[Tammyt2]

So one of the babies born yesterday when our momma goat kidded twins, died and then the second one was doing very poorly too so the vet instructed us to bring her inside and try and bottle feed it some of the mommas milk. We did so but the goat seemed to have weak kid syndrome and wasn’t going to make it. Now the mom is outside making noises like she misses her baby. Should we show her the dead baby before burying her? Will it help ease her mind?

 

[Alice In TX/MO]

Yes. Let her see it and realize it is dead. Otherwise she will keep looking.

 

[mzgarden]

Agree with Alice. Early on we made the mistake of whisking it away, thinking we were doing something helpful - she spent at least a week nosing under fences, trying to open gates and crying. Next time it happened, we let her paw it and while she whined at it, eventually she walked away and we were able to bury it.

 

[Danaus29]

I'm sorry you lost the babies.

 

[Fire-Man]

I would leave the dead out with her for a little while---few hours so she will realize its gone. Sorry

 

[lmrose]

Whenever our goats had lost a baby we left them with her for a while. Usually the mother would sniff them and even lick and push them to get up. When they don't the mother would push them to one side and tend to any live kids she had. It is worse when a doe loses a kid and its the only one. That is when the doe would keep looking for it even if she knew it was dead. After a few days they forget though. Same thing happens when we had to butcher or sold kids. The mothers would search for them. Farming isn't for the emotionally weak because it involves a lot of death. That is why we stopped raising goats. We can't keep them all and butchering is necessary. I guess we are getting old because we don't have the heart anymore to kill anything.