Post by simplynaturalfarm on Nov 25, 2013 12:11:51 GMT -5
Well, now that you add your diet I am thinking a different direction. 15 years ago I used to work now and hten for a local organic dorper sheep farm. One year their sheep started going down. The vet came and said milk fever and treated as such and those sheep did not recover and they started losing them - vet said to shoot them. THen a friend who was a sheep breeder asked what they were feeding. ENds up they couldn't get the normal hay and they were feeding greenfeed - in Canada we bale barley and oat straw with the heads on and call it green feed. High ton per acre and he was feeding that and poor crp grass hay and making up the "deficiencies" with whole oats and barley. The friend said the sheep were deficient in something because of the diet - for the life of me I can NOT remember what they were deficient in and it is driving me crazy. They went and got injections of what they were deficient in (was it just a vitamin mix maybe A D E) and after a shot to each animal the ones they hadn't lost got up! Maybe this has nothing to do with what you are doing, but these were prime sheep, all within a few weeks of lambing and all went down with no strength and were treated for milk fever unsuccessfully and the owner was having to euthanize them much to his horror.
Did you do a blood test on the goat that is down? THat would have told you what her calcium and such is and if it is really milk fever.
Vitamins A D and E are most commonly deficient when a lack of green feed is showing in the diet. I know when the sheep farmer asked the vet about deficiencies he said no, that wouldn't be a problem, but it was.
Calcium deficiency can also be a problem in feeding grass and grain straws.
Did you do a blood test on the goat that is down? THat would have told you what her calcium and such is and if it is really milk fever.
Vitamins A D and E are most commonly deficient when a lack of green feed is showing in the diet. I know when the sheep farmer asked the vet about deficiencies he said no, that wouldn't be a problem, but it was.
Calcium deficiency can also be a problem in feeding grass and grain straws.