can I give warnn water in between nnilk replacer?

[Jcran]

I ann feeding 9 kids on kidlac; when I go oot at 8 p.nn. to check on scooring babies, can I give thenn warnn water w/ or w/o electrolytes to keep thenn hydrated? Only two of the 9 are scooring but they all seenn to like the water.

[HazyDay]

You shouldn't be giving excess water as some one on Goat World said it can do something with their white blood cells.

If they are scouring you should put them on warm electrolytes.

[Alice In TX/MO]

I'll be the first one.... milk replacer kills.

Get whole cow's milk from the store.

[SherrieC]

You want real whole milk from the store as it will "curd and whey" in their stomach, since they are little babies they can't digest the soy protein's that are probably in the milk replacer. You don't want to give them water as it will break up the curd's they need the curds to digest the protein out of them and grow. If you have a neighbor with healthy looking cows maybe you can buy some milk cheap and then make sure to pastuerize it, just bring to boil on stove top and stir once, or with thermometer 165 for 15 seconds of stirring.

[BlueHeronFarm]

Joan...what happened to your "m" and "u" keys???

I would agree about putting them on whole milk if you can. We give gatorade to scouring kids. You can also put probios in the bottle.

Are you treating the scours with anything? We use pepto.

[SherrieC]

Joan, how old are these babies, because that make s a difference in Why they may be scouring? and if they are just wee ones just changing to whole milk may be enough with maybe a pinch of soda and yogurt to get them regular.

[Charleen]

Why are you feeding replacer? Are the mothers not having enough milk or are you using the milk for yourself? I'd rather feed whole cow milk than any type of milk replacer.

[Jcran]

I took 10 orphan kids off a large range herd; we have no does with milk to spare. All of you who say replacer kills,...., you are right. Of 10 kids, two have died in the past two days. Last night the big healthy doe kid died of bloat within the one hour period between me feeding and going back out to check if anyone looked bloaty. I had slowly moved over to KidLac but it still seemed to be a hard transition from the calf replacer (no soy in either product) that I was using. I won't do this again. I brought 3 kids in to a friend today who is going to try to raise them. I've got 5 reasonably healthy kids left. Hopefully they will make it. They are about 3-4 weeks old. I've been giving them powdered probiotics in their morning lambar since day one. They got bo-se, and a 5 cc shot of cdtet antitoxin. I also have been treating them with pepto via their milk, but not every day. I am feeling frustrated. I raised a single doe kid a couple years ago on the whole milk/buttermilk routine and never had a problem. I can't afford to buy whole milk for this group as its almost $4 a gallon right now. I was wondering though if I can put a little yogurt in their replacer, or if that will throw things off again.

[jBlaze]

Possible cocci stress, we went that round. Treating for cocci now even though they don't have those scary cocci sighs is the easiest, kids always get it, so just treat anyhow. (yes, my opinion there.)
But, here is my secret, if you have to use milk replacer, feed less at a time. We learned this with a bummer calf we got and it works great with the kids too. Feed the babies when you first go out to the barn. Then do all the rest of your chores and then feed them again. The other chores took about a half hour, and that gave them time to have more room for the milk. This stopped ours form having problems. I hope it helps you. As far as to how much we were feeding at a time, I think we started with about 8 oz at a time for new babies, and by the end of a week they were up to 12 oz at a time, when they were older wer were at 16 to 24 oz twice a day. Giving the kaolin-pectin helps with the scours too. Definetely don't give them more milk than they can handle, they often want more than they can handle, greedy buggers. I hope that makes some sense for you. Good luck. :-)
Oh, and I would give the kaolin-pectin (not pepto) seperate from the milk, it may interfere with the digestion of the milk. the milk needs to curdle in the tummy.

[BlueHeronFarm]

Oh, bummer. I am so sorry about your troubles with these kids.

[donsgal]

Originally Posted by Jcran

I ann feeding 9 kids on kidlac; when I go oot at 8 p.nn. to check on scooring babies, can I give thenn warnn water w/ or w/o electrolytes to keep thenn hydrated? Only two of the 9 are scooring but they all seenn to like the water.

Why don't you use your "m" key?

donsgal

[Jcran]

I'm at work. so the keyboard is ok; at home, something spilled on the keyboard. The 7, u, j, and m keys are awful; work sometimes, but hit and miss, no pun intended!

[Alice In TX/MO]

Give me your address, I have extra keyboards!