# ideas for feeding a triplet mother after ketosis



## sanhestar (Dec 10, 2008)

Hi everyone,

I need some ideas how to feed a mother of triplets (born Easter monday) after nursing her through a ketosis.

She was borderline before delivery, managed to keep her active with propylenglycol/natriumpropionat but had already problems to feed her the needed amount of grain and concentrates because she would switch between almost ketosis and almost acidosis (poor rumination, inactive rumen).

It came as it must - she devoloped a ketosis after delivering the triplets (they, too, showed very strange symptoms, will write about them in a few days when I get the report from the clinic) and subsequently another acidosis while being in the clinic with her kids. She refused the hay there, was barely holding on and I took her home yesterday. She started eating our hay the minute she stepped in the trailer that was filled with it and hasn't stopped eating since - Thank God! Had to give her some rumen starter last night, as well, to get rumination going again. 

But she's so thin, has no substance left, she must get more energy into herself.

I'm still giving her propylenglycol (20 mls twice a day), hay free choice. She went out with the herd to browse for an hour this afternoon - slightly upset rumen, problems with rumination, decreased rumen activity for a while after that (she helped herself by eating hay) and tried a small amount of concentrated feed this evening (1/2 cup rolled oats, 1 cup sunflower seeds, 1/2 cup alfalfa pellets) and again: problems with rumination, slowing of rumen activity as before. Eating hay resolved this again.

Any ideas how to help her are greatly appreciated.


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## sweetgoatmama (Dec 10, 2008)

Will she eat soaked beet pulp pellets? They ae high in calcium and have lots of calories. If she's not too upset in a few days you might start her on some canola oil about 2 tablespoons to start with till you see what it does digestionwise.

She may have some liver damage that needs to resolve so go slowly with anything besides hay.

Did they do bloodwork on her?


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## sanhestar (Dec 10, 2008)

I will try the beet pulp. They probably did bloodwork on her but I haven't seen the results. I will call today to speak to the vet who took care of her (he had already left on Friday when I picked them up and they were in the middle of the next critical case) to get more information.


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## sanhestar (Dec 10, 2008)

checked with the clinic - liver is fine.

She's more stable, ruminating with more ease on hay and browse and eating with good appetite.

I had her in a seperate pen for the last 1,5 days but this morning she wanted to get out into the large herd pen (her kids are loving that as well).


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## sweetgoatmama (Dec 10, 2008)

Glad to hear it. sometimes it just takes time to get back to normal after a punky kidding.

Liver and kidney damage can always be a problem and concern after one of these.


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## sanhestar (Dec 10, 2008)

she will certainly get a breeding pause of at least one year after weaning the triplets. It's heart wrenching to see her so run-down.

The clinic has done great work with the triplets but they didn't recognize that she needed other food to start eating again. I had to argue quite hard for them to agree that I would take her home on Friday and continue the treatment myself.


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## sweetgoatmama (Dec 10, 2008)

Raspberry and blackberry leaves are good to get the appetite back on an animal that has been off its' feed.


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## sanhestar (Dec 10, 2008)

she's eating good. I'm adding bottle-feeding for the kids to minimize the strain she's under. Have still to be careful with grain, so I split her daily ration in 3 or 4 small portions.


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## sweetgoatmama (Dec 10, 2008)

Unfortunately, she'll be at a lot more risk next time she kids now that she's had it once.


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## sanhestar (Dec 10, 2008)

Carolyn,

I checked her age. When I give her two years kidding pause, she'll be 8 with next breeding, almost 9 when kidding. So, NO, she won't kid again. She has a good frame and work ethic so she'll switch over to the pack group resp. will have the chance to be grandma to her daughters' kids.


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## sweetgoatmama (Dec 10, 2008)

At that age she's earned a nice quiet life of trails.


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## sanhestar (Dec 10, 2008)

Hello,

I found this old thread and just wanted to put a - hopefully - final update in here.

The doe in question took two years - until this winter - to get back into an acceptable shape. The winter 2009/2010 was really hard on her, I barely managed to keep her from slipping under a body score of 3,5 (barely holding the 4) with grain, sunflower seeds and blanketing her every night and on really cold days. In fall 2009 she was able to eat 2 cups of grain per day, not more or it would upset her rumen again. I had two of her triplets on the bottle while she was nursing only one full time and the other two partly. The kids turned out well, a smaller doe, a really large doe and a normal sized buck.

During summer 2010 I kept her off the grain because she started to produce milk without having kids and I didn't want to milk her. Therefore the progress on her gaining weight was slower than possible. She wouldn't dry up completely until we took the goats in for the winter.

She managed the first cold days better than the last winter but before long I had to put a blanket on her during the nights again. She would get 4-5 handfull of sunflower seeds per day, blanket during the night and so keep her weight. In January we wormed the whole herd, including treatment for tapeworm and that, so far, seems to have done the trick (meaning she most likely had tapeworms) because since then she doesn't need a blanket during the nights and I could switch her from 4-5 handfull sunflowerseeds daily to 3-4 handfull every other day. She's still putting on more weight with this. I didn't want to give her grain because I didn't want to trigger her into producing milk during winter.

All the "new" doe kids started to produce milk without lambing, too, this spring, although only for a short while - the bucks come from dairy lines.

Next thing learned is to add tapeworm treatment to the normal wormings. Maybe our two sheep have brought them in or the sheep that we share the brush clearing areas with.


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