Caring for Newborn Goats

Mary Jane and Clementine

Born 1-6-26 at 12:25 pm

We brought Mary Jane inside immediately because she was the smallest of the triplets born. It is challenging for a doe to keep track of and feed three babies. Did you know that newborn goats are called kids? After about 20 minutes, my husband went back out to check on the remaining kids. Clementine was starting to get cold and hadn’t stood up. Their other sibling had already begun walking and nursing. With Momma having walked off with the other baby, my husband had to act fast, as it was cold outside and hypothermia was a risk in this situation.

Fortunately, both girls began walking and drinking milk from a bottle (fresh goat milk) within just an hour of birth! Isn’t that impressive? Goats are remarkably resilient creatures. Neither has shown any signs of illness, and both have strong, loud lungs, which is a great sign of health. Fun fact: a goat’s ability to stand and walk shortly after birth helps them escape predators in the wild!

Caring for newborns in emergency situations

When caring for newborn baby goats, you must determine whether the mother is capable of raising them or if you need to bottle feed them yourself. A newborn must be able to get up and walk then search for food within an hour of being born. 15 to 30 minutes after birth is normal for a baby to get up and walk. If you are at the tail end of this, you may need to take charge and determine why the newborn isn’t walking.

Some reasons (not limited to) why a newborn goats won’t walk right away or have difficulty eating are white muscle disease, selenium and vitamin E deficiency, deficiency in vitamin B, birth defects, premature birth, hypothermia, and floppy kid syndrome.

WHITE MUSCLE DISEASE AND SELENIUM DEFICIENCY:

Most kids affected by white muscle disease have been in good condition and are 2–3 months old (range, 1 week to 4 months). Commonly, sudden death is associated with cardiac muscle damage. Other kids are lethargic, reluctant to move, and appear stiff, with a sawhorse stance, or become recumbent. Muscles, especially of the hind limbs, are firm and painful to the touch. Treatment is with selenium and vitamin E injection in acute cases. You may also use a selenium and vitamin E gel or paste.

Selenium deficiency in kids is most commonly seen as white muscle disease. The muscles in their legs are too weak to support their weight and they end up unable to walk or walking on their ankles. Other symptoms of selenium deficient kids are:

Weak immune system and development of pneumonia due to weak lungs
Being too weak to suckle
Coughing/aspirating milk

The main thing to remember is, that if you have a kid born who is weak and unable to stand- especially if their ankles are bending back- then you are dealing with selenium/vitamin E deficiency, and they need treatment immediately and help eating until they are strong enough to stand on their own.

This is preventable with ensuring that you have free choice selenium and available. I use Vitalix goat tubs found at Ranch and Home or some of your local farm supply stores. This also contains the needed amount of copper in most cases. When I have a goat that needs additional copper, I use a copper bolus (also available for kids)

HYPOTHERMIA:

Signs of hypothermia in kids are:

•Shivering
•The inside of its mouth and its tongue feel cold to the touch
•Droopy ears, lethargic, not active and alert
•Labored breathing
•Rectal temperature below 100F (normal temperature is 102.5F)

The sooner you help a kid, the higher chance of survival. First, get it wrapped in a towel and into a warm, indoor place. I tend to use the bathtub with a towel under the kid and a heater blowing into the tub area. If the kid is wet, dry it however you can and heat it at the same time. Sometimes a blow dryer is helpful here. You can also hold the kid against your body warm it on your lap. Another method is to create a hot box. If you only have a barn or cold area to work in, you will need to use a hot box.

Making a Hot Box for a Baby Goat

To create a hot box (or barrel) for a baby goat, follow these steps:

1. Secure the barrel to the wall of the kidding pen with rachet straps or heavy-duty bungee cords.

2. Cut a hole in the top of a 55-gallon drum to create a warming barrel. This should be a 10×10-inch door cut into the drum.

3.Secure a heat lamp in the warming barrel to reduce fire hazard risk. Ensure that the dam cannot access the heat lamp.

4.Bed the barrel with straw or shavings to provide insulation and comfort for the baby goats.

It is possible to heat it too fast, and it is also possible to get it too hot. You must be careful and aware of how the kid is doing as you work. You also need to be careful to not burn it.

When using a blow dryer, if the heat you are blowing on it is uncomfortable to your hand then it is too hot for the baby as well. Check its body temp with a rectal thermometer every 5 minutes or so. After it reaches a rectal temperature of 102.5° F, stop heating it up.

Once you have the baby back to normal body temperature, it is good to give it warm milk to help warm its insides. Think of hot chocolate after building a snow man, it warms your insides up too. Don’t feed the kid while they are hypothermic because it may be too weak and can aspirate the milk. Aspirating will cause a whole other pile of problems, like pneumonia.

The baby can also aspirate if it is having labored breathing. Postpone feeding the baby until you have raised its body temperature up to normal. At this time give that baby warm milk preferably from its mother. You can syringe feed it if it isn’t suckling yet.

If you get the baby warm and back to temperature, it can go back to its mother. Hypothermia is a quick killer, if you catch it soon enough and treat it properly and successfully, you will have saved its life.

FLOPPY KID SYNDROME:

Floppy kid syndrome can occur between 3 days to 2 weeks. This is the disease that most scares me as most kids don’t come back from it if not caught immediately. Typically, a vet won’t consider it floppy kid unless its 10 days old at least. A kid who had appeared healthy since birth suddenly can’t stand, nurse, nor wrap its tongue around a nipple. The kid does not have diarrhea and is not dehydrated. If not treated, it may fall into a coma and die within 24 to 36 hours.

Floppy kid is a metabolic disorder caused by a base deficit, according to a book called Goat Medicine. It may be caused by consuming too much milk. It can be easily corrected by giving a kid about one-half to one teaspoon of baking soda dissolved in a small amount of water. Since the kid is not dehydrated (because it consumed too much milk), you only need to mix enough water into the baking soda to get it into the kid. Even though the kid can’t suck, it can usually swallow, so you should be able to get the baking soda into the kid with a bottle or eye dropper and a lot of patience. If not, a vet can administer sodium bicarbonate intravenously. A single dose of baking soda is usually all that is needed, although since overfeeding is the suspected cause, some people also advocate limiting milk consumption for the next 24 hours.

If you don’t see improvement fairly quickly, it’s probably something else.

General Care for Newborn Kids:

Birth

After the kid is born it’s important to tie off the cord with floss and dip in iodine. Clip off any that is hanging past the tie off spot with clean disinfected scissors.

You will need a baby aspirator to suckle the extra fluid that may be still in the kid’s nose if the dam didn’t clean off the baby. Gently suck any fluid.

Dry off the baby with a warm, clean towel if the dam isn’t cleaning the baby herself. Do not interfere with the dam and her kid if at all possible, as this is the time when the first bonding occurs.

Watch that the kid gets up and walks and seeks its mother’s milk. If the baby doesn’t get up within 30 minutes you may need to intervene.

Feeding

Babies that are dam raised tend to be healthier and grow faster. But the benefits of bottle feeding are that you end up with a goat that loves and adores you because you are its mother. Sometimes bottle feeding is unavoidable and the only way to save a kid.

Do not over feed. This is extremely important. Bottle babies will always act like they are hungry. Do not give in to their pathetically sounding pleas. They will tug at your heart strings with the begging for more food…… hold strong!

I prefer to feed raw milk or fresh goat milk. If this isn’t available to you, you can mix 1 gallon milk with a can of evaporated milk and 1 cup buttermilk, then, combine. You can also pick up formula from Amazon or your feed store. Make sure that whichever milk form you choose that you heat to 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

Below is a chart that can help in the feeding process.