Care and Management of Hypothermic Lambs & Kid Goats

[veme]

Posted this thread in sheep & thought it may help somebody with baby goats
http://www.granny-miller.com/the-car...mbs-kid-goats/

[homstdr74]

I don't know--I can only go by experience, but the article says to not warm up kid goats without a feeding tube of milk; one very cold spring I found a just-born kid, abandoned by the doe (unusual in itself) on an exposed area, almost dead from the cold. I took the kid in, heated a bucket of water and held it in the water with only it's nose and mouth above water (I figured it had just come out of a very warm and watery place so it must be used to it), and I revived it, then fed it some colostrum. Granted it was never quite right, but it lived and was a pet and part of the herd for years.

[parrotman]

Granted it was never quite right, but it lived and was a pet and part of the herd for years.

I'm curious as to what behaviors or symptoms that you refer to as being "never quite right" did you notice with this goat?

[LaManchaMa]

We always brought them inside and rubbed them and put bags of warm water over them. One year we used electric blankets and wrapped them up in those. We've never lost a kid to the cold but we have had our share of kids' whose temps don't even register on the thermometer. We always wait until they are at least at 98* to feed colostrum, then they go back out to the dam. (sometimes we pick the weak ones out and bottle feed those, the rest are dam raised.)

[homstdr74]

Originally Posted by parrotman

I'm curious as to what behaviors or symptoms that you refer to as being "never quite right" did you notice with this goat?

Haha. Yeah, goats are an ornery breed and have very distinctive personalities all their own. Thus it's hard to describe, but let's just put it this way: "it never was quite right".