# Enterotoxemia : Kids: Enterotoxemia: Result of bottle feeding too much, too



## Sondra

Information copied here with permission of Sue Reith Thanks once again Sue.

>>6 wk old kiko/boer cross bottle baby. Intact buck. Wormed last week. Bloated tummy. Loose dark stools. Temp 106. Gave him 7 ccs MOM & 3 ccs Biosol. It was 85 & clear today, currently 79. The buck is now crying & panting.<<Your>>...last night I noticed that he was grinding his teeth every once in a while and his appetite has really decreased a lot. Today he's sleeping a lot and only woke up to take a few sips off his bottle. His temperature is on the high side of normal, 103.4. He is peeing really well, but hasn't pooped since this morning. I added probios to his bottle feedings today. Any suggestions? I was thinking of giving him some Banamine, but I hate the thought of trying to give an IM injection to such a little guy. Can I give Banamine SQ?<<

I suspect you may have him on milk replacer, which is solid carbohydrate thus slow to digest. If that's the case you either need to switch him to goat milk, or else cow's milk, if that's all you have available. Additionally, I suspect that possibly you're WAY over-mothering him...

A bottle fed kid should get NO MORE than 3 bottles of milk a day, spread evenly apart, MAX, now, (and if it were me I'd even start watering down the milk a little, too). And by the next week, he should be cut to 2 bottles of milk per day, so he'll be hungry and start making use of that adult food around him... Each week the volume of the liquid given is reduced gradually, and the kid gets less milk and more water in each bottle. Remember, milk is ONLY a bridge between birth and the kid's ability to start its adult diet. If he has access to fresh water in a bucket, a tiny bit of grain just to nibble on and get used to, and a handful of hay available as well, both fresh each day, and you stop filling him up with liquid all the time, he'll start looking around him for something to eat, his rumen can start adjusting to his adult diet and he'll move over to it ASAP.

I actually wean bottle babies by 2 months of age... And because their general management (parasite control, etc) is good, they look gorgeous and grow very well, trust me. I've had lots of permanent GCH's over the years (+ 2 ADGA Nat' CH Togg wins as well) to support what I'm telling you. Like so many of us nurturing mommy types, in my view it's possible that you're unintentionally 'killing him with kindness'. You can still love the little guy, carry him around and hug him, but give him a little space, too, even tho, as a mommy myself, I know it's tough!

Now here's the hard part. What you're describing (grinding teeth, not wanting bottle, etc) is the very first sign that he's moving into enterotoxemia. You're not alone with this... There have been probably 15 requests for help with this same problem within the past 2 weeks, just on this one list alone. All have been bottle fed by new 'mommies' such as yourself, and with very few exceptions, all were given milk replacer, and too much, too often. Very few kids have survived.

Without immediate treatment, within a couple of days from now he'll be dead. I'm not sure he's going to make it, because I suspect you're not going to have the meds necessary to repair the problem. But I'll give you the instructions here, in case you can get the meds.

The most important thing you need to give the kid right now is Clostridium perfringens C&D Antitoxin (NOT toxoid!), to kill off the toxins that are developing in his gut right now while the milk replacer, undigested, is not moving thru him as it should. A small kid gets 20cc subcutaneously...That's more than the bottle indicates is the correct dosage for a small kid, but it does no harm (all it does is kill off entero toxins, period) and it's better to give too much than not enough. That must be continued every 12 hours until the kid is acting normally and is no longer grinding its teeth (an indication of pain). That could be only an injection or two, or repeated injections over a few days (depending on how quickly it was begun). And along with that it needs subcutaneous injections of Penicillin to kill the Clostridium perfringens bacterium itself (part of the natural gut bacteria in a goat) that causes enterotoxemia. The bacteria would normally be passed out continually, but the stopped up gut doesn't let that happen. The penicillin dose (at the rate of 5cc per 100 lbs, subcutaneously) should be doubled to 2X daily for at least a couple of days, and continued for 5 days minimum. Banamine should be given subcutaneously at the rate of 1cc per 100lbs, once a day as needed (but the first day it can be given 2X, 12 hours apart. It's anti-inflammatory (the gut is quite inflamed by all this), an excellent pain killer, and a temperature normalizer (good to know for other types of infections also). Additionally, the kid should be getting oral liquid Pepto bismol frequently, as much as can be gotten into it, to coat the intestinal walls and protect them from damage by the lethal entero toxins. Baking soda, given frequently, will prevent ruminal acidosis while this is all happening. Fortified B complex injectable is advisable as well, and while the kid is unable to eat it should be getting amino acids and electrolytes by tube (but no more than 2X daily!). Pedialyte can be substituted if no amino acids and electrolytes are available. And, last but not least, if BoSe is available the kid should be given a dose (1cc/40 lbs subcutaneously) of it daily for the first 3 days or so, to stimulate its immune response and allow it to help itself fight off the infection while you work on it from outside.

I wish you luck and hope this will work out for you...

(While I urge you to share this information with other individual goat owners, please do not reproduce the article for publication without my specific permission. Thank you. Sue Reith.)


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