England (black) a first time kidder gave birth to a tiny white buck kid. He was slightly chilled when we found him, but is doing well now except for not wanting to learn to nurse from his dam, he does like a bottle though. My guess is his mouth is so tiny-to small to get on the teats which are bigger than the bottle nipple. I have not weighted him yet, but I think he only weights 3#.
Belle (white color carrier) also had a white buck kid. He looked great. He was big probably 6 or 7# and was vigorously trying to stand up and nurse. (It is great when they try nursing as some Angora kids are kind of dumb and don't try. They are good mom's though and some will even butt at a person trying to help to protect their babie/s.) Any way he was great until he had an umbilical hernia and his guts (an apple size amount) were coming out. I shortly thought about trying to put them back, but the opening was so small that there was no way I'd get them back. I did call the vet and he said that the kid was a gonner. He could get the guts back, but since barn floors are dirty...He'd get a huge infection. So we put the poor kid out of his misery. (He was in a lot of pain or shock as he was shaking really hard.)
The happy ending is his dam decided she was not going to not have a kid and started licking off China's (rejected) white kid WITHOUT me even getting a chance to get it wet and get birth fluids, etc. on it (grafting tricks.) I am so happy that he has a mom and I don't have an "empty doe". I did lock them up in a tight pen as the kid needed to learn than he was going to have a mom. He had been wandering around without paying attention to the doe. (He was born on Tue. and got a new mom on Fri. so he was 4 days old.) He did discover the worlds greatest milk bar. It's so much better than the stuff the humans bring and is always there and is never the wrong temperature. This morning he was sleeping next to her!
Sorry to hear about the rejection and the loss but glad to hear Belle took the buck!
ReplyDeleteThat is sad. I have not experienced an umbilical hernia in any of our lambs or kids but understand why it would be deadly. I wonder if I were to recognize it before it prolapsed if it could be fixed. Something else to watch out for I guess. At least he did not suffer long and and your rejected kid has a good mother.
ReplyDeleteThe bitter sweet of keeping livestock. It's always so sad when we have to let one go, but at least this cloud did have a silver lining. I hope that they all continue to thrive.
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