2019 kidding season
Mar 21, 2019 9:26:55 GMT -5
via Tapatalk
elnini, sdmilkmaid, and 3 more like this
Post by mollymoo on Mar 21, 2019 9:26:55 GMT -5
Well, we only had two does bred - my son’s 4H Boer show does - but it was quite the eventful season - unfortunately only a 25% success rate in terms of kids we synched both does back in October using CIDR and lute and put in with a nice buck for a week. So in early February - about four weeks before their due date - I noticed both does eating a little less than usual and one sore on her feet. I checked ketones and both were positive - Dawn at around 60, and Heart way up in the purple! We moved both does to the barn and started a toxemia protocol that involves frequent drenching with a mix of propylene glycol, vitamins, dyne, electrolytes, dextrose etc. Dawn’s ketones came down into the normal range within 24 hours and she started eating normally again - but we couldn’t get Heart’s levels down. Had the vet out - did IV dextrose for 24 hours - and still couldn’t get her leveled out so made the heartbreaking decision to induce 3 weeks prior to due date we lost a doe to toxemia last year and couldn’t risk another. She kidded three beautiful doelings - that of course did not survive that early delivery. This poor doe was a skinny as a rail after the delivery and then had retained placenta and had to have five days of Excenel to get her through that. Thankfully we saved her and she’s gaining weight and doing well again now. The best thing to come out of this is that she went from being rather wild to being quite friendly - she’ll do anything for an animal cracker now!
So fast forward three weeks to the second doe, Dawn. Her ketones stayed stable for the three weeks - we tested twice daily! And aside from looking huge and uncomfortable - her ankles swollen and tender on her feet at the end she did well. The day she was due to kid I checked on her at 4am. It was a cold night (outside temps in the 20s) - but she was in the barn, so I wasn’t too worried. But at the 4am check I found her with triplets and a placenta - two dead doelings and one barely breathing tiny buck. I grabbed the babies and took them all in the house and put them in a sink full of warm water. The doelings were sadly really dead - they looked perfect, so I can only think it was cold/not being cleaned off that caused it but I went to work on the little guy. It took three hot baths/drying off with a hairdryer to get his core temp up. I milked some colostrum from the doe and tubed it into him - put him in a jacket in front of a heater in my bathroom!
Then I went back out to the barn to feed other animals/check on the doe. That was about 7am...and I couldn’t believe what I found. She had two more kids - one dead doeling still in the sac, but one good sized doeling, chilled, but almost up on her feet! I brought her in the house and warmed her up/tubed her as well - now I had two kids in the bathroom!!
I gave them both some selenium E gel and tubed them every 3-4 hours throughout the day. At 8pm, we took them out to the barn and managed to get both of them to nurse on their Mom! From then on, we took them out to nurse every four hours - bringing them back to the bathroom to stay warm in between. After four days in the bathroom they were both finally able to stand on their own - and the weather had warmed enough to put them full time with Mom in the barn.
Two weeks later, they are thriving! Two out of eight doesn’t seem like a successful kidding season - but we are thankful just for these two...and I couldn’t have done this without my awesome 4H Mom network talking me through it on the phone...
I still can’t believe Dawn had FIVE kids! Kicking myself a bit for not having done a 2am check - and not having realized she wasn’t done after three babies...but I know well enough that we do what we can, and I did what I could - two is better than none!
So fast forward three weeks to the second doe, Dawn. Her ketones stayed stable for the three weeks - we tested twice daily! And aside from looking huge and uncomfortable - her ankles swollen and tender on her feet at the end she did well. The day she was due to kid I checked on her at 4am. It was a cold night (outside temps in the 20s) - but she was in the barn, so I wasn’t too worried. But at the 4am check I found her with triplets and a placenta - two dead doelings and one barely breathing tiny buck. I grabbed the babies and took them all in the house and put them in a sink full of warm water. The doelings were sadly really dead - they looked perfect, so I can only think it was cold/not being cleaned off that caused it but I went to work on the little guy. It took three hot baths/drying off with a hairdryer to get his core temp up. I milked some colostrum from the doe and tubed it into him - put him in a jacket in front of a heater in my bathroom!
Then I went back out to the barn to feed other animals/check on the doe. That was about 7am...and I couldn’t believe what I found. She had two more kids - one dead doeling still in the sac, but one good sized doeling, chilled, but almost up on her feet! I brought her in the house and warmed her up/tubed her as well - now I had two kids in the bathroom!!
I gave them both some selenium E gel and tubed them every 3-4 hours throughout the day. At 8pm, we took them out to the barn and managed to get both of them to nurse on their Mom! From then on, we took them out to nurse every four hours - bringing them back to the bathroom to stay warm in between. After four days in the bathroom they were both finally able to stand on their own - and the weather had warmed enough to put them full time with Mom in the barn.
Two weeks later, they are thriving! Two out of eight doesn’t seem like a successful kidding season - but we are thankful just for these two...and I couldn’t have done this without my awesome 4H Mom network talking me through it on the phone...
I still can’t believe Dawn had FIVE kids! Kicking myself a bit for not having done a 2am check - and not having realized she wasn’t done after three babies...but I know well enough that we do what we can, and I did what I could - two is better than none!