Friday evening, Trixie had triplets. She let the babies nurse and headed over to the feeder for something to eat. Saturday morning, she was letting the babies nurse and eating hay. I figured all was well. Saturday night, we went to a meeting so Heather could meet John Phillips, the astronaut. When we got back, I checked on Trixie Belle, and she was laying down. Two of the babies had full tummies, but one was still hungry. Kind of the way it goes with three babies and two teats. Trixie Belle didn’t want to stand for the baby to nurse, but I just figured she was tired since it was about 10:30 pm and it had only been 24 hours since she had the kids. I figured out a way for the baby to nurse while she was laying down.

But then Sunday morning, Trixie Belle wouldn’t stand at all. Her eyes were glazed over and she wasn’t usual feisty self. The kids were all starving. She wasn’t eating, nor drinking. Something was seriously wrong. I didn’t know if she still had a kid in her, or retained placenta, since her stomach was still pretty good sized. I called five veterinarians. Two of the numbers had been disconnected, and three had answering machines referring me on to some emergency place in Spokane. If I couldn’t get her to stand, how was I to get her in the car and 40+ miles down the road??? I contacted two local goat breeders. One said they had lost two goats earlier this year to similar symptoms. The other gave me the number of the veterinarian that he uses. I contacted that vet and got their answering service. Not knowing what else to do, I gave Trixie Belle 3 cc of penicillin, 30 mL of Goat NutriDrench and some ProBios. Not a great thing to do, but when you don’t know what else to do, I guess it’s better than doing nothing.

After a bit, the on-call veterinarian from the last number I had contacted, called me. I explained to her what was going on. She asked about her temperature. I didn’t know what it was, but she didn’t feel hot to me. In fact, she preferred to lay under the heat lamp that I had turned on for the new babies. The vet asked about her eyes. Her pupils were dilated, but she was in a dark shed, so I didn’t think too much about it. But when I passed a flashlight over her eyes, her pupils didn’t contract like they should have. She also had a sweet-sour rotten smell to her. The vet figured Trixie had Milk Fever, with possible complications of Ketosis. Apparently, it happens in high producers. When they kid, there is a huge drain of minerals on their system. Contrary to the name, there is no fever with Milk Fever. It has to do with low calcium in the blood. And most of the time, the goat has plenty of calcium, she just can’t access it.

The goats/sheep have access ad lib to kelp, loose minerals, baking soda, and a goat/sheep block. For the month prior to kidding, I had been giving them molasses water and apple cider vinegar water, of which they had been drinking 5 gallons each, every day. I couldn’t figure how she could possibly be short on minerals.

Nonetheless, since I couldn’t get Trixie to stand, and the on-call vet didn’t really want to drive 30+ miles, I drove 28 miles in the opposite direction to go to a health foods store. Afterwards, I realized the vet probably didn’t want to drive into an unknown situation by herself. Can’t really blame her. I got some raw cow’s milk for the kids to drink, and some calcium gelcaps, magnesium gelcaps, some multi-vitamin gelcaps that had the selenium, copper, zinc, Vit D, and a myriad of other things, some chewable Vit C tablets, some chewable Calcium/Magnesium/Vit D tablets, and these chewable tablets that were made of greens like alfalfa, chlorophyll, barley, etc. There had to be a dark chocolate bar involved for me, too 🙂 Then I went to Big R and got some Mineral Max Ultra Paste, some electrolytes to put in her drinking water, and some more NutriDrench. So four times on Sunday, she got the NutriDrench and ProBios paste. Twice on Sunday, after I got back, she got one each of the calcium gelcaps, magnesium gelcaps, multi-vitamin gelcaps, chewable Vit C, Chewable Calcium/Magnesium/Vit D, and Greens tablets. Twice on Sunday (once in the morning, once at night) she got 3 cc’s of penicillin. The babies were on bottles.

By Monday morning, she was standing. Her eyes were still glazed, and she wasn’t eating nor drinking. But she was standing 🙂 The tears were rolling down my cheeks I was so happy 🙂 The on-call vet said since she was standing, to continue with the regimen and keep an eye on her. The only thing that they could do differently in the vet’s office is give her injectable calcium, Calcium Borogluconate. By Wednesday afternoon, she was picking at her hay and grain. Not really eating, but interested in it. By Wednesday night, she was noticing her babies, which she hadn’t been able to do on Sunday.

Thursday morning, she was laying down when I found her. She was sniffing her hay and grain. I realized that she probably had a sour stomach from all the stuff I had been pushing down her. So all I gave her Thursday morning was the ProBios. By late morning she was eating a little bit of hay. Not chowing down, but not picking at it, either. After she had something in her stomach, I gave her some more of the vitamins. She had enough strength at that point that she rejected the gelcaps. So I emptied the contents into a bowl, along with the chewable Vit C and chewable Calcium/Magnesium/Vit D tablets. I added some water to make a liquid, and then gave them to her in a syringe. I found that adding some Jello or flavored gelatin seems to thicken the mixture into a gel consistency, plus make it more palatable for Trixie.

She still wasn’t out of the woods, but she was alert, her eyes were bright and she was paying attention to her babies.

From what I can ascertain on this, it usually happens to high producers who do have enough calcium and other minerals in their system. There is just such a huge drain at kidding time that their body can’t keep up, and so the blood becomes calcium deficient.

 

This diagram tells how the body processes calcium. Taken from The Goatkeeper’s Veterinary Book by Peter Dunn.

What I have learned is that because Trixie is a dark skinned goat (even under her white hair is dark skin), she actually requires 6 times the amount of Vit D as a light skinned goat.

 

 

Madeline is brown, but her skin is pink, so she is probably able to draw most of her Vit D requirements from sunlight. Trixie probably should have had a Vit D shot administered prior to kidding.

Monday morning. You can see she is still spotting and has diarrhea.

But she walked out of her shed over here and laid down.

 

 

 

Monday late morning/early afternoon. She made her way over to the feeder and then laid down.

 

 

 

 

Tuesday morning her pupils were almost normal sized. I was comparing them with Madeline’s pupils.

 

 

 

 

Friday afternoon, her pupils were back to being dilated 😦

 

 

 

 

Her pharmacy.

 

 

 

 

 

Ingredient list of multi vitamin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More of her pharmacy. I keep these out in her shed for easy use.

 

 

 

 

The ProBios and Mineral Paste.

She gets 5 cc of each, 3-4 times a day, depending on how much she fights me 🙂

The Mineral Max has yeast, and coupled with the ProBios, should help the rumen get going.

 

 

Crushed chewable Vit C and chewable Vit D/Magnesium/Calcium. I added in some Jello to help with the flavor and thicken the mixture. Then I opened one each of the Calcium Citrate, the Magnesium, and the multi-vitamin gelcaps, and poured the powder into the crushed tablets. Then I added enough hot tap water to make a liquid to be able to draw it up through a syringe.

 

 

 

Friday afternoon she was picking at her hay.

 

 

 

 

She was drinking molasses water. She doesn’t seem to care for the electrolyte water, so wasn’t drinking as much as I would have liked. But she does seem to like the molasses water, which should help correct any ketosis issues.

 

 

 

But you can see her eyes are back to being dilated and she doesn’t want to stand.

But she is paying attention to her kids, and alert enough to fight with me on taking her pills 🙂 We’re taking one day at a time around here…

 

 

Update: she started feeling better, and her kneecaps fell off? You know the scabby part?

Update II: Trixie did well for about a week and then started to relapse 😦 So I gave away two of her kids, to help prevent too much drain on her system. She is also having complications of mastitis.

 

I ordered some stuff from Hoegger’s Goat Supply. The Calcium Drench is some serious kickapoo juice. It seems to burn her mouth, but it did get her up and going. After three doses she decided to get better so she didn’t have to take any more of it 🙂

The Goat Serum is both for sub Q injections, as well as for intramammary infusion. I had ordered some mammary infusion tips from Hoegger’s. A needle and syringe are used to draw the serum from the bottle. Then the needle is removed and a mammary infusion tip is put on the syringe. It isn’t much fun to shove the tip up the teat. When Trixie wasn’t feeling very well, it was fairly easy. But now that she has started feeling better and eating, it has become quite the task.

 

This is what I’ve been milking out of the one side. It’s a dark, transparent liquid with grey chunks. The chunks often plug up the end of the teat, making it difficult and painful to milk out.

I’m planning to keep up with this regimen until her udder has softened. It’s still very hard, and she won’t let Twickles nurse off of the one side.

I think she’s going to make it now – she was first in line at the feeder for hay last night 🙂 She is down to skin and bones – I have never seen her this thin. It has been a six week ordeal pulling her through this. Now I’m just working on saving her udder.  But she can stand up more easily now and she can take Madeline head-butting/challenging her.

Update III: It has been 9 weeks now after Trixie kidded. The Milk Fever has cleared (hallelujah!). She is back to being a ziggy piggy and meeting me at the gate for hay regularly. She regularly challenges Madeline for alpha position. She is also back to eating a full scoop of grain 🙂 We are still dealing with mastitis, which is getting really old for both her and myself. My reflexes are improving 🙂 The infection is starting to lighten in color, but I’m still getting chunks. Twickles is nursing off of the good side, though. I don’t know what else to use for the mastitis – I’ve tried ToDay, Goat Serum, penicillin, and peppermint oil.

 

Update IV: Ten weeks now. Trixie Belle is doing much better. She is putting on weight and getting around pretty well. Still dealing with mastitis. Her hair is starting to fall off, and her hooves have a very noticeable ridge now. I understand it’s from her running a high fever at some point.

 

Update V: 14 weeks now – Finally went to vet and obtained some Amoxi Mast to help with the mastitis. Didn’t do a thing. Took a sample of her ‘milk’ to the vet to be cultured. He said after three days there was still no sign of bacteria. So it’s technically not mastitis at this stage, and antibiotics are pointless right now. The udder is still hard. Don’t know what I’m going to do since obviously there is still something wrong. The milk is quite hot when it comes out, which to me indicates an infection of some sort. It also varies in color from orange to brown to grey, and often includes chunks.

Update VI: 6 months now – The udder finally softened. Have been milking out a greenish liquid that is similar to egg whites in consistency for almost a month. That has finally passed and that side of her udder is just about dried up. I’ve only been getting 1-2 Tbsp of dark watery liquid. The other side is fine and I milk that every day. Her overall health is well, which is good 🙂 Except she is back to proving she is alpha doe around here 🙂

Update VII: She got last year off from kidding. Her udder has filled out for this year’s kidding and she is doing awesome!