IN THIS ISSUE:

• Environmental Stresses Affecting Goats
• Goat Polio or Listeriosis?
• Nathan's Story
• Goat Camp™ 2011

NATHAN'S STORY

On January 16, 2011, OCR Natalie, Tennessee Meat Goat™ doe, gave birth to son Nathan and daughter Nattie. The winter was extremely cold and very dry, even by West Texas standards. Nathan was unable to stand well and did not have a sucking reflex. His teeth were completely unerupted from the gums. Nathan was about as premature as a goat kid could be and still survive.

I pulled him from his mother, milked her, got his rectal temperature up to over 100*F, and slowly stomach tubed colostrum into him. Dam Natalie was very unhappy that I took her precious son away from her, but he was destined to die if I didn't intercede. She still stomps her front feet and makes spitting noises when she sees me. Having no sucking reflex, he could not suck a bottle. Some of the colostrum ran back out of his mouth and nose each time I stomach tubed him. Thinking that he could have a cleft palate, I checked the roof of his mouth -- absolutely no cleft palate. My vet insisted that there must be a cleft palate. I kept checking. No cleft palate. For over three weeks, I stomached tubed Nathan with his dam's milk, while trying to get him to nurse his dam or take a bottle -- without success. Some milk continued to come out of his mouth and nose, albeit in lesser amounts as time passed. I kept checking for that elusive cleft palate, thinking that I must have missed it somehow. But Nathan did not have a cleft palate.

As Nathan got stronger and began growing, I put him in a small pen with Jared, whose dam had given birth to three boys on January 6, 2011, but she had mastitis in one teat. It is not reasonable to expect a dam to nurse three bucklings with only half of a functioning udder. Having no other dam to foster Jared on, I reluctantly made him a bottle baby. Nathan and Jared became inseparable friends.

At about 3-1/2 weeks of age, Nathan began taking milk from a bottle. I determined that Nathan had been so premature that his ability to swallow milk and keep it down had not fully developed, causing milk to come back up his throat and out his nose. It was a miracle that he survived. He was probably close to ten days premature, and most kids born that early do not survive.

Nathan and his buddy Jared were weaned together -- a remarkably easy weaning. They both had begun eating hay and other solid food normally and without having to be coaxed, which is very unusual for bottle babies; they usually want to hang onto that bottle to the exclusion of other food. Nathan and Jared now live in Oklahoma, where they will both get to breed does very soon. I didn't want them separated until such time as breeding instinct kicks in. Then Nathan won't care where Jared is, and vice versa. Remarkably, they have both grown out to what I believe may be TMG quality in the future -- another plus for bottle babies, because bottle babies usually don't grow well and develop into quality breedingstock.

Suzanne W. Gasparotto, ONION CREEK RANCH, 8/3/11