Bottle kids are easy. You give them bottles of goat milk from the freezer or milk replacer, make sure they have a safe place to sleep away from cranky adults, and they grow and do well.
Tiny Tim
Usually. I’ve struggled with scours in my bottle kids this summer. I’ve never had this problem before, so I knew it was something else to blame on our non-existent winter. First I thought it was just the change from real colostrum/milk to milk replacer, but it didn’t clear up.
Cindy Lou
Then it turned more liquid and got really sour smelling. Of course, there was always the white foamy stuff too. Strangely, they continued eating well and playing and growing bigger and stronger. Since these were the under weight kids that we had for some unknown reason, I blamed it on their weak digestive systems. After all, the non-bottle kids were in the same conditions other than their food source, and none of them had a sign of diarrhea.
Indie
When the ginormous Sherman Tank developed the same scours, I knew I couldn’t blame weak digestive systems, and it really left him with an upset stomach and got him off the bottle.
Sherman
I gave him some Pepto Bismol to help his tummy, and I consulted the vets. (I have them on speed dial this spring/summer.)
Dr. Schmitz immediately recognized it as e-coli scours~a bacterial infection. See I knew it was because of the extra warm winter. We didn’t have the freeze to kill off the bacteria like we usually do. It probably also has to do with their weak immune systems from not getting enough colostrum and being born under weight. In Sherman’s case, he went about a whole day without eating after his mom died.
Sherman and Indie
They all got Naxcel, an antibiotic, to get rid of those nasty bacteria. When that didn’t seem to do it, we switched them to a sulfa antibiotic. After that they got probiotics and Pepto Bismol. That really helped.
It has not been fun, but at least I know what to do for them now. I also know that there is more than just diet change, bad formula and worms to cause scours in very young kids.
More information HERE
Teresa
Eden Hills 
Hi Teresa
I have a bottle baby that got diarrhea earlier this year . I added yougurt to his bottle for three days and he’s never had it again thank goodness . I had tried pepto and had no results but the yougurt worked great . Just a thought , hopes all the kids get better soon 🙂 Also a raw egg one time worked on a foal that had diarrhea one time 🙂
The yogurt would be the same as the probiotics. This was caused by bacteria, so it did require the antibiotics.
ugh! poor little ones. glad you’re on the right track.
It’s been a long haul for the poor little ones, but I think we’re on the right track now. 🙂
Poor kiddies, glad they are on the mend! You really have been a super busy goat momma. xo
It has been a very busy spring, but I think we should calm down for the rest of the summer.
Sorry those poor kids had to go through that. At least they are now on the path to good health.
I feel horrible for the little ones, but they are doing well now. 🙂
I’m sure you will be relieved when this summer is over and the kids are grown! I hope they continue to steadily get better!
I certainly will. They all seem to be doing well now, and a couple have already left the farm.
I’m glad you were able to figure it out and that they are doing better now. Here’s hoping you get “real” winter this year but not overdone either!
Thanks. I really am looking forward to the seasons changing this year. I too hope it gets cold to try and set things back to normal.