Care for first freshener after difficult delivery

[cfabe]

We just had the first real difficult delivery since we have been raising goats, and need advice on how to care for the mother. Sorry for the long post but I want to give the background.

First freshener, went into labor Monday about 4pm, was not making progress, we could not feel anything inside that night. Waited until morning and she had not really progressed, was not even really pushing much, but had dilated enough to get a couple fingers in and feel around. The kid was sideways with the spine against the cervix. We slowly manually dilated her and eventually got the kid turned around and legs brought round for a breech delivery which occured around 6am Tuesday morning. The kid is fine, mom had a fair amount of bleeding during delivery which stopped within about 10 minutes after delivery.

Immediately after delivery mom was breathing very fast, grunting in a lot of pain, we think in shock maybe. In about 20 min her breathing slowed, but she still showed no interest at all in the kid, she was pretty out of it. We milked and bottle fed colostrum to the kid. In 3 hours she had not made progress to deliver the afterbirth so we gave her oxytocin which worked to deliver it. Afterbirth looked normal and complete. She seemed to still be in extreme pain, so we got some pain meds from the vet and gave that which helped her relax. Also started her on LA200, planning 3 doses spaced 48 hours.

She is doing somewhat better now. She still seems to be quite lethargic, is able to get up and move around but walks very slowly, like her hips hurt. She is not eating very well on her own, with coaxing she will take some grain or grass, but she's not eating a normal amount of food. After delivery she appeared to be constipated, strained a lot to poop and the poop was very dry. This morning I saw her poop a small ammount without straining, but it had mucus in it. It seems to me like her digestion might be not working well for some reason? Her milk production has been very low so far, we milk her twice a day and get only 1-2 cups.

So basically, what else should we do for her? Was thinking probios to help the digestion, maybe get some sweet feed which she might find more tasty. Should we try to put the kid back with her to stimulate milk production? We figured since she didn't take to him, we'd have to bottle raise. Anything else we can do to help her recover?

[T.Miller]

Banamine for pain and B Complex to help with her appetite. I would also worm her.

I had a doe this year have a rough kidding with triplets. She was sore for quite a while, but is now back to her normal fiesty self.

[victory]

I always try to keep Arnica on hand. It supports muscle and tissue healing and bruising. Takes care of so much for our beloved goaties.

[Laverne]

The low milk production may signal low calcium levels, Hypocalcemia. Especially if she isn't eating well she isn't having the calcium levels she needs. She may need some CMPK. Injectable is best but here is a oral recipe also I thought I'd put out there. http://www.dairygoatinfo.com/index.php?topic=27.0 As a reminder, Hypocalcemia and ketosis can go hand in hand. Once eating is low both can strike.
When my doe had mucus in her stool, worming for Liverfluke took care of that.
How is her eyelid color? Unfortunately worming for liverfluke costs about 38.00 to get into a wormer that covers that, Valbazen or IvomecPlus, so many don't get it, if only having a couple goats.
I would give lots of support also. BO SE, fortified B's to ward off Thiamine deficiency since eating is low, Pro Bios, electrolye water, vitamin C. Offer baking soda and keep her hydrated. No sweet feed, especially if she isn't used to it. Good grass hay and free choice alfalfa pellets, offer dry rolled oats.
Of course the tramatic kidding and pain could have caused the low eating but then support is needed to head off other issues that can arise.
Just some of my thoughts, I hope she gets better soon.

[cfabe]

Well she seems to be doing somewhat better this morning. She was eating better last night, and gave more milk, like 1.5 pints yesterday. She is still stiff moving/walking, but did go out of the barn and eat grass outside this morning. We gave her some probios and some calcium drench with B vitamins in it last night. She also seemed to be feeling motherly, licking and calling for her kid, we are going to try putting them back together today to see what happens.

[mpete]

My doe had a similar birth but ended up in an emergency c-section, the vet noticed the uterus not being as muscular as it should've been.... give her CMPK along with all the other suggestions.

[coso]

You might want to put some Preparation H on the vulva, if you have some swelling and/or tearing. Soothes it and helps the swelling go down.