“All things bright and beautiful
All creatures great and small
All things wise and wonderful
The Lord God made them all….”
(This was our morning song a few months ago – how applicable it was to sing it today.)
Still basking in the joy of another lovely goat birthing, we were saddened to find two of the three goats not doing as well as they should be doing by morning. While the third kid was born with weak hind legs, she has actually turned into the stronger goat thus far. The remaining two just seeminly were failing to thrive. They lay limp, they did not wag their tails like cute little kids always do, they would not nurse when brought to their mother … although it is not very cold outside, we decided, with grim faces, that perhaps one of the weaker goats should come inside and warm up.
Not knowing what was specifically wrong, I searched our goat books and the internet for some help. We had a previous baby goat die within a day of birth last year – we think she had Floppy Goat syndrome. We treated her, but it was too late. We did not want to lose these two little goats, as well.
While they were a bit lifeless, these newborn goats did not have the exact same symptoms of a Floppy Goat – they were indeed weak. One of the kids’ eyes were rolling back into her head by the time we brought her in – looking at her, limp in our arms and appearing so lifeless, I was sure she would not make it past the morning.
The second weak goat was seemingly following the same pattern.
Not knowing exactly what was wrong, I mixed up a homemade electrolyte mixture, which I will record here for future reference.
Homemade Goat Electrolyte:
1 teaspoon of baking soda
2 teaspoons of sea salt
8 tablespoons of molasses or honey
3 litres of warm water
Mix together and feed gently to the weak goat.
Using a syringe, we also fed the babies 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda mixed in a little warm water, which is recommended for floppy goats, although again, we were pretty sure this was not the same sickness. It was suggested that feeding them the baking soda mixture would not hurt them if it was not needed.
We wrapped them up and placed them gently underneath the stove to warm up.
They slept for a few hours and then one of the goats started crying, bleating – we scooped her up and rushed her back to her momma to see what would happen. Thankfully, she nursed just fine and seemed to be on the mend. Her little tail was wagging again, she was standing on her own and was welcomed back into the barn by the momma goat.
Was this success? We are hoping.
The second and weakest goat was fed some milk from a syringe again and given some more electroyltes. It took a few more hours {and a little snuggle on the couch with me} but she perked up around 4 p.m., after being in the house all day.
The girls returned her to momma for an hour before dinner to see what would happen. She, too, began drinking milk from her momma and was accepted back into the stall just fine.
We are hoping they will continue to stay strong and thrive. We learned a beautiful principle today – God cares for His creatures – great and small.
by Gigi
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