New goat issues

Five days ago, I bought two Pygmy Goats. The one is 9 weeks and the other is 7. They were perfectly fine when I brought them home, but the 7 week old had diarrhea. The lady said it was because she gave her a bath the night before and she thought it was because of the stress of it and she gave me a bottle and milk supplement powder. She said to give it to her for the next two days, and I did that. She was fine, but still has diarrhea. She ate a little and drank some water when I put her in front of it. I went out to check on them and feed them this morning, and she didn't seem too well. She wouldn't stop crying and she was really weak. She started to walk but she kept falling down and wouldn't move or anything. I got her to eat a little but she wasn't too interested. It was war, the past few days but today was really cold. I wonder if it could be that, but the other one is all perky and running around. I made her a bed of straw and payed her in that with food and water next to it but I'm worried so,etching might be wrong with her. There hasn't been anything that she could've eaten that would make her sick. She's been eating grass and hay and nibbling at a little bit of the grain. Is there anything I should do? She's had all her shots and stuff.

Diarrhea in young goats usually means there's something wrong with their digestive tract. Are you bottle feeding it? What does it eat? It's a bit young to be weaned. Incorrect feeding will cause diarrhea which will kill kids goats pretty quickly. It can be as simple as different amounts. Feeding too much grain can cause big troubles too.

Since the woman gave it a bath I would suspect it had diarrhea before you took it home to cover it up as goats don't usually need a bath. I would probably take it to a vet.

She gave me a bottle and this power stuff to mix in with warm water and told me to give it to her for the first two days, and I did that and she was fine. I stopped and then she started to not look so well. I thought it was that, so I tried to give her a bottle this morning, but she didn't want it at all, she kept pushing it away. There's hay, grass, and a little bit of grain, but she doesn't seem interested in the grain. She seemed a little bit better in the afternoon, but was definitely still not looking too good. I'll see if I can take her to the vet tomorrow.

Putting some electrolytes in the water might help too. Good luck.

The kid is probably old enough to wean OK (although I think that is a little young) but this sounds to me like something else. I would take that kid to the vet pronto. What color is the diarrhea? You might be looking at coccidiosis and that can be deadly. Did the woman give them their CDT shots? The kid crying and not wanting to eat could also be enterotoxemia, which is also deadly.

Take the kid to the vet and mention these two issues. Not all vets are real good at goats, as I have learned. But most of them are willing to learn and know these things for other animals, they simply don't get enough practice on goats for one reason or the other. Of course you could also be really lucky with your vet. I hope the kid is OK.

Zoomie said:

The kid is probably old enough to wean OK (although I think that is a little young) but this sounds to me like something else. I would take that kid to the vet pronto. What color is the diarrhea? You might be looking at coccidiosis and that can be deadly. Did the woman give them their CDT shots? The kid crying and not wanting to eat could also be enterotoxemia, which is also deadly.

Take the kid to the vet and mention these two issues. Not all vets are real good at goats, as I have learned. But most of them are willing to learn and know these things for other animals, they simply don't get enough practice on goats for one reason or the other. Of course you could also be really lucky with your vet. I hope the kid is OK.

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X2. Your kid is sick and needs to see a vet ASAP. It could be anything from pneumonia, to coccidiosis, to entertoxemia, to criptosporidia, something else, or a combination of any of the above. If it were my kid, to start with I would give it a shot of clostridium perfingens antitoxin (on the chance it is entero) have a fecal taken to check for coccidia, and go from there.

Does she have a temp?
When ever any goats are sick the first thing you need to do is take there temp!

Yesterday morning I called the vet and they told me they could take her in on the afternoon, but when I came home to take her, she had unfortunately died. I'm going to be contacting that lady because she knew she was sick, but she told me it was nothing. Thanks to everyone who gave me advice. I'll be taking the other to the vet tomorrow to make sure she isn't sick too.

How sad. Sorry for your loss.

That is too bad. Goats are actually quite fragile creatures, especially the young ones.