Everyone has their own way of rearing kids. I have reared approximately 130 kids in 2002 and 2003 and at this stage only 4 have died. These deaths were caused by Entertoxaemia as a result of my not having vaccinated. All 4 were 6-7 months of age.

Prior to this I had up to 4 kids die a year from bloat. At that stage I was feeding the kids 750ml of milk replacer twice a day. I tried many things to stop the bloat, all to no effect. The vet did post mortems with no specific result. In 1996 it got so bad that I'd be in the kids pen at 8pm with 20 kids, burping them and shoving tubes down their throats trying to remove the gas and keep them alive. Most survived.

I had a kid die that year in at the vet's surgery. He had been totally at a loss about what the problem was or what could be done. Out of desperation he handed me a 1kg bucket of Oxymav 100 antibiotic powder and told me to use it as recommended for calves. This product contains Oxytetracycline, the same as Engemycin, and is mixed into the kid's milk once a day.

I started the kids on it as soon as I returned home and hey presto! No more bloat! If I stop feeding the Oxymav while the kids are still on milk, the bloat returns. Every year I have tried the kids without the antibiotic as I don't really believe in raising animals on it but they die quickly and painfully so back to the Oxymav I go.

In 2001 I decided to try rearing the kids on their dams. I was not impressed with the results. The kids were no better grown than when artificially reared and 3 (out of the 58) died from joint ill plus one was successfully treated. The kids were weaned from their dams at about 3 months of age and proceeded to get all the health problems that in previous years had occurred at a younger age eg. Coccidiosis. They drank all our profits and worst of all learnt to get through fences which they still do today as part of the milking herd.

Colostrum should be fed within 2 hours of birth for the best immune response. A second feed within 6 hours is ideal. Many of my does have udders that are too big for the kid to find a teat on their own so they are assisted for the first feed or two after which they usually work it out themselves. If not, they are bottle fed.

Successful method of rearing kids gives you the details on how I recommend feeding kids.