Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Saving Baby Goats in Cold Weather

Two words: hair dryer.

The best piece of baby goat equipment is a hair dryer and chances are you already have one.

Hair dryer, heating pad, wood stove, space heater, warm water, whatever. You got to get them warm asap. If the inside of the mouth is cold, get busy. If they won't suck or stop sucking you need to get busy. They can't turn themselves around and will die without your help.

As you are warming the baby goat, rub the body, the legs, the cold little feet, move them. You want to get that blood flowing through the muscles. Stand them up, spread all four legs and prop them up, or hold them and just let them put some of their own weight on those little legs.

If they fall, pick them back up and prop them up over and over. If you can get them to stand up for minutes or even longer you have achieved something. You'll notice that when they start to take a step or lose balance they may fall but try to right themselves. Even if they fall, that's still good. They need to get those muscles working, again to increase blood flow and increase body temp. Bicycle the legs. If they resist you when you are moving the legs that's also good. It is getting the muscles primed with blood and increasing body temp. If the kid is limp just keep working on him until he does start resisting.

If they are born on ice but stand up they'll make it. The ice and/or snow will lower their body temps if they are down on it. They need to achieve a normal body temp to get to some kind of homeostasis asap.

After the body temp is up to normal or almost normal, then put some kind of coat on them. I like small dog sweaters but I've improvised with all kinds of children's/infants sweatshirts and sweaters and safety pins. I leave that to you. If you notice within the next couple days they are getting a little lethargic don't wait, they haven't quite achieved homeostasis yet. Get out the hair dryer again. Heat, message, standing, and then a coat. Repeat as needed.

Once they have achieved homeostasis, they are amazingly resilient to all kinds of weather conditions.

Also there are what they call "pig mats" now available through the animal suppliers. they are heating pads invented to warm little ones without the danger of heat lamps. They are more economical than heat lamps to run as well. A little expensive to buy but if you save one baby they might pay for themselves.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Toxoid or Anti-toxin

Guest post by Suzanne W. Gasparotto


TOXOID OR ANTI-TOXIN?

Knowing the Difference Can Mean Life or Death

Toxoids and Anti-toxins are medications for identical goat health
problems, but their usage is dramatically different. Which vaccine
should be used depends upon what the producer is trying to accomplish.

The two most common vaccines that come in both toxoid and anti-toxin
forms are the overeating vaccines and the tetanus vaccines.
Confusing the matter is the fact that there is a vaccine for Overeating
Disease which is also combined with Tetanus prevention.

Toxoid vaccines are used for long term protection. For example, the
vaccine for Overeating Disease combined with Tetanus prevention is
called "CD/T." These letters represent protection against Overeating
Disease caused by the most common and dangerous organisms . . .
Clostridium Perfringens Types C & D. The "T" part of the vaccine
provides long-term protection against Tetanus.

Toxoid vaccines are given once, with a booster injection following 30
days later. CD/T vaccine is given to unvaccinated adults and kids
twice in the first year, one month apart. Booster vaccinations are then
given annually, although some goat veterinarians and producers are
boosting this protection twice a year and oftentimes one week before
does begin to kid, in order to "jumpstart" the immune systems of the
soon-to-be-born kids.

Anti-toxin vaccines are used in medical emergencies, when immediate but
short-term protection is required. The two most commonly used goat
anti-toxin vaccines are C&D Anti-Toxin and Tetanus Anti-toxin. C&D
Anti-toxin should be used whenever Overeating Disease is suspected to be
the cause of the goat's illness. As with the toxoid vaccines, the
anti-toxins are recommended to be used SQ (sub-cutaneously . . . i.e.
"under the skin). C&D Anti-toxin vaccine is very safe to use and has a
very high margin of error. It is one of the few medications which can
be used without fear of hurting the animal, even if the problem turns
out not to be Overeating Disease. "Bloat" is another goat health
problem against which C&D Anti-toxin may be used, in conjunction with
other medications.

Tetanus Anti-toxin is used after castrations are done ("wethering a
goat"), for injuries (bites, cuts, puncture wounds), and when
Tetanus-like symptoms are present (goat's neck is dramatically bent to
the side and unable to be straightened, eyes unfocused, difficulty
standing).

The temporary protection afforded by both of these vaccines lasts from 7
to 14 days. If the goat survives the illness, the producer must wait
at least five days and begin the two-vaccination toxoid series again,
because the Anti-toxin has cancelled the benefits of the Toxoid
vaccine. Some folks will argue that this occurs, but it better to be
safe than sorry, particularly since these vaccines are very inexpensive.

Note: CD/T, the toxoid, will sometimes cause a "knot" at the injection
site. This is evidence that the vaccine is successfully interacting
with the goat's immune system. To avoid these "knots," injections can
be done inside the loose skin where the front leg meets the goat's body
(in the "armpit," so the speak). Usually, but not always, these
"knots" eventually disappear.

Here's a "word association" (courtesy of Jerry Munns of Honea Path,
South Carolina) to help remember the difference between Toxoid and
Anti-toxin:

TOXOID . . . . TO AVOID
ANTI-TOXIN . . . IN NEED OF FIXIN'

Suzanne W. Gasparotto
ONION CREEK RANCH
HC 70 Box 70
Lohn, Texas 76852
325/344-5775

website: www.tennesseemeatgoats.com


Monday, February 2, 2009

Baby goats in the House


I don't know about everyone else but sometimes it's much too cold outside for baby goats and I grab them and head for the house. They spend a few minutes under the hair dryer and then the rest of the night by the wood stove. I use dog cages mostly to contain them. I also have a 100 gal rubber stock tank that I use as a "play pen." But it only takes a couple weeks until they are popping out and making a mess. Then I'm scrounging around for a screen or baby gate, something to lay on top.

When I read about this lady, Mary, and how she puts diapers on her kids I thought how much better this would be. Here it is cut and pasted from one of my goat lists:
********************************************************************************

Posted by: "combmaker@aol.com" combmaker@aol.com hemizonia

Sun Feb 1, 2009 3:06 am (PST)

(first part edited out)

I used regular human infant diapers, starting with newborn, and sizing
up as the kids grew. I'd cut a tiny hole for the tail, and pull it thru. I
would have the kids wear a cat or small dog halter ... would secure the diaper
by connecting the halter and diaper with a shoelace. With bucklings, you
have to keep the bottom of the diaper placed about to their chest. With
doe-lings, you didn't need to be as fussy. A shoelace on the bottom of the diaper
to the halter helped keep the pooplets in the diaper.

Mary, No. California
*******************************************************************************

Well my Swiffer mop is going to get a lot less use this year thanks to Mary's idea of the diapers and dog halter. hehe. And they might be out of the dog cages more.

I have one more tip. After you give them their bottle, stick them out the door and within a few minutes they probably will pee and maybe number two. Then you can bring them back in. Watch so that they don't wander off.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Emergency Preparedness--What if we had a blackout, or other emergency on the farm?

Emergency preparedness comes natural to my husband, a pig farmer, Ohio farm boy his whole life. When our electricity went out for a about a day, we had the wood stove for heat. We could heat our foot on the top of it. He got an small TV out and hooked it up to what we call the "hotbox" the thing we use to jump-start our cars and trucks. He had a DC light hooked up. We had flashlights and candles. All in all we were relatively comfortable until the electricity came back on. (Well, I missed the computer.)

During this past year I have also become interested in emergency preparedness. So I have been trying to build up an emergency food and water supply and think about these things. You know: what if? What if? After I stockpile soup, beans, flour etc. for us, what about the dogs? What about the horses? What about the goats?

The reason I'm bringing this up is the news that down in Kentucky there is a huge blackout caused by a terrible winter ice storm. The national guard is going house to house to help out residents. I'm sure there are farms and animal owners down there also without electricity and heat. Hundreds of thousands of people are off the grid and suffering. Children are no doubt being traumatized and everyone is stressed out to have their lives interrupted one way or the other.

I'm not going to list out a bunch of "hints" for preparing in animals, especially dogs, goats and horses, in mind even though I could. I would rather you think about it. Mull it over. What if I ran out of feed and the roads were blocked? Or the feed store was closed since they don't have electricity? What about water? How would I get water to my animals? Do i have enough flashlights on hand? Do I have a kerosene heater or something similar in case I need it? What if the cell phones go down....

Ask yourself "what if" and then just start mentally making plans for an emergency, short term and maybe even long term. For example, I think I'm going to bring home a couple of round bales of hay and store them behind the barn, just in case. I'm also going to get a rain barrel out there close to the barn.

Please leave comments about this. What are you thinking about? What can you do to prepare? We can toss this around.