How to Give a Baby Goat An Enema

Use what ever you have that will have a tip on it and hold some warm soapy water.. insert the tip gently and only just into the rectum (with Vasoline on it for easy insertion) and hold baby across your lap while you sit on the edge of the bathtub.. baby feet hanging in tub.. squirt a small amount of the warm soapy water into the rectum - wait.. water will shoot out and followed by poop.. if no poop do it again.. It may take 5-10 times.. allowing the water to shoot out and hopefully poop too before adding more warm soapy water.. this may take 30min to an hour.. or more I do it in the tub so I can see the amount of poop and what it looks like.. tubs bleach out easily.. I use a home hair color bottle.. you can use ear syringe, a regular syringe with a long tip on it.. anything with a small tip and the possibility of holding and administering soapy water..

Why do I need to give my baby goat an enema?

Baby goats need to poop, when if for what ever reason they are not being stimulated by their moms (moms lick baby's butt to stimulate) and are not pooping, passing the *meconium (black tarry sticky first poop) within hours or less after birth and then the normal yellow poop they poop for the first few days there after, the belly can get too full of milk and make the baby sick enough to die.

*Meconium
Meconium (muh-CO-nee-um) is the thick, sticky, tarry appearing fetal stool that is passed in following birth and sometimes for a full day after birth (and sometimes before birth). It is the digested residue of swallowed amniotic fluid, which contains fetal skin and hair cells in abundance. Passage of meconium is facilitated by the ingestion of colostrum. In general, any sort of stress to the fetus in the time shortly before delivery can cause the reflexive passage of meconium. This is of no consequence. If, however, the kid(s) is in great distress, not only will it pass meconium, but it may have deep gasping respiratory movements and pull the meconium down deep into the bronchial tubes of the lungs (meconium aspiration syndrome). This can cause serious problems of pneumonia and collapsed lungs (pneumothorax).
Unlike later feces, meconium is composed of materials ingested during the time the infant spends in the uterus: intestinal epithelial cells, lanugo, mucus, amniotic fluid, bile, and water. Meconium is sterile, unlike later feces, is viscous and sticky like tar, and has no odor. It should be completely passed by the end of the first day of postpartum life, with the stools progressing toward yellow (digested milk). The term Meconium derives from meconium-arion, meaning "opium-like", in reference either to its tarry appearance or to Aristotle's belief that it induces sleep in the fetus.
Meconium is normally stored in the neonate's intestines until after birth, but sometimes it is expelled into the amniotic fluid prior to birth or during labor and delivery, where it usually does not damage unless the birth is traumatic and the neonate aspirates it into the lungs. White angora goats can show signs of meconium in the amniotic fluid with the yellow color they have on the fiber at birth. Sometimes it can also be seen in the fluid itself.

This is meconium, normal first poop from newborn baby goat

This is what it looks like inside the intestine- a cut away image of meconium in goat intestine

This is a baby goat who has meconium stains on her white fiber- she had passed meconium while still in the amniotic sac - maybe a difficult birth, maybe mom got knocked prior to kidding.

This is what baby goat poop should look like after the meconium is passed and will continue to look like this for days to weeks after birth.