Causes of A Goat’s Pregnancy Loss and How to Prevent It

Goat breeding is a common practice in any village, due to the high demand of its meat (and its milk for some goats). A successful goat breeding depends on a successful reproduction program. Sometimes, one problem that you can find during such program is a pregnancy loss. This article describes the causes of a goat’s pregnancy loss and what you can do to prevent it.

1. Rammed by a Buck (Male Goat)

The first cause of pregnancy loss is your doe (female goat) got rammed by a buck. High pressure from the collision can easily kills the weak fetus inside the doe’s womb. To prevent it you should consider to separate/quarantine the doe from its male during pregnancy.

2. Fall Accidentally

Just like the first cause above, collision is definitely fatal for the lamb fetus especially if the doe is accidentally fall down due to slipping. The collision between its stomach and the ground is fatal enough, similar to getting rammed.  You should put an extra caution of your doe’s movement and the surrounding terrain which can potentially lead to slipping.

3. Virus/Bacteria Attack

Now that we are finished with collision-type causes, this one is due to sickness which is caused by microbial/virus attack e.g. Salmonella, Brucella sp, Chlamydia, Toxoplasma, Bluetongue, etc. The infection is mainly caused by dirty stable condition, feed contamination, or transmitted from other infected goats. Knowing by exact the sickness condition is a right step to prevent pregnancy loss of your goat.

4. Other Causes

Other causes include the lack of good nutrition during the doe’s pregnancy period and also due to improper delivery procedure. Provide your goat with a good and balanced nutrition through its feed and give a proper delivery procedure.

The above descriptions may give you a general insight on the causes of a goat’s pregnancy loss. It is important for you as a goat breeder to know and understand the real cause in case this is relevant for you. A correct and decisive treatment as described above should prevent the unwanted things.