Calling all goat people! A health question now!

[taraann81]

Hi guys I was the one who posted a thread a couple of days ago about which breed of goat make good pets. Well I got my little guy to day and when I went to pick him up it was pretty sad.

The guy I got him from had no females so I assume he gets these baby bucks from a dairy business for cheap and then resells them himself.

He has probably 50 babies all different ages. They were kept in absolute filthy conditions with barbed wire laying around. The littlest babies were kept in an area in a barn about the size of the interior of a car and there were 30 in there. No water. Just some straw in a manger.

I wish I could have taken more of them. At first I was going to turn away and look else where for a kid because of the bad conditions but then I decided I could take one and give it a good home with proper care.

The guy didn't know what breed they were. Dairy cross he said, he couldn't tell me what they were crossed with. So I will post pics later and hopefully you guys can help me figure that out.

So here are my questions

The guy said the one I chose was 3 weeks old, He still has his umbilical cord attached, is that normal for a 3 week old? Or is he probably younger?

My second question is he has been feeding them milk replacement from a pail. I know this is not an ideal way to feed kids so I bought a bottle but cannot get him to drink out of it. will I be able to "retrain" him to drink from a bottle or should I keep feeding him from a pail?

My 3rd question is he is filthy, can I bathe him? If so what shampoo can I use? Baby shampoo? dog shampoo?

Sorry for being long winded. I'm debating going back and getting his twin as well and even maybe contacting the SPCA. These poor babies.

Any advice is very much appreciated here. Thank you in advance for sharing your knowledge and experience with me.


Tara
ETA goat not gost in title

 

[rinnith]

you should change your tittle it's spelled wrong. my friend raised goats.. well still raises goats they bath them, not sure with what though. either horses or dog shampoo im guessing. there's were mother raised so i can't help anywhere else

 

[hikerchick]

I want to take that guy and force him to live in a tiny area with 29 other guys and no water. I have to stop now before I say something really nasty.

When my goat was dying of polio she used to lay in her own urine and we used to bathe her with baby shampoo. I don't know if it is ok for babies or not, but it worked fine on her. I think if you make sure to rinse really well and make sure they are dry before they are left outside you should be ok. I couldn't get my babies to drink from a bottle either, when the mom died. They just wouldn't. They wouldn't drink from a pail, either. They just started eating grain. They were about 4 weeks old. They are all fat and happy now; two of them just gave birth.

Good luck. You did a good thing.

 

[Laney]

I don't know what to tell you as I have not raised babies. It seems suspicious to me that the umbilical is still attached at that age though.

I would go back for the twin if I were you though. Goats don't do well alone. If you have the space I'd get the twin. When they are 4 months old wether one of them. You wait that long so that the urethra develops a bit. Most want to do it earlier because it's less traumatizing for them. If you wait til 4 months, use two bands that way if one snaps, you have the other on there.

Once you have the twin, call the ASPCA. Seriously if it's that bad that they are confined like that, filthy and have no access to clean water?

Just know that once you call you will have no association with this man what so ever. Not that you would want to.

As far as bathing them, I'll go with what I know from Human babies. You have to be careful of the umbilical and the chill. I would give him a gentle sponge down. Just wash parts of him down with a damp cloth, being careful to make sure you dry off each section before you wash the next section. Clean around the umbilical with warm soapy water and dry with a new clean cloth. Let it fall off on it's own. I can't tell you what to use as far as baby shampoo etc.....so I'll let someone more experienced with babies tell you.

Laney

 

[taraann81]

Thanks everyone so much. I have Storeys guide to raising dairy goats but I can't seem to find at what age the cords fall off. I really want to go back for his twin but I have to convince my DH( hes a bigger sucker than me so it won't be that hard.)

 

[aaronzclark]

Hi! i have 2 pygmy goats one was in a very happy healthy place and the other came from an old nasty house in the back of a woods I bought for 25$ he was filthy it was sad but anyways I took him home and used dawn dish detergent but baby would be fine also still having the cord on is normal
use a bottle for sure and DO NOT use milk replacer it is not good for them.
if you have a empty milk jug fill it half way (right in the middle of the jug) of normal cow milk and two small cans of evaporated milk and a teaspoon of kayro syrup warmed up and that's great to use but I would go to the store and see if they have like a big can of goat milk pour it in a jug and there you go

oh yeah just use a normal sized baby bottle and cut a T in the nipple and there you go hope it helps.

BTW I would go get you the twin or more LOL you can never have to many goats

 

[taraann81]

At what age does the cord fall off?

 

[teeny]

i got a goat from the livestock auction , they said she was 8 weeks old weaned. i talked to 4 owners of goat that raise them , they all said the cord falls off between 8 - 10 days after they are born . you're in the same predicament i was , i had to bottle feed mine till 8 weeks old , i found out from a goat owner that looked at her she was only around 7 days old. BEST OF LUCK!

 

[mekasmom]

I have a 4wk old nigi who still has his cord stump. They dry up within a few days, but don't completely fall off for a while. I had another litter of nigi twins born three wks ago yesterday that still have stumps too. It's ok.
Just feed him a bottle of whole milk three-four times a day. If you feed too much milk, he can get scours, so try to limit it to 4x a day at most. Just buy whole milk from the store. And always keep a little grain/hay available for chewing.
If they were that crowded, I would worm him.

 

[Dorothy1324]

we recently lost our doe and after trying a few nipples we found that the only nipple that we could get our little guys to take is the prichard teat it is a red nipple with a yellow collar and it screws on a soda bottle. good luck.