Hi Vicki, it has been several years since I had a goat freshen, and I don't remember what shots to give her a few weeks before and after. Also, what supplies should I have on hand just in case something doesn't go well? I know about proplyene glycol, what else? I thankyou very much. Sissy

-- Sissy Sylvester-Barth (jerreleene@hotmail.com), May 09, 2001

Answers

Nothing is as disconcerting as having your name on a thread! :) Hope everyone chimes in!

3 to 4 weeks, just as the doe is uddering up good (confirming the pregnancy) we give the 2cc shot of Bar Vac CD&T, years back we used to at the same time give Bo-se shots, with missinformation that we were having selenium problems, with adding E crumbles to our feed the problems disappeared. If your does have not been vaccinated by you before you will want to give them their shots now and then another one before they kid. This will give the kids the additional protection they need, and gives you the ability to disbud, castrate etc. without having to use tetanus antitoxin, the only shot we have ever seen give you problems with anaphlactic shock. If in your area you hear problems with malignant edema (the kind of mastitis that gangrenes the udder) or other exotic problems, you may want to choose Covexin 8 instead of just the CD&T.

Propolyne Glycol is fine, though read this tidbit on hypocalcimia, I think most Ketosis is miss-diagnosed. I keep other Calicum, Magnesium, Potasium gels on hand, ordering just about everything I use in the Jeffers livestock catalog.

http://hometown.aol.com/goatlist/hypocal.htm

I keep a kidding kit which is a 5 gallon bucket with a fishermans lid on it that is padded for a seat, some of the things in it are clean towles, I hate using newpaper. In the barn I save my feed bags, opening up the side, delivering kids onto them and just rolling the bag, birthfluids, placenta and ick :) together for easy tossing. Dental floss for tieing dripping navels, a clean and in a ziplock baggie sizzor, I don't let my kids have long navels. I also have my vitamin E capsules which I snip the end of and give to each kid as it is born. I also keep 7% Iodine in its spary bottle to spray both the navel/belly and feet. Rubber gloves, which honestly I seldom use except at other folks farms. A new long shoelace, the very best thing to tie on feet or to halter a head that is pressed up against the hips, helping to pull it down in a difficult delivery. I do have an OB saw, in 15 years I have had to only once use it at my farm. Dawn dishwashing liquid, prefer it over any KY jelly to lubricate up with. Thermometer, a laminated paper with phone numbers on it, syringes needles and dosages of drugs. A weak kid syringe and a tube. Urea boluses to use on a doe who I have gone in, I rarely use antibiotics for this unless I have gone in the doe after she has delivered the placenta (checking for another kid). A soda bottle, pritchard teat, a 4 cup measuring cup to get some initial colostrum into, and since I send in CAE tests on colostrum test tubes with a pen to write the does information on. Suture kit. Scalpel hemostates (actually a surgical kit stollen from the navy) and a skinning knife, I will only do a field c-section with permission that the doe will not be saved, I simply don't have the skill to put a uterus back together, though I have saved kids many times like this. I have oxytocin, lutelyse, dexamethazone, pennicilin, epinephrine and banamine for pain, These are in a baggy that I can grab from the fridge to take on an emergency with ice packs. Also whatever trash book I am reading at the time.

With 99% of the deliveries here, I only use the towles, dental floss and iodine on the kids. Towles, CAE equipment and milking equipment on the does. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), May 09, 2001.

Sissy, With all that previous info, guess you don't need anything added! Good luck.

-- Marcia (HrMr@webtv.net), May 09, 2001.

Thankyou so much Vicki, I knew I could count on you! One more question; the last time I gave my does a CD&T shot, they all ended up lame! For weeks! What did I do wrong? So, you don't give the kids tetanus at de-horning time? Sissy

-- Sissy Sylvester-Barth (jerreleene@hotmail.com), May 09, 2001.

The rear leg muscle is devided by the satic nerve, get the needle in there or through there and you have a temporary or permanant limp. Budlge the muscle out with your hand, then insert the needle. If you aren't showing these girls than take the easy way out and do the shots subq.

With my own goats, I keep them vaccinated twice a year. Everyone is vaccinated before they are bred (bucks too!), then before they kid. We disbud at 1 week old, the kid still has immunity from the mom. We start the CD&T at exactly 3 weeks, then 2 more shots 21 days apart. This is just how I have always done it. Now.....if I disbud for folks who do not vaccinate, they get the "vaccinate for tetanus" spiel :) and then I not only give the CD&T when I disbud their kids but I also give them a Tetanus antitoxin shot for immediate relief. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), May 12, 2001.