sick pregnant goat?????

[Catfishingpokey]

Pokey just called....vet said she has some type of toxemia. He gave her several shots and some other stuff, loaded Pokey up with doses to give her for tomorrow and sent them home.
He didn't charge a small fortune, hopefully this treatment will take care of the problem.

He said that she is making milk and her udder is getting tight and uncomfortable, but that's not what's causing her to feel so bad and go off her feed. Keep your fingers crossed that this does the trick for her.

Okay, have read some stuff about pregnant goat toxemia but the voice of experience is always helpful. Tell me anything you know about goat pregnancy toxemia and how to deal with it...........

Thank goodness Mary is headed home, I might have really lost my mind if I had to listen to that darn bellering nubian all night.

Thanks for any and all help here.

Kim

 

[helmstead]

A goat owner who uses her vet!

Toxemia...hmm. Never had it here, glad you have a vet helping out! In addition to whatever he sends home, I would:

ProBios daily
B Complex daily (water soluble, cannot overdose)
CMPK as directed

Is she underweight or overweight? Has there been a change in her forage recently? Altho I understand it's supposed to be diet related...I bet her growing baby(s) just suddenly started asking more of her body than she was ready for and this took her down.

Best of luck! Hope she gets through this like nothing happened!

 

[Catfishingpokey]

Okay, and was just reading more about causes of it. We have just had our only major round of extreme weather here, lows got down into the very low teens, even single digits in the area, so thinking this very well may have been a contributing factor. She's had a couple of days of stress that she isn't used to. Frankly, none of us Texas sissies are. I'm cold if it's below 65 personally.

Kim

 

[bheila]

I'm so glad you were able to get her to a vet. I sure hope she's feeling better soon! I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for you guys

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

Pregnancy toxemia is a calcium deficiency.

Cal-Dextrose can be given, or Calcium Gluconate. They also need a high energy diet with lots of sugars.

 

[Jena]

Thinking of all of you, and I hope she improves soon,

with helmstead and Bear Foot Farm on the case you are in good hands from here.

You are also teaching the uninitiated.

I have always wanted goats but since being on this site it has become a real strong aim for me. I am learning all I can to make this dream a reality this year, so your expertise and experience is teaching all of us.

Many thanks and very best wishes to your girl there.

Jena.

 

[Indiana hens]

Keep us updated! I have never heard of any toxemia issues in goats. I am learning alot from this post. Thanks for sharing and hope she gets better.

 

[Catfishingpokey]

She's much better this morning. In one of my pregnancies, I had a similar situation where I was spilling ketones. I have had diabetes since I was seven, so I have been "studying" the effects of ketones most of my life. The doctor's remedy for me was to increase my feed ration....

The reason we initially thought it was possibly mastitis was because her milk came in on the right side yesterday. Her udder on that side was very tight and uncomfortable for her. As of this morning, it's also come in on the left side. Between the energy needed for the babies, milk production, and the extreme cold weather I think she was just tapped out, so her body went into a ketonic state.

Learning as we go on this project, and you guys who have done this for a while are invaluable to novices like us. One of these days I will remember to sign in on my own user name instead of hubby's, since we each have one.......

Thanks for the help, I am sure we'll have more questions along the way.

Kim

 

[username taken]

Pregnancy toxaemia is NOT calcium deficiency.

Pregnancy toxaemia is a ketosis generally seen during the last month of pregnancy (note that you can see ketosis six to eight weeks post partum, at which stage it is just termed ketosis not preg tox).

Preg tox is most commonly seen in does in the last month of gestation, bearing multiple kids, whose diet is not providing sufficient energy for the combined needs of the kids and dam. The doe cannot gain sufficient energy to supply the demands of the kids, and so begins to utilise her body fat for energy. A byproduct of the breakdown of fats into carbohydrates is ketone bodies. The build up of ketones is what causes the metabolic disease, leading to depression and reduced appetite. It is a bad cycle to get into, because the disease reduces appetite, therefore the doe utilises MORE of her body fat and creates MORE ketones, thereby furthering the disease.

Interestingly, very fat goats are also susceptible to ketosis, because they have much more fat to utilise and therefore will liberate more ketones.

Signs and symptoms include: doe picks at or refuses her food, becomes lazy, urinates and defecates whilst sitting, swollen feet, difficulty walking, less and less exercise. 10 days prior to kidding she will be unable to stand without assistance. She becomes dehydrated, she moans and groans, she loses weight and her hair stands on end. Death will occur two or three days before kidding, occasionally she will die during kidding. The udder will generally decrease rather than increase in size. Acetone (nail polish remover) can be smelled on the doe's breath and urine.

Treatment - IV or SQ glucose (in the form of dextrose) 4% solution, 50ml for a smaller type doe, 75 - 80ml for large does. Electrolyte solutions dosed orally. Proprietary ketosis solutions given orally. Encourage exercise and offer variation in the diet to encourage eating. Abortion may be advisable in severe cases - 5mg dexamethasone will induce parturition and kids can be saved up to two weeks premature. Where the doe cannot be saved, euthanasia followed by quick surgical removal of kids is usually successful in salvaging live kids from an otherwise negative situation.

Calcium deficiency, on the other hand, is termed hypocalcaemia or milk fever. It is often confused with preg tox. Hypocalcaemia is rare in goats compared to preg tox. Does will be depressed and refuse food. She will have wobbly hindlegs, constipation and a very weak labour. IV or SQ proprietary treatments for milk fever/grass tetany generally suffice.

 

[Catfishingpokey]

We've had to watch her since the initial bout with the toxemia, because as the previous poster mentioned, her appetite went down, and it's been an uphill battle keeping her eating. She's finally getting back to being her old self. The vet gave her propylene glycol, and we continued giving it for a couple of days following the initial problem. We're first timers in the preggers dairy goat business, so this has been a learning experience. I've done tons of reading in the past few days. I am glad we caught it fairly early on, because it can become a losing battle rather quickly. From what I have read (and it has seemed to hold true) the propylene glycol messes up the balance of bacteria and then you have that added to the already stressed system. Been giving her Probios to keep her guts working right.

She's not too fat, she's not too skinny. As I mentioned before, we had a couple of days of weather in the teens, and I think that her normal food wasn't enough to keep her energy up. Actually, we had given all of our animals a little more food, as we normally do when we know that they are burning extra energy because of the cold. One thing that I read to help was to give them "Magic" (2 parts Karo, 1 part molasses, 1 part corn oil), and we've been giving her doses of it to keep her energy levels up. Another thing that I've been giving her a couple times a day is a handfull of baby carrots. While I realize that one shouldn't EVER drastically change a goat's diet, when you know they aren't eating, and you know that if they DON'T eat they are going to bottom out on you again, you keep offering til you get them at least nibbling. At one point was giving her Quaker Oat Squares cereal. And yes, I did my research to make sure there wasn't anything in it that would cause her gastric distress. Actually, it contains pretty much all the stuff that is recommended with a bout of ketosis, such as B Vitamins and sodium bicarbonate.

On one of the websites I found, a lady who raises Saanens talked of a doe she has that is very prone to it, and in the last month of pregnancy, she gives her brown sugar every day. Preg Toxemia is one of those things that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and now that we know what it is and what to watch for, we can stay on top of things.

Hopefully we are back to norm with her.

Kim