Can anyone diagnose our sick pygmy goat kid?

Question

Our pygmy kid is three weeks old today. My wife and I adopted her because she was the runt and her mother completly rejected her. She has two brothers whom were taken in with hoofs wide open by their mom. Well anyway today she went from her normal playful self to not wanting to be touched and lost all her pep. I did some research and found what I thought might be the problem. (Bloat) I did what it said to do. Which was massage her rumin and she did berp a couple of times but she is just not herself and seems to still be in pain. I have gotten her to eat some but she does not want anything to do with us for the most part. This is our first experience with goats. My wife already has plans of taking her to the vet tommorrow. We have also noticed that her tail has been down all day. Any information would be greatly appreciated. If anyone has the knowledge I can provide more details.

Answer 1

What are you feeding her?  If it's any type of replacer (even if it's a replacer meant for goats) that may be the problem.  Many, many kids can not tolerate milk replacer and it can cause everything from bloat to scours and even death.  If you can't feed her goat's milk, then whole cows milk (just the regular Vit. D milk that you get at the store) is the next best choice.  I have raised LOTS of kids on whole cows milk and have never had any problems.

Also make sure you are not overfeeding her.  Pygmy babies have TINY tummies....so they need little meals, every 4 -5 hours, to avoid digestive problems.

Take her temp.  It should be around 101 - 102.  If it's over 103, she has something else going on.  Babies are susceptible to pneumonia, which doesn't always show any symptoms other then lethargy.  If she has pneumonia she will need strong antibiotics ASAP.

Other problems that goat kids can have include coccidiosis and e.coli.  The vet can check a fecal sample to rule out those two.  Both are easily treatable but will take a kid down very fast if it's ignored.

Last but not least, sometimes does will reject a kid because the kid has an internal problem that doesn't show up until a while later.  Most likely that isn't the cause, but be aware that it does happen sometimes.  

Good luck...hope she is feeling better soon.