When a lamb or goat kid is born, it is important to the treat its umbilical cord/navel. Within 15 minutes after birth, take sharp scissors and snip the cord so it is about two inches long. For this and the next step, it is easiest to pick the baby up, holding the baby with its back to your front with your arm under its front legs. Some folks like to use the little plastic clips on the cord…I never have, and I have never had a problem with the navel getting infected. Sometimes, the cord has naturally broken shorter than two inches. Still try to trim the tip off, for a clean edge with less of a chance of bacterial contamination. If its just too short to trim, go on to the next step, which is dipping the cord in iodine. An empty pill bottle filled about halfway with iodine works the best for this…it’s the perfect size! Have the bottle filled and cap off before you pick up the baby, so you can snip the cord and dip it at the same time, without having to put the baby down to get things situated.
To dip the cord- while holding the baby, tilt your body forward a bit, put the bottle opening over the cord, and press it firmly against the baby’s belly. Then tilt your body backward a bit to make the iodine cover the entire umbilical cord, tip back forward, and then take the bottle away from the baby’s belly. Try not to get the iodine on anything, as it stains. Also, it can burn your skin if it dumps on your clothes and stays wet against your skin. It is important to dip the cord to reduce the chance of infection.
I once had an over-zealous Great Pyrenees take the whole cord off right down to the belly…it bled more than I would have liked, but I still dipped and the goat kid was ok. The dog was just trying to clean the kid up to get rid of all discharge and tissue that could attract predators, not harm the kid.
No comments:
Post a Comment