# Baby has stiff front legs



## Julie (Jan 26, 2012)

I had a doe kid last night and she had quads. 3 of them were still born and mom and one are doing great for the most part. He was very stiff in both front knees. The colostrum seemed to help some as the one loosened up some but the other didn't change. You can see in the pics that he can only straighten them to a point but they can bend all the way back. I am stumped and so i took him to the vet and he didn't have any answer. He is very active and eating well just cant straighten his front legs but has already learned to get around anyways and the doe has started laying down to make nursing easy for him. We gave him a shot of Bo-Se. How often and how much would you say to give him? He is about 5lbs. How soon should we see improvement? Also any thing else to try would be great. Thanks for the help.


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## Julie (Jan 26, 2012)

OK the pic is to large and i cant figure out how to get it smaller.


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## CarrieC (Mar 31, 2011)

Julie,

I don't know what kind of computer you run, but I can right click on the picture thumbnail from "Pictures" file and select "edit" then "resize". On my computer it allows either a resize by percentage or pixels. It always takes me quite a few attempts before I get it the right size without losing too much detail.
Carrie


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## PrairieTrail45 (Nov 28, 2011)

You can also make a photobucket account, upload the pics there and resize them through photobucket. Use the IMG code to post it on her, just copy and paste. When you are looking at your album on photobucket, there are several codes below them, the IMG code should the the bottom one.


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## Julie (Jan 26, 2012)

Thanks i will try that.


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## Anita Martin (Dec 26, 2007)

Also try an image resizer. I use this one and it's fairly fast. 
http://www.resize2mail.com/an image resizer


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## Julie (Jan 26, 2012)

Still no change today. He seems healthy just wish he could walk and not crawl.


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## swgoats (May 21, 2010)

Try splinting them. He could have just been cramped badly. Did the vet have any opinion on why the other four were stillborn?


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## MayLOC (Oct 26, 2007)

at the top of the page, use the search button to search for "contracted tendons"
splinting might help and bo-se and vit. e might help. or they might not. depends on how bad they are. some that aren't very bad get better on their own. sounds like he is crawling around on his knees then? are they both front feet? any luck with the pics.? there have been a few postings about this on here. we dealt with this last year for the first time.


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## wheytogosaanens (Oct 26, 2007)

Some folks have found that massaging the front legs with DMSO to be helpful.

I would keep up the Bo-Se and vitamin E as well. My vet says that Bo-Se only stays in the system up to 3 weeks (and he does think that goats are little cattle ) so once a week would probably be safe with the Bo-se. Vitamin E every day.


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## MF-Alpines (Mar 29, 2010)

How is he today, Julie?

And again, did the vet have give any reasons for the stillbirths?


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## Julie (Jan 26, 2012)

He is still stiff but doing great. I think he is just crippled. No reason for the still births but unless its a dog we don't have the best of vet care. He does seem to be working out a little of the stiffness so we are just going to wether him and see how it goes from their. After the Bo-Se made no change we was told it must be tetanus and he would die shortly but that does not seem to be the case with him.


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

> After the Bo-Se made no change we was told it must be tetanus and he would die shortly but that does not seem to be the case with him.


So they (who, the vet?) thought he was born with tetanus??


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## Julie (Jan 26, 2012)

Yes the vet. Like i said if its not a dog their not interested. Not enough money in it i guess. My vet is gone till next week and he is the only one in our area that deals with livestock.The baby is 5 days old and gaining weight and learning how to get around.


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

I would definitely keep up with the Bo-Se (1/4 cc) and Vitamin E (snip the end off of those capsules for people and squirt the contents into the kid's mouth)...it's not like you are going to see an instantaneous change, so if you are seeing improvement, that's good. We had one a couple of years ago who had contracted tendons...basically his feet just curled under, so it was like he was walking on the front of his hoof and not the bottom. Nothing as bad as yours, but it still took 4 days to straighten out. I think we did the Bo-Se and Vit E 2 or 3 days in a row. If you've only done it once so far, you could definitely do it again. Maybe you could do a little PT with him.


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## MayLOC (Oct 26, 2007)

is it just his front hooves that are knuckling over and he can't keep straight and then he is walking on his knees?
or is it at the knees?
can you straighten them with your hands to how they should be? If so then it would probably be pretty easy to tape them up in that position using vet wrap and possibly something like pipe insulation if the tape isn't enough.
If you can't straighten them manually then it is a much bigger deal. 
If it is at the knee, what do you estimate the angle is that you can get them to?
I also would continue the bo-se and vit. e and trying to manually work them open as often as you can; stretching them.


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## Julie (Jan 26, 2012)

I gave the Bo-Se for 2 days and was told to wait a week to give more. The one leg will straiten about 3/4 the way out but that is max and the hoof joint is fine on that leg. The other leg will not move hardly at all. Almost a complete v shape and their is little movement in the hoof joint as well. He spends most of his time in the house with my 4yo so he gets a lot of movement. I have put a tp roll on the leg that has some movement and he trys to walk on 3 legs but get tiered so i let him go back to his knees. He has great movement from the knees up so that is why im thinking it may just be from being so crowded in his mom.


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

I simply don't agree with the premise of, being all squished in a dam, of course you are all squished in a uterus 

How about treating him for navel/joint ill, it doesn't always come with a high fever. Perhaps the bacteria in the uterus that killed the other kids wicked in via his umbilical cord as he was being born and has settled in his joints. It certainly won't hurt him to do a round of antibiotics and banamine.

Not sure how your vet thinks tetanus could get in a uterus  to infect kids at birth...it has a 21 days incubation period from contraction in an open wound and death, your kids would be seriously neurologically impaired, not just bad front knees


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## swgoats (May 21, 2010)

I had a first freshener have a big buck kid one time whose pasterns were bowed forward, he was walking on his heels and not walking much. They straighted out in two days with no treatment of any kind. I wrote it up to being cramped in an odd position. It could have been something else, but there is no explanation for the recovery. I didn't use BoSe.


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## MayLOC (Oct 26, 2007)

The one time I dealt with this was in a pretty little doeling last year. She was a single and she wasn't huge and was definitely not squished. I think it was a deficiency in my doe that caused it. Never had a problem with it when I had quads and they should be a lot more squished then a single. I had to pull the kid out backwards and her legs were lucky to get to a 90 degree angle and I had to manuever her a bit to get her out. She almost died at birth; it would have been better if she had. I told my oldest son we would give it a go for a week or two. She had a weak suck and it took me forever to get her to suck a bottle. I read all I could about it. I bo-se'd and vit e'd every day a reg. dose the first day and then smaller doses every day for a week and then ever other day I think it was. I tested her blood levels after a few days and she wasn't toxic. I wasted lots of time messing with her legs and all. They were so contracted I found it pretty impossible to tape them at all. I finally got one leg to about a 45 degree angle and that took about a month! The tendon was so so tight on her legs; you could feel it so easily. She began to thrive and walked everywhere on her knees. She ate a bottle like a pro. But at a month there was such minimal improvement over where her legs were at birth. She wanted to be upright so badly. It was definitely no way of life. I finally made the decision to shoot her. Of course by then my son was really attatched to his kid. 

Sounds like your kid is similar. A lot of the stories I read about and pics. that I saw weren't nearly that severe. A lot of them were just hooves buckling or something that could be taped until they were stronger. Do you have a plan?


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