About 2 months ago my first legitimate livestock came to Green Acres. She is a spotted Nubian dairy goat and I call her Charlotte. When Charlotte and her sister, dubbed Rainbow Rose by Gaby, came to Green Acres they were tiny, only a week old and still learning to suckle on a bottle. Since Green Acres is already home to a small mixed herd of goats, the kids seemed like easy additions. I say seemed because I did not fully comprehend all the time and energy the kids required. In the beginning Heather and I had to find a way to feed the goats 4 times a day (6 am, 11 pm, 4 pm, and 9 pm). Since I don't live at Green Acres yet, I had to drive over there during any of the feeding times I could fit into my schedule. On work days that meant 6 am and/or 9 pm. Heather took over the feedings she could and then some wonderful friends and family helped with the times we couldn't cover. (Note: Under normal circumstances we would have preferred to let the kids nurse on their mother, but the doe developed an infection in one teat and since she dropped quadruplets there was no way the mother could nurse four kids on one teat.)
At two and a half months old the kids are now down to eating 3 times per day (6 am, 1 pm, and 7 pm). Thank goodness! Unfortunately, we ran out of the kid formula we were feeding and could not locate a single place in town that had it in stock. I had to special order the feed, but we ran out 2 days before it arrived at the feed store. A helpful neighbor gave us a left over bag of his own and we had to feed that to the girls, but it was not the same formula as the one we had been feeding. The sudden change in their diet caused poor Rose to develop scours (i.e. goat diarrhea). In extreme cases scours can lead to death because of dehydration and shock, but little Rose was acting like her normal bouncy self.
To help combat the scours Heather and I found this recipe in a book about goats. Since we are trying to treat any issues with the goats hollistically, we chose this recipe instead of buying medication. Here's the recipe:
1 c. buttermilk
1 raw egg
1/2 tsp. cocoa
1/4 tsp. baking soda
Feed 1/4 of the mixture by bottle 2-3 times per day until symptoms clear
I am pleased to report that after only one full day of this treatment Rose has nearly made a full recovery. We are now only adding a small amount of probiotics to her formula to help reintroduce good bacteria to her stomach since the scours likely wiped out most of them.
Lesson learned: When it comes to feed stores, don't count on them having what you need when you need it. Plan to buy more feed before you are close to being out of your current sack. If you and changing feed for any animal do it slowly by mixing the new feed and the old feed together. Start at a small ratio of new feed to old feed and then slowly increase the percentage of new feed until you have completely weaned the animal off of the old feed. If you don't then you will find yourself cleaning poopy goat butt until the symptoms clear. No fun for anyone!
NOTE: Do not use the formula for scours on any animal than a ruminant animal. Carnivores or other non-ruminant animals may not be able to handle the cocoa in the mixture!
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