I haven't had a kidding update because it has just been too depressing. We got off to a good start the first week and everything seemed normal. The second week we had an unusual number of singles born. Then disaster struck the third week. 17 nannies kidded. From those only 10 live kids with 15 dead or euthanized. Some are born weak and die in a matter of hours. Some are deformed. Some are very small and born dead. I talked with a doctor from epidemiology at the vet school. He thought maybe something genetic with the billy or maybe viral. I then emailed a doctor at the vet school that specializes in genetics and small ruminates. His response was "yikes". He thought it was not likely genetic but maybe viral so epidemiologic. He said it would be very difficult to track down the inciting cause and most likely, it shouldn't continue to be an issue after this.
I have included pictures of some of the facial deformities if you are interested. If you are not interested,
DO NOT SCROLL PAST THIS NICE SET OF TWINS.
kid count- 49 (85 with this many having kidded last year)
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LAST WARNING
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This is a very tough post. I'm glad you had access to some expert opinions to help you make some sense of this. I think dealing with this would be so hard. I hope the expert who said "this shouldn't continue to be an issue after this" is correct.
ReplyDeletePoor little gaffers.
ReplyDeleteI have a friend who is just starting to raise goats and she has had a few difficulties this year.