Both does happen to be heavy milkers but that doesn't have to be the case with Milk Fever. The problem isn't always that the doe doesn't have enough calcium but for some reason or other, her body isn't using her stores. In my case, I feed calcium in their diet.
As for Chicory, she did this little episode when she kidded the first time, with her previous owner. Who happens to be a very conscientious, record keeping, goat owner. She records every hoof trim, milking amounts, everything. It was this foot problem that made her available to us.
For the past three kiddings, I've owned her. She's had a mild problem of going down a bit on her pasterns. Yet, last year her feet were stronger than the year before. She did have a weird week last week before kidding. Her udder was huge and rock hard, plus she never had strong contraction though when I went inside her, the first kids feet were right inside ready.
Does Chicory have Milk Fever, don't know, but we'll cover the bases of bacterial infection from birth and Milk fever.
Wish Chicory could talk, beyond her insesant moaning that is. We'd get a better picture of what's wrong. But beyond her leaning her head on me for sympathy and the moans, she's not talking.
She is up on her feet a bit more today. Compared to last night when she didn't even move off the ground where she was laying when I poked her twice to inject the 5 cc's in two sites to lesson the soreness, that's a good sign.
This calcium drench works okay too. It's for cows but I have both on hand from a few years ago when I had a Saanen do the same thing. She didn't come out quite so well. I didn't know what was going on and the delay meant she ended up with heart problems. She went on to continue having kids but always had to be watched carefully and treated with extra calcium when she kidded. I called a gal who previously ran a 1200 cow dairy with her day and she continues to raise a few Holstein cows for show. I learned a bunch.
You may not have had to deal with milk fever. I hope not. But it is wise to have supplies on hand, just in case. A goat can go down and die within a very short period, before the store or vets open in the morning. Here, we don't take our goats to the vets if possible because they are not real knowledgeable about them. Cattle, horses, sheep, dogs, and cats being the main business and I understand that. One can't be up to date on every species health issues. That would be a huge task.
This site has a brief over view of the problem. http://fiascofarm.com/goats/milkfever.htm
Oh yeah, since it doesn't rain but pours, I'm treating an eye infection on Daisy, one of the kids, and our daughter went into labor yesterday, two months too early.
The hospital was able to stop her labor but it's stay down time since she's having other complications also.
The good news is Murphy appears to have grown bored attacking our computers. LOL
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