Clients support goat kid research at OSU Veterinary Center
Thursday, April 25, 2019
Debbie and Tim Sodowsky are just one example of the wonderful clients who bring their animals to Oklahoma State University’s Center for Veterinary Health Sciences for veterinary medical care. The couple has been driving 2 hours one way to assist Dr. Leslie Wagner with her research project.
“Debbie and Tim have been bringing in their healthy pregnant goats to kid and letting me take samples from the kids for my resident research project,” explained Wagner, a third year food animal medicine and surgery resident. “I desperately needed control kids and they graciously drove 2 hours one way to provide them. We have five recent kids that I enrolled in my study, which they decided to name after the food animal staff involved in taking samples and keeping them healthy.”
Wagner is studying kids born to pregnancy toxemia does and kids born to healthy does. She is looking at long and short term mortality, weight gain, and the ability to stand and nurse. Wagner takes blood samples from each kid every 24 hours for the first 72 hours of life. She monitors their metabolism such as blood glucose, lactate, and fatty acids as well as using arterial blood gases at birth and 72 hours to test the acidity of their blood and how well they are able to get oxygen through their lungs.
“Pregnancy toxemia is a costly disease that develops in the last trimester. The goats that develop it are typically carrying two to four goat kids. The does are unable to eat enough calories to keep up with the energy demands needed for fetal growth during that time. The goal for this study is to find out why the kids born to does with pregnancy toxemia are less likely to survive,” said Wagner. “With this information we hope to develop strategies to help save these kids.”
The Sodowskys provided six of the required 12 kids for Wagner’s controls. They also had several pregnancy toxemia does treated at OSU’s Veterinary Medical Hospital whose kids were enrolled into the study. Because several of their does have been affected by pregnancy toxemia, they have a very personal interest in finding out how to best manage their kids and increase their survival.
“The Sodowskys are just wonderful people,” added Wagner. “They spend many weekends showing goats and helping lots of children show goats as well. I am so grateful for all they do. I could not have completed this project without their help.”
MEDIA CONTACT: Taylor Bacon | Public Relations and Marketing Coordinator | 405-744-6728 | taylor.bacon@okstate.edu