# One of my goats has had her 2nd stillbirth



## miclew (Oct 13, 2004)

Today "Spot" delivered way early and stillborn. This is the 2nd time she has done this. She has not managed to go full term and deliver a healthy kid. I was wondering if she will ever go fullterm? Has anyone had a goat that has had 2 or more still births and then managed to deliver a normal kid? I felt so sorry for SPot today. She cried and cried and cried. She was very heartbroken  She was like that the last time too. I know she would be a good momma if she had the chance.

michele


----------



## bumpus (Jul 30, 2003)

Sorry to hear that. But it's time to cull and get rid of the doe,
and get one that will have babies.


----------



## Freeholder (Jun 19, 2004)

I agree, unless you just have her for a pet. If you have her for any productive use she needs to kid regularly or you are wasting the money her feed, etc., costs. I know it seems hard, but a barnful of unproductive animals can eat you out of house and home.

Kathleen


----------



## Mrs_stuart (Dec 24, 2003)

miclew said:


> Today "Spot" delivered way early and stillborn. This is the 2nd time she has done this. She has not managed to go full term and deliver a healthy kid. I was wondering if she will ever go fullterm? Has anyone had a goat that has had 2 or more still births and then managed to deliver a normal kid? I felt so sorry for SPot today. She cried and cried and cried. She was very heartbroken  She was like that the last time too. I know she would be a good momma if she had the chance.
> 
> michele


I am sorry to hear about your goats stillborn. That is always hard to deal with. 

If she is a good pet, I would take the time to research on this before i made any decisions to cull. If she is pastured, i would look into what is in the pasture that she may be eating that could cause this particular problem. I would also look into medications, vaccines, wormers and such given. I would make sure that none of these things are problems before. I would just do a search on the www for plants, medications and such that cause a premature, or stillborn kids in goats. It might take a bit or work but you might just find you answer. You may also check with other goat owners in your area, they may have some insite that you are just not aware of. I wish you luck.

Belinda


----------



## Laura Workman (May 10, 2002)

Chlamydia can cause abortion. Here's an excerpt from http://www.osranch.com/board/messages/19.html , which is not written in stone, but is one of many references, and the first I happened across:

Signs of the Disease
The disease is characterized by abortion, usually towards the end of pregnancy, stillbirths and the birth of weak lambs or kids. The placenta is often severely damaged and may be retained in the uterus after abortion has occurred. The placental membranes instead of being clear and shiny, are opaque, reddened and thick, and often have a leathery appearance and a layer of yellow exudate. The cotyledons, which attach the placenta to the caruncles on the inside of the uterus, are thick and rigid instead of being pliable. Sometimes the fetus has a potbelly due to the collection of fluid in the abdomen and enlargement of the liver. In a newly infected flock, 30% of ewes may abort. In newly infected goat herds, the incidence may be even higher. When infection is established on a farm, rates of 5-10% are common as new animals are introduced to the infected environment.

Diagnosis
Chlamydia abortion may be diagnosed in several ways. Signs in the flock are often enough to raise suspicion but are not reliable because they are often very similar to those of "vibrionic" and coxiella (Q Fever) abortion. Three types of laboratory tests are used in diagnosis. The first involves examination of the fetus, its stomach content, and especially the placenta under the microscope. Even a fragment of placenta may be useful. The second involves the growth of the bacteria in incubating hens eggs. The best material to use for this test is also placenta. Third, a blood test is available. Two clotted blood samples are needed, one taken at the time of abortion and the other taken two to three weeks later. A positive result is indicated by a "rising antibody titre" i.e. an increase in the level of blood antibody from the first to the second sample. The blood test must be used along with one of the other tests and several ewes (aborting and nonaborting) should be tested.


----------



## miclew (Oct 13, 2004)

I have 16 goats altogether...
2 bucks
3 whethers
11 does

None of the other does have ever had a spontaneous abortion. Spots twin sister delivered healthy twins. 

We have two areas we put the goats. During the day they are on 8 acres. The back 2/3 is heavily wooded. The from 1/3 is grass and a pond. At night we bring them to 3 acres behind the house. I like them closer to the house at night so I can hear if there is a problem. The 3 acres is mostly wooded with a small area cleared toward the front where there is a enclosed shed for them as well as an open metal carport. 

In the woods we have oak, pine, sumac, persimmons, sweet gum trees. There are a ton of gooseberries, wild grapes and blackberries. The grassy part around the pond is simply a mix of grass, weeds and hay. Most of the weeds (if not all)have been identified and checked against our goat book.

We supplement their browsing with a little goat feed/sweat feed mixed just for a treat. We give them the feed in the early evening when we want them to come back up to the back. During the winter we give them hay to boost their metabolism to help keep them warm.

The goats are mostly brush clearers and pets. We do milk BUT I only milk a little. I never take a baby away from it's momma to be able to milk her full time. I let the momma's raise their babies. 

We worm them every 2 months. We switch our wormers around every so often. We do not give them any other medications or vaccines since these are not show goats nor are we in the commercial goat business. Since we have a relatively few number of goats on a large piece of property we have never had a problem with coccidia. 

We have only lost one baby goat. He was given to us by a friend. He had been mauled by a dog when he was 2 days old and was hand reared. He got over his physical injures but he was never quite right. He never grew well. After we had him for about 2 months he developed bloat. We treated him but he never recovered. 

michele


----------



## miclew (Oct 13, 2004)

Our goats are mixed breeds. They are part Nubian, part Alpine and some are part Boer. Certainly not show goats but they are nice looking none the less 

michele


----------



## TexCountryWoman (Jun 22, 2004)

Sorry about your goat misfortunes. Here are two other possibilities for the goat aborting twice that just popped into my head:

1) The goat's uterus may simply have an inherited defect in it.

2) She may have had a freak accident each year, such as being butted by another goat, causing her to abort. Unlikely, but still a possibility. 

I like your goat set up. We have 90 acres (fenced for cattle) and are trying to fence more in for goats so we can run our goats on more. Right now we have less fenced in than you do. I walk mine to browse. We are in the "planning" stages of our fence building. Trying to figure out were the new shed and milk barn will go in conjunction with the new acerage being fenced in. It needs to be closer to the house. We only have 7 goats right now, 1 LaMancha buck and his 3 does and 1 Boer buck and his doe and a big meat wether. We intend to have our new pens up before the spring. The size depends on how much fencing we can buy!


----------



## Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians (May 6, 2002)

It is highly unlikely she has an abortive disease, first if it was chlamydia or toxo, than her subsequent kiddings would be normal, from immunity, you can have a positive for chlamydia herd, with no abortions after the initial ones. Unless she went off to be bred by a specific buck who gave this to her, than you would now be seeing this herdwide. I would run a blood test on her before you butcher or sell her, or keep her as a pet, and run it for Q fever. Weak small kids at birth that look premature, or kids born alive that have odd swellings under their skins, rarely do kids live out of dams, is a typical symptom of Q fever.

I would agree with Tex woman...that she has an inadequate cervics that will only hold the kids until a certain weight, the cervics fails, the kids are expelled early. My mother had this, she adopted us 3 kids, later they found that by stitching the cervic shut, then delivering the child by C section, you could have live children, and she did. You could do this with your doe, it would be expensive and hard to find a vet willing to do this, but it could be done. The stitches could be removed when the kids are viable, allowing her to have the kids naturally without C section, however I would use lutelyse to get things going, having a vet in the wings for a C section if problems continue. Removal of her ovaries at C section would be best, this way she would not come into heat anymore, and if I was going to keep a doe with kidding problems like this and have her running with a herd that is pen bred, I would have this surgery done anyway. Vicki


----------

