The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Goats => Topic started by: Anke on April 28, 2013, 08:35:30 pm
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One of my BT's kidded just over two weeks ago with triplets and went up in her milk yield to 4.5ltrs very quickly. She has now stopped eating her concentrates, but is still very keen on hay/grass/weeds and fruit. I have started to regularly drench her with Ceto-phyton and also administered (to all adult goats actually) a multi vit/trace element drench, Will get some Vit B (Duphraval) from the vet tomorrow.
Anything else I could/should do?
She is up, as vocal as ever and completely normal otherwise...
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Give Calcium Borogluconate.........Calciject 40.......... it may also be milk fever as well.
Giving Calciject cannot hurt in any case but could save her life. I automatically give a min of 100ml a few days after kidding with anybody giving over 4kg............. a lot of minor milk fevers go unnoticed because nothing dramatic happens. The fact that your girl doesn't want concentrates leads me without doubt to milk fever.
The vitamins are excellent, tho I would be feeding that on a regular basis anyway..........heavy milkers drag all the calcium from their bodies to produce the milk they have been bred to.
Milk fever KILLS so dont wait to see what she is like'tomorrow'
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Thanks, will do.
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How is she Anke?
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Very noisy (she's an Anglo Nubian in a BT disguise any day anyway) and eating Allan &Page stuff only at the moment... so she is producing "expensive" milk right now... she should be ok... looks very skinny though.
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I'm interested in the comment about feeding vitamins regularly and wonder if you mean regular feeding just for goats who have kidded or for all our goats (we have the adult who has kidded, a goatling and 2 kids).
Our goats are fed Allen & Page concentrates every day but the main part of their diet is hay and browse (mainly ivy, ferns, gorse, willow and bramble). The hay we are able to get at the moment isn't the best quality but the browse is good and they also get fresh vegetables plus seaweed, garlic and oregano in their concentrates.
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PS Missed out that I also supplement the poorer quality hay with alfalfa hay.
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Dairy goats, especially when milked twice daily will need additional multivitamins/trace elements/calcium/copper etc etc in their diet. There are several ways of supplying it - in powder from (like Caprivite and others) or in liquid drench (most sheep drenches with added copper are good enough for goats, there are also a few goat only ones available). Licks are usually not recommended for goats.
The disadvantage of powders is that most goats are really expert at leaving the powder at the bottom of the feed bowl, mixing it in with soaked sugar beet shreds will help. Drenching means that the dose they are getting is what you want them to get, but mine HATE being drenched...
However I am now planning to switch to a regular drenching, probably once a month - a small dose for the kids, and then adult dose for goatlings and nannies.
My hay this (last) year has also been failry low in nutrients I think as it wasn't harvested until late July...
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But Caprivite is apple-flavoured and in a cereal base - it is also described a highly palatable - surely the goat, being such a complaint animal, wouldn't filter something so delicious and good for them out of their feed :roflanim:
Do they need the Ceto-phyton, multi-vit drench and Vitamin B if they are being fed an all round supplement like Caprivite? I guess the Caprivite replaces the multi-vit drench but what do the Ceto-phyton and Vitamin give in addition?
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Contact Brinicombes on 013636 778792 for the details of their Premium Goat feed Balancer. From the information you receive , you will see that Caprivite offers very poor value in the essential items goats need. IT HAS BEEN AROUND FOR A LONG TIME and has not changed in line with feeds etc, so could be said to have lagged behind developments.
I use Brinicombes and the improvement in my goats has been astonishing.
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Contact Brinicombes on 013636 778792 for the details of their Premium Goat feed Balancer. From the information you receive , you will see that Caprivite offers very poor value in the essential items goats need. IT HAS BEEN AROUND FOR A LONG TIME and has not changed in line with feeds etc, so could be said to have lagged behind developments.
I use Brinicombes and the improvement in my goats has been astonishing.
I do wish you got your facts right caprivite has and does keep upto date as per their letter to the BGS journal last year. imo it is a fair priced good that has many experienced breeders/owners seal of approval.
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But Caprivite is apple-flavoured and in a cereal base - it is also described a highly palatable - surely the goat, being such a complaint animal, wouldn't filter something so delicious and good for them out of their feed :roflanim:
Do they need the Ceto-phyton, multi-vit drench and Vitamin B if they are being fed an all round supplement like Caprivite? I guess the Caprivite replaces the multi-vit drench but what do the Ceto-phyton and Vitamin give in addition?
No the ceto-phyton etc is only because she wasn't eating her concentrates and I think it was the beginning of ketosis. However now all back to normal.
Mine do get caprivite about twice a week, but I may switch to a drench, as some of the girls are still not liking the caprivite (and one of them doesn't like apples ::) either). Mine also have a Rockie lick, yellow ones. Mine also get a sprinkling of garlic granules, and also pulverised linseeds (for their omega oils). I don't use Brinicombes because it has added fish oils and that's against my feeding regime for my goats.
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Anke - how quickly did it take for her to respond to the calcium.
One of my GG's sounds just the same.
I finally got to speak to a vet at 4.30 today, phoned 4 times starting at 10 this morning. She reluctantly gave me some calcium to try but said to make an appointment to take her in tomorrow because it was unlikely to be the cause.
She's feeding her twins but they've also started sucking from the doe I've milked through and not kidded because she's still thin after triplets last year.
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http://fiascofarm.com/goats/ketosis.htm (http://fiascofarm.com/goats/ketosis.htm)
well worth reading
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Anke - how quickly did it take for her to respond to the calcium.
One of my GG's sounds just the same.
I finally got to speak to a vet at 4.30 today, phoned 4 times starting at 10 this morning. She reluctantly gave me some calcium to try but said to make an appointment to take her in tomorrow because it was unlikely to be the cause.
She's feeding her twins but they've also started sucking from the doe I've milked through and not kidded because she's still thin after triplets last year.
I don't think there was any response to the calcium as such, she was never slow or not wanting to get up. I drenched with 4 x 50ml of ceto-phyton per day for about 4 - 5 days I think, reducing it then down to three, and then to one drench of 50ml, when I finally managed to find something she would eat - her milk yield has gone back to what it was before all this started. She is still not eating dairy nuts, but will eat goat mix and oats, and then afterwards a separate helping of shreds followed by some readigrass... ::) . No mixing of anything... fussy or what?
An injection of calciject won't do any harm and may just stabilise her. I have also given my girl one Duphraval injection and she got a multivit/trace element drench with copper. She won't eat any caprivite or other things added to her feed just now.
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Thanks for that, I'll get some ceto-phyton tomorrow.
I gave the calcium, and drenched with twin lamb drench and vit/mineral supplement.
As you describe very fussy, for a goat who's usually very greedy is worrying.
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Ceto-phyton and twin-lamb drench do the same thing, so if your goat takes the lamb drench you can probably continue with that. It's just I found they took the ceto-phyton easier (and I have a single dose drenching gun - like syringe but with drenching attachment at the front). No way would I be able to get anything down them with the spout that is attached to the twin-lamb drench. :sheep: are sooooo much easier to drench than :goat: .....
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She doesn't take it willingly, but then again she doesn't do anything I want her to do willingly. :roflanim:
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Do they ever? Hope she's well soon.