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- Sep 22, 2003
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So I go up to milk this morning after getting home late from the khonvention.
The goats line up at the gate. But where's Pixie? She is one of the heaviest milkers and always waiting. I let the 2 others in, leave Pix's milk stand empty and go look for her.
I see in one stall a goat sprawled in the stall. Uh Oh.
Go in and here is Pix, laid out dead. What a bummer.
So I go over to see if I can see why she died, you know puke or the runs or something. I pick up her limp head, no rigormortis so she must not have been dead long when she wiggles her ears, and I see her pupils react. She's alive but semi comatose.
I am thinking 3 things at this point:
Toxic Plant
Lactational Ketosis
Milk Fever
First I see her mouth is kind of foamy and I look closer. No vomit, so that kind of rules out toxic plant. No signs of the runs either.
Then I smell her breath. No tell tale sweet smell of ketosis.
Finally I feel her nose. Cold.
I immediately go into the milking room and dose her with MFO solution which is Calcium, Dextrose, Magnesium. I also hit her with some niacin/glycol in case it's ketosis.
In about 5 minutes she is more responsive but can't hold her head up.
Finally we start calling around and find a vet who can meet us at his office and sell us a bottle of injectable calcuim. Ms. Hollowdweller heads out to get that.
So I get Pix's head propped up on some hay so she is not digging her nose into the bedding, breathing is labored. She's holding her own, but is slipping in and out of a comotose state. Sometimes hearing me when I call her name and sometimes not. I end up giving her a full cow size bottle of MFO orally, but calcium is poorly absorbed orally so I am keeping her from dying but not much else. She did stop drooling and foaming at the mouth though.
Ms Hollowdweller returns with the calcium. We have to give her 90 CC's subcutaneously at at least 3 difft sites. I start shooting her up. I've only got a 12cc syringe so I had to give her like 9 shots in difft place. After the second shot she's standing by leaning up against a wall her legs shaking. Lack of calcium causes muscular weakness. By the 9th shot she's standing well.
I went up about 15 minutes ago and she's standing and eating. This is typical of milk fever.
Not sure why she came down with it. Ms Hollowdweller let the donkey out yesterday, and we speculate he kept her from eating enough alfalfa hay and Pix, being a goat who milks over 2 gallons a day did not get enough high calcium alfalfa and milk fever set in. Your heavy producers in peak lactation are always running a metabolic tight rope and you have to be careful. Let's hope that was what it was anyway.
Anyway I got my fingers crossed for her. Barring a relapse she should fully recover.
The goats line up at the gate. But where's Pixie? She is one of the heaviest milkers and always waiting. I let the 2 others in, leave Pix's milk stand empty and go look for her.
I see in one stall a goat sprawled in the stall. Uh Oh.
Go in and here is Pix, laid out dead. What a bummer.
So I go over to see if I can see why she died, you know puke or the runs or something. I pick up her limp head, no rigormortis so she must not have been dead long when she wiggles her ears, and I see her pupils react. She's alive but semi comatose.
I am thinking 3 things at this point:
Toxic Plant
Lactational Ketosis
Milk Fever
First I see her mouth is kind of foamy and I look closer. No vomit, so that kind of rules out toxic plant. No signs of the runs either.
Then I smell her breath. No tell tale sweet smell of ketosis.
Finally I feel her nose. Cold.
I immediately go into the milking room and dose her with MFO solution which is Calcium, Dextrose, Magnesium. I also hit her with some niacin/glycol in case it's ketosis.
In about 5 minutes she is more responsive but can't hold her head up.
Finally we start calling around and find a vet who can meet us at his office and sell us a bottle of injectable calcuim. Ms. Hollowdweller heads out to get that.
So I get Pix's head propped up on some hay so she is not digging her nose into the bedding, breathing is labored. She's holding her own, but is slipping in and out of a comotose state. Sometimes hearing me when I call her name and sometimes not. I end up giving her a full cow size bottle of MFO orally, but calcium is poorly absorbed orally so I am keeping her from dying but not much else. She did stop drooling and foaming at the mouth though.
Ms Hollowdweller returns with the calcium. We have to give her 90 CC's subcutaneously at at least 3 difft sites. I start shooting her up. I've only got a 12cc syringe so I had to give her like 9 shots in difft place. After the second shot she's standing by leaning up against a wall her legs shaking. Lack of calcium causes muscular weakness. By the 9th shot she's standing well.
I went up about 15 minutes ago and she's standing and eating. This is typical of milk fever.
Not sure why she came down with it. Ms Hollowdweller let the donkey out yesterday, and we speculate he kept her from eating enough alfalfa hay and Pix, being a goat who milks over 2 gallons a day did not get enough high calcium alfalfa and milk fever set in. Your heavy producers in peak lactation are always running a metabolic tight rope and you have to be careful. Let's hope that was what it was anyway.
Anyway I got my fingers crossed for her. Barring a relapse she should fully recover.
