If a kid is born that is too weak to stand or suckle, and you’ve treated with selenium, but the symptoms don’t improve, the real problem could be vitamin E deficiency. Vitamin E is also important for proper functioning of the immune and reproductive systems.
Causes of vitamin E deficiency
Vitamin E is found in green leaves and seeds, so deficiency is unlikely when goats are outside browsing on fresh plants, according to Nutrient Requirements of Small Ruminants. It is more likely to occur towards the end of winter as stored hay ages and the vitamin E diminishes. The amount of vitamin E in commercial goat feeds may be zero or extremely low.
Many people assume they are giving their goat a therapeutic dose of vitamin E when they give them a selenium supplement. Although “everyone” knows that selenium and vitamin E work together, most people don’t know that there is very little vitamin E in supplements, such as BoSe, which contains only 50 mg of vitamin E, which does not even meet a goat’s requirement of the vitamin for a single day. Multi-Min, another injectable selenium supplement, contains no vitamin E at all.
According to Nutrient Requirements of Small Ruminants, the minimum daily requirement for goats and sheep is 5.3 IU vitamin E per kilogram of body weight. However, they also state, “This subcommittee recommends 10 IU of vitamin E per kilogram of body weight as an aid to protect small ruminants from infectious disease and to extend the storage life of lamb meat.”
Dealing with vitamin E deficiency in newborns
There is very little transfer of vitamin E through the placenta, according to Nutrient Requirements of Small Ruminants, but colostrum is extremely rich in the vitamin. This is just one more reason it’s important to get kids nursing ASAP after birth, or to give them colostrum in a bottle, or via tube feeding, if they can’t suck. One study showed that although giving a vitamin E supplement to lambs at birth increased their serum vitamin E levels, it did not decrease mortality or increase lamb performance. Other studies have shown that supplementing ewes during late pregnancy did result in improved survival and performance among lambs. In cases of severe vitamin E deficiency in lambs, weekly injections were effective.
Vitamin E deficiency in older kids and adults
When butchered lambs are deficient in vitamin E, research has shown that their meat will spoil noticeably faster than lambs that were not deficient in vitamin E. Another odd symptom of vitamin E deficiency is bad-tasting milk from does. Because E is important for fertility, goats that fail to get pregnant or repeatedly have single kids may be deficient. Years ago we noticed an increase in the average number of kids per doe when we started to provide additional selenium supplements beyond the free-choice, mixed minerals. E is also important to proper immune functioning, so additional supplementation might be necessary if you see a lot of infections in your herd, such as mastitis or pneumonia. And, of course, white muscle disease can occur in adults, although it’s rare.
Preventing vitamin E deficiency
Provide pasture and browse for your goats as much as your local climate will allow so that they can eat plenty of fresh green plants. Goats on pasture normally get plenty of vitamin E through their diet, but not all forage is equal. Younger plants have more vitamin E in them than mature plants, and leaves have more than stems. That means that towards the end of the growing season, vitamin E levels can be 80 percent lower than they were a couple of months earlier.
It is always important to provide a free-choice, loose mineral, and check the label to be sure that it contains vitamin E.
… and selenium
Without blood testing, it’s tough to know whether a goat has a deficiency in selenium or vitamin E because the symptoms are almost identical. Years ago a vet told me that “no one tests for selenium” because the supplement is cheaper than the test. However, if you have a goat that has symptoms of selenium deficiency, and you’ve already given a supplement such as BoSe or Multi-Min, then a vitamin E deficiency is a definite possibility. There have been no documented cases of vitamin E toxicity in small ruminants, unlike selenium, which has a fairly narrow margin of safety and can result in death if a goat gets too much. So, before using more selenium, you might consider supplementing with vitamin E. For more information on selenium, check out this post on that important micro-nutrient.
According to Nutrient Requirements of Small Ruminants, all of the various forms of vitamin E are equally well absorbed. Supplementing with E is easy because it is available at your local grocery store and is easy to give. Since most of them are in softgel form, you can pop one into a goat’s mouth, and as soon as they bite into it, the oil squirts into their mouth. If you provide an oral supplement that provides around 100 percent of a goat’s daily need for vitamin E, you will likely need to do so for at least a couple of weeks to see an improvement or until the diet is improved to include plenty of vitamin E rich foods.
Disclaimer: This information is provided for educational purposes and not meant to replace the services of a qualified veterinarian.
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Pam Haring says
Hi I have a buck goat 3 years old, He is a Nigerian Dwarf.
About 3 or 4 months ago he started sitting when eating, and seems very stiff in both back legs.
He will go out graze and spar a little with the other buck that is with him. He eat and drink well. and all in all seems fine,
I gave him a Thiamine round 2 cc every other day 5 days of shots over 10 days.
It seem to help him a little but not enough to get him back to normal.
Do you think it could be a Vitim problem?
Or do you have any idea what it could be.
He gets good Hay, water and graze.
thanks for your input.
sincerely
Pam Haring
Shadow Hills Ranch
thriftyhomesteader says
If he’s eating lots of green stuff, such as browse and grass, it’s unlikely, but vitamin E is really safe, so you could get some gelcaps from the store and try it for a few weeks to see if there’s improvement.
Pam Haring says
He does not eat much of the grass but he love the Mallow and other green thing growing in his pasture.
thanks the getting back with me, I will give it a try, it can’t hurt.
sincerely
Pam Haring
Mary Ann says
I was wondering about dosage quidlelines.. could this be helpful as a long term supplement or just to give them a health push for a couple week? What would be the daily dosage? Everyday or occasionally?
thriftyhomesteader says
As it says, most don’t have a problem getting enough from their diet as long as they are eating plenty of green foods, such as browse, weeds, and grass. It’s usually only a problem near the end of winter when they’ve been getting nothing but hay that’s not very green. And then you also consider whether you’re seeing any symptoms.
One person who emailed me about this had a goat that had single kids every year. In their case, they had no area for the goats to forage, so they got hay 12 months a year. In that case, it would be beneficial to find a vitamin E supplement to add to that goat’s feed on a daily basis. Do you see a lot of mastitis or pneumonia or other infections that indicate an immune system that isn’t functioning at its peak? Do you see goats with white muscle disease? All supplements should be tailored to the particular herd or goat.
If a goat does have symptoms, then I would use the dosage that I quoted in the post above — The current recommendation for vitamin E is 10 mg per kg of body weight daily, according to Goat Medicine. That means that if your doe weighs 100 pounds (45 kg), she needs 450 mg of d-alpha tocopherol daily. Vitamin E is normally labeled with IU rather than mg because mg varies between different types of vitamin E. So, 450 mg would be 301 IU of d-alpha tocopherol. So, one of the 400 IU vitamin E softgels would be a good starting point.
Tanya Elizarova says
I believe you made a mistake with your calculations- 450 mg would be 670 IU, not 301 IU. To convert Vitamin E if the product label has D-Alpha-tocopherol as the ingredient:
From IU to mg: IU * 0.67 = mg.
For example: 30 IU * 0.67 = 20.1 mg
From mg to IU: mg / 0.67 = IU
Wendy McKenzie says
We have been feeding black oil sunflower seeds, they love it and their coats look so much better. Sunflower is high in Vit E, but is it enough to offset vit E dosing?
thriftyhomesteader says
The majority of goats do not need additional vitamin E supplementation. The post talks about causes of deficiency and symptoms. If your goats are not showing any symptoms of deficiency, then you don’t need to worry about supplementing.
Akhil Arya says
I really appreciate this post. I’ve been looking all over for this! Thank goodness I found it on this blog . You have made my day! I think this is engaging and eye-opening material. Thank you so much for caring about your content and your readers.
Michael Gregg says
Yes thankyou so much I find your information so useful my momma goat just had 3 babies she lost two and they were the biggest both boys also t.he runt was a little girl .I don’t know what happened so sad. She does have mastitis I. One side that I have been treating thankyou again mike g from upper Michigan