One of my does had triplets this morning. The first one was fine, up walking around and nursed a little bit. After a while it started dragging one of its back legs and finally started dragging both back legs. I've never seen one do this. Does anyone have a clue. Thanks for an idea. Blessings Peggy

-- Peggy Carr (wclpc@cookeville.com), December 30, 2000

Answers

Gosh! It's late, and I can't call the expert I want to, but check on the net about "floppy kid syndrome" My friend brought back 2 kids last year by using what I think was chelated zinc, and maybe magnesium. Like I said, can't double check that now, but I'm pretty sure that was it. Good luck, I know how awful it is to watch a kid suffer when there's nothing you can do. Despite this set back, I wish you the very best for the new year. Kathie

-- Kathie in Western Washington (twinrosefarm@worldnet.att.net), December 30, 2000.

Go to www.goatworld.com There's tons there to help, I've never had that happen before with mine.

-- Cindy in Ky (solidrockranch@msn.com), December 30, 2000.

The symptoms you have described sound like selinium deficiency. You may want to give the kid a shot of selinium for this problem. Had you given your doe a shot before she kidded? We cannot get selinium from our vet, he has MUSE, but the short is called BO-SE, we give 1/4 cc to the kids after they are born of the MU-SE. I would also try giving the kid some Goat Stress formula, which is the name of one available from hoeggers, and the other 2 are similiar, Immuno-G (http://www.springbriar.com) and ID-! available from Goat world. We always give 1cc of the immuno-g right after birth and before they nurse and do this 2x's a day for 3 days. Hope this helps.

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), December 30, 2000.

Thanks Bernice. Unfortunately we are snowed in and all the med's I have are for the scours and a B-l00 shot. Is there another way to get sel. in her. She eats good and her eyes are clear but she still wont use her back legs. Thanks Peggy

-- Peggy Carr (wclpc@cookeville.comw), December 30, 2000.

Peggy, sometimes I have goat kids born with feet that are knuckled under and they can't seem to coordinate their hind legs. Often they are from multiple births,I wonder sometimes if it is due to the cramped quarters before birth! At any rate, the legs and feet get stronger within a few days and they are running around like all the others. If you have a lot of goats, you might want to put them in a pen where they will not be picked on. My friend splints her kid's legs for this, but they will recover either way, and I would be afraid of affecting the conformation of the leg by splinting it. she uses finger splints, bends them, and tapes them to the legs.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), December 30, 2000.

The dragging of the hind end and the knuckeling under of the kids at their pasterns is pretty classic white muscle disease in goats. Though a kid stepped on will also drag its hind quarter from trauma. Selenium works fast and quick, both Bo-Se and Mu-Se are selenium injections with very little E in them. Until you can get the injection for your little one, you may want to just try using the E, and 300 unit E vitamin that you use on people will do, just snip the end and squish the contents of the capsule into the mouth daily. Nutridrench and some of the other sheep and goat formulas they have now have E in them but usually way to small of an amount of selenium to do any good. If this happens to a lot of your kids, you may want to start boostering your does when pregnant with Bo-Se or Mu-Se, or like we do, I use the selenium and vitamin E that is made by Horse Health, in the Jeffers Equine Catalog 1800-jeffers. We had been miss diagnosed with white muscle disease for years and used to inject, now with the increase of E in our does diet we simply have no more problems with our kids. Besides the knuckling under that you have talked about we were also seeing kids with their tongues hanging out while trying to nurse. Nutrition really plays a much bigger role in the over all health of your stock than many will lead you to belive. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), December 30, 2000.

Here's a great resource for goat ailments: http://www.goatworld.com/911/

-- Skip Walton (sundaycreek@gnrac.net), December 31, 2000.

I agree with Bernice, sounds most definitely like selenium deficiency, you should keep some of the treatment meds. on hand in the future, they are available from the many vet supply catalogs out there, KV Vet Supply is the best,1-800-423-8211, or consult your local vet and get some selenium products from him/her. The condition is almost always fatal, sorry, better luck next time. Merck Veterinary Handbook also has some excellent pre-kidding feed recommendations, I would try those additionally.

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), January 03, 2001.