Miscarriage and Goats

Hello!!!! Pictured here is Faith. On Monday, the 8th, while doing chores, I noticed Faith in a corner by herself, with a bit of telltale (telltail? :) ) red discharge. "Oh dear" I thought, as I pulled her out of the barn and built her LITTLE temporary pen. Notice this pen is only 6 foot by 6 foot triangle as 'bed rest' is part of her natural healing program....

I put a warm goat coat on her, as goats under stress can't always maintain thier body temperature well, and I went to the house to grab my herbmix- "KeepHer".... This is a nice product to have on hand- it's usually too late to order once you have an event in progress. In the past, before I knew what I now know about herbs, within 12 hours of seeing red discharge we'd have an abortion on our hands... I took 1 heaping teaspoon of herbmix, put it in a pint canning jar, and filled with very hot DISTILLED water- distilled pulls more phytochemicals out of the herbs than any other water. Once room temperature I drenched 80 cc's down her- being careful not to upset her or move her much- for every step could get us closer to having a real problem on our hands.... She got 3 doses of that, 30 minutes apart, then went to hourly for the remainder of that day. I put a water bucket in with her- hung up higher than her hips so that she couldn't deficate or drop aborted babies into it... Day 2- Wow- we have a day 2 to work with! She gets her herbs 3x a day, still 80 cc. And Day 3, I also dissolve some wheat germ capsules into her water and some ginger for additional support. She will continue on this regimine until she either loses her pregnancy or kids. We will remove the wheat germ oil from her diet 2 weeks before she is due. She will remain in this pen until we have kids. To put her back with the does, even if she is looking good, is very risky.

Faith was 38 days from kidding when this happened. Possible causes could have been a hard fall, either caused by a misstep but probably more likely a scuffle with a herdmate. In those cases, at times you can have a 'plancenta previa' or 'partial abruption' of the placenta, which may be what has happened in this case. That means that the placenta has partially torn or has begun to tear away from the uterine wall. Not a good thing at any time, but especially before a doe is within 10 days of her due date. The kids are not yet considered 'fully baked' before that. Three weak preemies can sometimes be saved, but before that it's really tough rocks.... You need them in a very small pen, each time they take a large stride, move fast, or have a doe pester them, that rocking movement of the body can cause the placenta to tear away more.

Last year we had a doe, Nasturium, start aborting a month from her due date, probably after a serious barn scuffle as she is the herd queen, and there are a couple does that would like that position.... I gave her this same product, knowing that if the kid/s were still viable (alive and at least moderately strong), that this mix would help her hold the pregnancy. BUT, if the kid/s were dead or seriously compromised, it would cause the doe to abort them and clean out properly, without my assistance, thereby keeping her clean inside. When she did abort, it was very clear that her single kid had slipped off the naval within that day, as the skin was torn away at that location and the naval already severed. One month later we brought that doe into milk with MilkMaid, and she peaked somewhere between 9 and 10 pounds- not too shabby for a 9 year old doe, aborting, a single kid, and not milking until one month later....

Anyone that would like to say prayers for Faith we certainly welcome that. She's a sweetie and we'd like to save her kids if possible. If we lose them, then we do, that's a part of goat keeping sometimes, but if God keeps them here you know they'll be spoiled :).