During lambing and kidding season, baby animals born at night can get chilled. In cases of baby goat hypothermia (often paired with hypoglycemia) immediate action is necessary and there is no time to call the vet. These steps are tried and true method to revive kids and lambs that got cold at birth. Usually, the goats will have their eyes open but completely unresponsive. While still breathing, there seems to be no life left in them, the tongue is cold and stomach empty. Without immediate intervention , in a situation like this, where life is in the balance, you don’t have time to call a vet. This is a homestead emergency. This kid has hypothermia and possibly also was hypoglycemic. Since the kid’s tongue is cold, there is no point in feeding it warm milk, as it can’t swallow and it could get it in its lungs.
How to address baby goat hypothermia
– Fill up a basin with warm water. The water should be warmer than your hands but not so warm as to burn the baby.
– Immerse the goat or lamb in the sink of warm water up to the neck. Move the kid through the water, while keeping its head above the water. As the water cools, drain some water out of the sink and replace with warmer water. Since the goat, some of the heat will be removed from the water and it will need to be replenished.
– Put a small amount of honey or maple syrup (not corn syrup or sugar) under the goat’s tongue.
Many times a baby goat or kid that goes limp and cold overnight has hypoglycemia, as well as hypothermia. When they are unresponsive and not sucking, you don’t want to force warm milk into them. While you could tube feed them, an inexperienced person runs the risk of getting fluid in the baby’s lungs with this method. On the other hand, honey or maple syrup placed under the tongue will be absorbed immediately into the blood stream, helping to warm the animal. It also helps their digestive system start back up after being chilled and shutting down.
– Rub the baby’s legs and back to restore full circulation.
In cases of baby goat hypothermia, the goat has a reduced heart rate, a reduced breathing rate and slower blood circulation. By rubbing the limbs, blood circulation can be restored. This will also help move the heat from the limbs to the baby’s core.
– Be patient.
Kids don’t normally get limp and unresponsive in seconds, and it takes up to 45 minutes to warm them to the core. As the kid warms you will feel their tongue get warmer. So check on the temperature of the kid’s tongue to see how your patient is progressing. As it warms, it will begin to hold her own head up. The eye lids will flutter and then blink, involuntarily move their own legs, as if swimming in the water. This is encouraging. Don’t try to feed it yet, you are seeing involuntary movements. But at this point you should have a bottle of milk warming in a cup of hot water, ready for when the kid becomes fully alive.
If the baby is only a little chilled, and has active shivering or is wet, you can just warm them with a blow dryer and towel rubbing. This keeps their scent intact, and makes it more likely for the mother to accept them once the baby goat hypothermia is addressed.
– Feed the baby goat or lamb with a bottle of warm milk.
Wait until the baby begins to suck on your finger when her tongue is warm. Then insert the nipple into the baby’s mouth while gently moving the nipple in and out to encourage the baby to swallow. You should see swallowing movements. Do not feed the baby goat until it has warmed up fully. Their stomach stops digesting when their body shuts down from the hypothermia, and they need to be fully warm before you feed them so that their stomach is active again. You may need to give a small amount of plain raw yogurt mixed into the milk if it is a case of older baby goat hypothermia, to help restart their stomach.
– Putting the baby back with her mother.
Since the baby has been washed in the sink of warm water, she will no longer have her birth smell and may be rejected by her mother. This is more likely if the kid is less than a week old. Since the baby was hypoglycemic, it is very likely she already has been rejected and this is why the emergency came about in the first place. You will probably have a bottle baby on your hands. You can attempt to put her back with her mother. Watch and see if her mother shows any mothering instinct toward the baby. If the doe or ewe is solicitous of her offspring then you can safely leave them together. If not, you will need to bottle feed the baby with her mother’s milk or a substitute until she is at least 8 weeks of age. The mother can be milked out twice a day and the baby fed exclusively from her own mother. Or you can feed goat’s milk or milk replacer made for lambs. Milk replacer contains animal products like bovine tallow, and some goats have allergies to these animal byproducts. Tallow is not part of the natural diet of ruminants. So watch carefully for stomach distress and stop feeding immediately if any stomach distress occurs. You may be able to find a source of raw goat’s milk from a local breeder. If the milk is from disease free animals you can feed it raw, but if you have any doubt as to the disease status of the herd, always pasteurize the milk to protect your own herd from Caprine Arthritis Encephalitis (CAE).
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