Teaching goat clients to prevent pregnancy toxemia

Abstract

Pregnancy toxemia is a frequent and important disease of prolific does in late gestation, resulting in high mortality of does and loss of valuable kids. Veterinarians can play an important role in preventing losses from pregnancy toxemia by training owners to recognize management factors predisposing to disease, and by teaching them to prioritize observations and develop management strategies to decrease the risk of pregnancy toxemia in the herd. Utilization of ultrasound pregnancy diagnosis, including staging and enumeration, accurate identification and recordkeeping, are the cornerstones of these strategies. Monitoring of body condition, adjusting timing and amount of lead-feeding according to risk, and adapting penning or identification strategies to appropriately feed and closely monitor the highest-risk animals, while providing a system for early detection and treatment of clinical disease, are key to minimizing the impact of pregnancy toxemia in the goat herd.