I found a baby that had just been born, who was freezing and within minutes from death one cold December night. His mother came from the organic herd I had bought less than 12 hours earlier. She was starved to the point that she had no energy to take care of the kidd. She had nothing for milk either. So when we walked in to check on the new goats I found this very unexpected almost dead baby.
We didn't waste any time on this one. Immediately we took it to the utility sink on our back porch, filled the sink up with about 5 inches of water, so that the water would cover his spine. We had put him in the sink while we were filling it up an attempt to not shock his system. We used water that was between luke warm and hot. You can gauge if it's too hot. If it's creating steam it is most likely too warm, you want it to be around their desired body temperature of the kidd. This isn't a quick fix it, I have spent 6 hours with kidds in that sink before. I have read alot of remedies for this, a shot of dextrose (you can find it in the cattle section of your local coop) into the muscling of the neck will supply the kid with energy that they need to help overcome this. I believe the desired dosage is 5cc's, you will have to do some math conversions to get the right amount. You don't have to give them any shots I just feel that that shot helps. Alot of people will attempt to tube them warm fluids or inject warmed up dextrose into their stomachs. I don't do either, they are struggling enough as it is. I wait until I get a shiver out of the baby and once he stops shivering I will try and feed them warm milk out of a 30 cc syringe with 1/2 inch length of 1/8inch diameter drip tubing. I try to get 45 cc's in them, depending on the size of the kidd. If the kidd isn't accepting the milk and you have tubing experience you may need to attempt to tube it.
Once the baby is shivering they are going to start trying to stand up or start moving around. That is when it's time to take them out of the tub, dry them off with an outside towel, place them in a box with newspapers and start the blow drying. The warmth from the blow dryer should raise their body temperature back to normal. Keep it about 4 inches away from them, the box will collect alot of heat. Put your hand between the dryer and the baby, if your hand gets too hot the baby will most likely be too hot. It's important not to make them too hot so keep putting your hand in there from time to time. Once the baby stops shivering you should have him where you want him to be. Turn off the hair dryer and find a heat lamp.
Place the heat lamp about 12 inches off the baby, so that when he stands up he can't knock it over or burn hisself. It's very important you have it secured, if it falls you can burn your house down. By now he should have had some milk or electrolytes in his stomach and should be shaking his head or trying to stand, or trying to talk. Leave him alone for a little while, but still check on him about every ten minutes to make sure you aren't cooking him. In about 3 hours he will need to be fed. Every animal is different, if he's looking for milk or he is sunk in behind his ribs you need to feed him. It's important not to gorge him or else they can get sick and you have a whole different problem to deal with.
You can return him to his mother to nurse in the morning, if you have access to a heat lamp, securely put one up in the jug that he should be in with his mom. If he looks healthy and alert in the evening, leave him with mom. First you need to make sure he has eaten before you leave him alone. I would go back out at 9 and check him. Make sure he has nursed, then go back out at midnight, and repeat the process. If he's shivering I would bring him back to the house and put him back in the box with the heat lamp.
I hope this helps, this time of year can be very stressful with new kidds. Check your herd daily for lathargic kids that don't want to stand or are standoffish and shivering. That's a good sign that you better get them fed and warmed up. If you have any questions feel free to email me, shall00@hotmail.com . As I said before, I am not a vet, nor do I have any formal vet training. This is merely a suggested method that I have found effective. It doesn't hurt to check with your vet first.
Rocky and his mother, along with the spotted doe. One month after purchasing and rocky is one month old. Mother finally came to her milk after pushing the grain and alfalfa on her. Don't do that unless you have talked to a vet, you can bloat a goat on grain and alfalfa.
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