# Anyone with a 3 legged goat?



## melody (May 9, 2018)

Hello:
I have posted a couple of times about my ND goat Shirley. 7 years old with a broken leg that is not healing. The bone break is too separated to generate any growth (been 5 weeks) Options are surgery with plates and screws to fuse the bone. I do not know success rate plus she may have to be more confined than she is now. Animals have no sense of time. They only know now. I would hate to put her through that and then to what success? My other option, maybe, is removing her broken hind leg below that knee.  I hate the thought but it may be the best option. Surgery route with LONG confinement=torture. I can't do that to her and would have to put her to sleep.
My heart is breaking,
thanks for your help.


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## Alaskan (May 10, 2018)

I am no help at all.

But so sorry!


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## Bayleaf Meadows (May 10, 2018)

If you google three legged goat you'll see a lot of success stories.


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## Alibo (May 10, 2018)

I have a friend that had a 3 legged goat. He was attacked by a dog is about all the info she knew about it. He got along just fine. His hoof on the one back leg left however, looked pretty deformed from supporting more weight than it should have. Even with frequent clippings the foot had its own agenda to compensate. It looked pretty painful and may or may not have been the reason for his mean demeanor.


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## Hipshot (May 10, 2018)

I'm sorry wish I could help . That is a tough decision . Either surgery will be hard on her . If she has the will to survive .She could do just fine on one leg  .Or with the plates and screws, but I think it's a little late for that .  I have to ask what does your vet recommend ?  Knew a lady once with a big Billy goat .He  limped bad on his front leg with every step . When asked why she hadn't but the goat down , she said because I haven't decided he wants to be dead .


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## Elsie_May_Huston (May 10, 2018)

We had a young goat that hurt her front leg very badly and couldn't put any weight on it. She hobbled around slowly but always kept up with everyone else and eventually learned how to run on three legs and held her own just fine. Good luck, you will know what the right decision is for your animal.


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## Green Acres Farm (May 11, 2018)

One of our bucks had a leg amputation a couple of years ago after a dog attack. He healed up quickly and did great until last winter. It was just too much pressure on his other bones I think and it really messed up his feet. He passed away last month I think mainly due to not being able to get around and eat well with impaired walking.


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## melody (May 15, 2018)

Thanks all. My girl is still pretty frisky even though she's 7. She is more pet than pasture and she and her sister sleep on my porch many a night even before it became her hospital. I feel pretty good about this option. Will do more investigation  but I appreciate hearing the good potential.


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## secuono (May 16, 2018)

Have a 3 legged ram lamb, front leg though. =/
He'll be dinner once large enough. Poor guy, very nice quality.


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## Sheepshape (May 16, 2018)

I had a ewe lamb who broke her hip.....no idea how she did it, just found her with her right back leg flexed right up against her body and several inches off the ground. I filled her with pain meds and watched her carefully.....if she appeared to struggle, then I would have taken her to be euthanised. She got around quite well on her 3 legs and fed well, never losing weight or appearing to struggle.

She went on to become a big, solid ewe. Her leg slowly descended and she could eventually put it to the floor, but the leg was about 3 inches short. She used the leg when walking, but ran on three.She could keep up with the other sheep. She also went on to have lambs over 3 years, without any problems. 

At just under 5 years of age she began to have difficulty rising up from lying and did start to struggle. At that stage she was euthanised.


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## melody (May 16, 2018)

Hipshot: No recommendation from the Vet at all. VERY hard to get a reply outside of an appointment...or even if questions need research and getting back to me. Tick tock. They certainly are not sounding confident in the plates and screws but they'd be happy to do it at 4,000.00.
Not much choice in my area for large animal vet. The only one within an hour's drive.


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## melody (Jul 5, 2018)

An update on my goat with the broken leg. We finally got an appointment at OSU... a 4 hour journey. When they did radiographs they discovered she HAD started to mend on her own so she is in a hard cast without surgery! She stayed there for 2 weeks. Now she is home. We go back in 2 more weeks to check progress. (prayers up and fingers crossed!) Hope you all and your critters managed to get through the 4th without too much difficulty.


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## frustratedearthmother (Jul 5, 2018)

That's great!  Thanks for the update.


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## melody (Jul 5, 2018)

frustratedearthmother said:


> That's great!  Thanks for the update.


Thank you for the support!


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