. Third indication. She was very disturbed at the thought of her kids nursing. So I was continuing to bottle feed them, and twice I tied her so I could hold her still and coax her to let her kids nurse.

She was licking them but was not interested in them nursing. Possibly a fourth indication. But Brooke had spent her entire life fending off kids that were trying to nurse and she’d never had her own. So I figured she was just antsy about that, and hadn’t quite gotten the idea that her babies should be allowed to nurse.

I brought her a flake of hay of her own, but the other goats ended up eating through it. I guess I thought she was eating some.

One of my goat friends has been wanting a spotted baby from us, so I offered one of the triplets to her. The baby with the most spots was [of course] the one that was so limp at birth. Doeling #2 had continued to be very tired after she was born. She would get moving if I rubbed her, but otherwise she was just lying around very weak. I put a baby goat sweater on her after she was born, and gave her two squirts of Nutri-Drench to get her started. I finally ended up bringing her inside because she was not warming up and moving around very good. Once I brought her into the house, she perked up pretty good, but continued to be tired. Here is a picture of the second baby.

I went ahead and took the baby girl over to my friend’s house, so that Brooke would only have to deal with two babies. My friend prefers to bottle feed her kids, so I thought it would benefit us all to place the doeling sooner than later. I also figured this little girl would need a bit more TLC, and my friend would provide that.

By around 4pm, I started realizing that she was not acting at all herself, acting depressed and still grinding her teeth (an indication of pain). Her udder felt sloshy, like it was swollen with water. It didn’t feel like congested udder usually does (hard and tight). I had milked her two more times that day, and was barely getting 1 cup each time, with stripping her out completely. I actually insisted that she come to the milking stand one time, having to pull her most of the way. More normal behavior for Brooke — we often dragged her to the milking stand — so I didn’t see this as being too unusual. I could tell she was weak when she got up on the stand, because her back legs almost collapsed (fifth indication) as she hoisted herself up. She refused grain at that time and was not interested in her own milk either. I asked my dh when he got home from work if he would help me with her. I could do it myself, but it is easier with help. As it turns out, she didn’t fight me on anything I did.

Around 5:30pm I submitted an inquiry post to a goat list I’m on [Holistic-Goats] asking for advice, detailing my plans of what I was going to treat her with.

I went out after that with my dh, we gave her a shot of Vitamin B complex, 8 cc’s. I gave her 50cc’s of Nutri-drench. We went back in and ate supper, then came back out and I gave her a dosage of Safeguard wormer, and some ProBios.

By 7:30pm, I thought her symptoms sounded like milk fever. I took her temperature at 8pm, it was 103.1°F. Sub-normal temps are part of milk fever. Normal goat temperature is 101°F to 104°F. So she was well within the normal range, certainly nowhere near being sub-normal.

Treatment for hypocalcemia/milk fever is calcium. I had Calcium Gluconate, one 10ml vial that said to only use with slow intravenous drip.

I called a local goat friend and she said to give her a shot of BOSE, give her the Calcium Gluconate orally. She said to give her some Banamine if I had it on hand (for pain, we don’t have it on hand), and she said I should call our friend that lives close to me for calcium.

When I couldn’t get hold of the friend who lives close by, and I was still afraid to use the Calcium Gluconate orally because of the warning on the bottle, so I decided to go ahead with my first plan which was to give Brooke a drench consisting of Vitamin E, Vitamin A and Vitamin D (this via cod liver oil), and Calcium & Magnesium (this via crushed calcium pills). Goatworld.com said she needed calcium, magnesium and A, D and E. It just didn’t say how much. I also don’t recall mention of potassium.

I got that into her I would say at 10pm. I was by then so exhausted and worn out, I just had to get to bed. I intended to check on her at midnight, but neglected to set my alarm. I slept like a log until 4am. I actually wasn’t too concerned as one of my books said something like (paraphrased) “Bear in mind if you find a doe in this condition she has likely been down for three days, so time is of the essence.” So I thought I had more time! And I had given her calcium. I just didn’t know that I should have given her CMPK (a balance of minerals) every TWO HOURS. If only I had known!

I went outside and she was lying on the barn porch, nosing her leg and the ground where she was laying, bobbing her head kind of funny, like an old senile lady fondling her pearl necklace. I thought at first she was looking for hay, so I threw flakes to the other does and brought one to her. I tore open the flake and got out some of the tender parts and offered them to her. I thought she tried to eat it. I got her to stand up. Her babies were crying and starving hungry, so I went back in to get them a bottle. When I came back out, she was hanging her head and frothing and foaming at the mouth. I forgot about feeding the babies their bottle, and went back in to get the Calcium Gluconate. I’d decided I had better give it to her. So I got that out of the vial and into some water and got it into the drench gun. I drenched her with that, she swallowed it. I then got 50cc’s of Nutri-drench into her, and 1 cup of warm water. She was drooling and dripping the water out of her mouth.

I took her temperature and she was at 98 something. I think 98.8°F. Oh God. Sub-normal temperature. She was trembling and shaky and out of it. I went back into the house to wake up my husband and then I went back out and fed the babies. They were milling around their dam, she was drooling foam on them.

I went back in, and felt so weak, like my blood had been drained from my body. I wasn’t sure if I had what it took to go out and check on her again. So I asked my husband to come with me for moral support. I wanted to check her temperature to see if the Nutri-drench or Calcium Gluconate had helped her at all. I put a blanket in the dryer to put on her and try to warm her up.

She was lying down, half on and half off the barn porch, clearly in trouble. We moved her off the porch onto the ground and she started flipping around like a fish out of water, moaning and lurching about. In desperation we decided to try giving her the lactated ringers we had on hand, in case she was dehydrated. We started the IV subcutaneously, and I covered her with the warm blanket. There was a nail on the porch just out of the reach of the tube for the IV, so I went looking for something to hang it so my dh wouldn’t have to stand there holding it. While I was gone, he called out to me and told me he thought she just died. I ran back and kneeled in front of her, and laid my head on her chest. Nothing. She was gone. I had already been crying and this brought about a new round of tears and I apologized to her, that I could not save her. We have never lost a goat. We’ve always been able to save them.

After she passed, we went and got a blanket to put her on, so we could pull her out of the goat yard. She has always been a big doe, and weighed around 200# usually. We then went out and dug her grave.

Brooke was our favorite. She was sweet and had the weirdest quirks about her. She will be missed. I thought it would be neat to give her a legacy in her daughters, so we are naming her girls:

Doeling #1: U-Say Ranch Brooklyn TwoPointO
Doeling #2: U-Say Ranch Brooklyn’s Hailey (my friend has this doeling and named her Hailey and was happy to have Brooklyn’s name on the registration)
Doeling #3: U-Say Ranch Brooklyn’s Mocha

Doeling #1 looks like Brooke in the face, she has the stripes that Brooke had. She is tan and blonde, where Brooke was black and tan. Here are some pictures of Brooke and TwoPointO (later known as Brooke II).

Brooke, we loved you. Thank you for entertainment and laughs that you provided. No more of those nasty hoof trims that you hated so much. Lots of delicious hay and plenty of all your favorite treats. You left three baby girls to carry on your name. May you rest in peace, honey.