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Needing bottle babies or newborn goats.

549 Views 4 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  Caprice Acres
We have a doe who just lost triplets last night. She is distraught. Anyone in the Walla Walla, WA or Milton Freewater, OR area with babies.
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Poor girl, sad. You might see if your area has a FB page devoted to buy/sell livestock or goats.
Milk her out for now a couple times a day at least - if you don't find any kids, you will become her baby.
And have milk :)
That is rough. Try craigslist. you can post wanted if you want.
I'd begin to milk her and be sure to harvest her colostrum for future emergencies. Beware that she will likely not accept just any old goat kids onto her. Grafting doesn't work all that well in goats for the most part. Unless she has readily accepted other kids nursing on her before, I'd be hesitant. If you still wish to try, she will likely need to be restrained and the kids helped to latch on about the same as a bottle feeding schedule until she accepts them (which she may never do) to ensure kids are safe and latching. She will need close watching to be sure she doesn't beat them up, as most does will gently or not so gently **** others' kids away. Be careful of personification - She does not really know what happened but she does know instinctively she is supposed to care for something. Human nature interprets this as grief and it can be uncomfortable to watch. Goats with kids taken away will often bond strongly to the owner, for example. We take all dairy kids at birth here and within hours does will not recognize their kids - but they will talk to me, hum, lick me, and in general seem to obsess over me much like they would a goat kid. They get really frustrated when I leave to go in the house, but I'm out again soon and they calm down within a few days. ;) Asking for random kids may be asking for more trouble with disease and health as well and if you do go that route, be careful of where you purchase form. While unfortunate, if you don't want to milk her, just stop - she will bag up (uncomfortable but necessary) and dry off on her own. Watch her for mastitis in this period. If she is a meat type or an aseasonal dairy breed (nubian, nigerian), you can breed her again for Fall kids if desired or wait till next year.

Good luck with whatever you choose! Sorry for the loss of triplets, how devastating.
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