# Coughing goat, please help!



## mirandaleecon (Sep 25, 2015)

One of my does just started coughing yesterday. From what I could find online, allergies is common in goats and it seems like a lot of people around are having them now so I didn't think much of it. Today she just doesn't seem herself, wouldn't stand up to eat and when I finally got her to stand, she was slow moving, and she farted, which I've never heard before. She is a total pig normally, we named her Janice Chomplin because of it. And she is  usually super playful. 
When she coughed today, snot shot out of her nose, and of course she promptly wiped it on my pants. 

We did just bring a new buck in to try to breed her two days ago. He had to stay in the same pen with her last night because he wouldn't stay contained in his pen. Not sure if that has anything to do with it though. The first day he wouldn't leave her alone but last night and today he could care less about her. 

Anyway, any idea what's going on?  I'm still new to goats so I'm not sure if I'm over thinking it or not...


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## babsbag (Sep 25, 2015)

You are not over thinking it. The best way to know that our goats are sick is to notice a change in behavior and good for you for seeing this. Goats that are chow hounds are ALWAYS chow hounds, that doesn't change when they are in season. And not getting up would have me very worried

Take her temperature, that is the next thing to do. Goats can get pneumonia fairly easily and it could be just a coincidence with the buck, or maybe not. Pastuerella lives in the upper respiratory tract of all goats and sometimes it just gets into the lungs, it is the most common kind of pneumonia. The buck may have a slightly different strain than her or who knows what, but really, I wouldn't blame him. It happens.

She will run a fever if she has this and you should treat her with oxcytetracyline. You can buy it as Duramycin at Tractor Supply. But please, take her temp. before you treat.


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## mirandaleecon (Sep 25, 2015)

Thank you for the response! Is there any special type of thermometer to use? And I'm assuming to take it rectally?
And last question, I have penicillin g on hand, would that work as well? Or even tylan?


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## Hens and Roos (Sep 25, 2015)

Are you able to take her temp. to see if she is running a temp?  Are you able to listen to her breathing to see if there is any raspy sounds.  What about the buck- how does he seem?  Are you able to talk to your vet?  Not sure what might be happening.  

@Goat Whisperer @goatgurl @babsbag @OneFineAcre


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## babsbag (Sep 25, 2015)

Any digital thermometer, and yes rectally.

Pen will work. Have you ever given it? You know that you have to stick the goat and pull back on the plunger and make sure no blood is in the syringe? If you get it in a vein you can kill them...seriously.


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## babsbag (Sep 25, 2015)

And I don't want to scare you, but don't hesitate to treat her. Goats are very susceptible to respiratory problems and they can go down fast.


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## mirandaleecon (Sep 25, 2015)

I can take her temp but I haven't yet. I have a stethoscope so I will try to listen to her lungs but she can get jumpy if she thinks I'm doing anything but pet her. The buck seems fine, he was headbutting the fence to get to the lafies the last time I went out there. 

I have not given them any injections but I will probably try to find a video or something to make sure I do it right. I have given my chickens SQ injections before so it's not entirely new...thank you all so much!


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## mirandaleecon (Sep 25, 2015)

Her temp is 107 :O Are there any human fever reducers you can give a goat? I don't think we have any asprin...going to give her pen g asap.

Lungs sounded clear but I don't know what fluid would sound like...no raspiness...


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## mirandaleecon (Sep 25, 2015)

I gave her the pen g. Hopefully that will get her through tonight. I'm going to call my vet in tha am to see if I can get some benamine...


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## babsbag (Sep 25, 2015)

OK, that is a little high   The banamine would have been great to have, my vet always has me give it when we suspect pneumonia, it helps with the remodeling of the lungs as well as reduce fever. I had a lot of kids with pneumonia this year and all of them responded to oxcytet almost overnight but I still have some lingering coughs. Think it is time for another round of drugs at my place.

For fever you can give aspirin or ibuprofen. According to Fiasco Farms the ibuprofen is double the human dose.

Hope she responds to the Pen     and good that you are calling your vet. You may need to switch to Nuflor if this is a tough bug. Praying for good news.


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## OneFineAcre (Sep 26, 2015)

That's a high temp
I think you are wise to call vet because another antibiotic may be needed and you can only get banamine from a vet
And sometimes really high temps can indicate it is viral and not bacterial


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## mirandaleecon (Sep 26, 2015)

Well we finally got her temp to come down, we had to put her in the tub with cold water until it came down to 103.8. The vet said to give her baby asprin as well. Had sent my bf to get some but he came back with acetaminophen instead :/ so I'm going to go get some asprin. 
She seemed much better after the bath, she was dragging me around the yard by the leash to eat all the stuff she usually can't get to. Then she fell asleep with her head in her bowl, eating what she didn't this morning, I'm sure she is exhausted. Poor girl.


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## mirandaleecon (Sep 26, 2015)

Oh, and her poo is getting soft. She's dropping one big ball instead of little pellets. I'm sure the antibiotic isn't helping that, anything I should do to help her stomach? I tried giving her some kefir but she would only eat it off my fingers but wouldn't touch it in the cup. Going to cut back on the pellets/grain too...


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## OneFineAcre (Sep 26, 2015)

Probiotics for stomach


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## babsbag (Sep 26, 2015)

I have been told that when they are sick the best thing to offer them is browse...even if you have to cut it and bring it to her. Glad to hear that she felt good enough for a walk and was eating. The different foodstuff could cause the change in poo too. Hope that her temp stays down.

Is she a small goat?


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## mirandaleecon (Sep 26, 2015)

She is medium sized, I suppose, about 60lb maybe. Her temp spiked again, we kept her in the tub for almost 2 hours and the lowest it got was 105.3 and she started shivering. Asprin doesn't seem to be doing any good. She has full on scours now   I'm  so disheartened, I thought she would be alright but now I'm not so sure. 
 The vet gave us another antibiotic, sulfamethoxazole. Hopefully that will be more effective. I guess now all we can do is wait and see. If she is still here in the morning, I'm going to see if the vet will come here.


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## babsbag (Sep 26, 2015)

I am so sorry; I hate it when they are sick.  Scours doesn't surprise me but it worries me because of dehydration; especially with the fever.  Would he not give you any banamine? That usually works for me.  Maybe try the ibuprofen. How many baby aspirin are you giving her? I don't know if your vet is a goat vet but goats have a very high metabolism and we usually give higher doses of some meds.  Fiasco Farm says 325 mg aspirin... 1 for every 10 lbs so she would need 6 adult aspirin. That is a lot of baby aspirins. Maybe you just aren't giving her enough.  Sometimes with goats we throw the medicine cabinet at them and pray.


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## mirandaleecon (Sep 29, 2015)

Well it's been a long couple of days. Took her to the vet sunday and she gave her a couple shots and some more meds for me to give her. Her temp was down to 102 yesterday then this morning it was back up to 104.6. She also passed some blood and what looked like globs of tissue. Thought it might be worms but it was just mucusy looking. So I took her back to the vet, she got a long acting antibiotic and some fluids. She did a fecal and she did find coccidia but said that shouldn't cause the fever like it was. Her temp also went back down to 103ish on it's own.  

I'm hoping one of the antibiotics is doing something and that she gets over whatever it is before the scours take her down.

Besides the scours, she is acting much better, still eating and drinking...


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## mirandaleecon (Sep 29, 2015)

Just brought her some baking soda and she very willingly ate some. I don't know why I didn't bring her some sooner. Meant to actually put some out before all of this started...She started making a weird hmph noise while she was eating it, sounded like a squeeky toy. Is that normal? Never heard it before now...

Also, when I was out there, I heard the 2 week old buckling grinding his teeth :O I took his temp and it was 103. No sign of scours but his mom is on top of keeping him clean and I can never catch him in the act. Super hyper still but the teeth grinding worries me since that's what Janice has been doing the last couple days...


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## babsbag (Sep 29, 2015)

Glad she is hanging in there. Not sure about the squeaky toy sound, don't think I have heard that one. 103 is a pretty normal temp. I don't worry until it gets to the high end of 103 but with your history you are smart to watch him.

No chance that Janice was bred and aborted? Could you be dealing with a uterine infection?


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## mirandaleecon (Sep 29, 2015)

That is a possibility, she was bred 5 1/2 months ago. We stopped thinking she might be prego about halfway through. Haven't seen any discharge though...I did notice her yawning a bit around when her sister kidded, they had the same due dates. Any likelyhood she could have retained the fetus? Vet said she would need surgery if that was the case


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## babsbag (Sep 29, 2015)

Yes, she could have retained the fetus. I would ask about a shot of Lutalyse which will cause her to abort if she is/was bred. It will also cause her to come into heat. Wasn't she just with the buck when she got sick?


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## mirandaleecon (Sep 29, 2015)

I will def ask about that. Yes, she was with a buck, once, the day before she got sick. She was two weeks past her due date so we figured it was safe to try again...

So weird thing I just saw, Mr. Goat has been in a seperate pen and he is quite the escape artist. He was just wandering around my yard a min ago so I went to put him back in his pen but I have to walk him through the girls pen to get there. Well twice Janice ran up to him, squatted, pee then turned around to show herself off, wagging her tail and stuff. Looks like she's in heat(and feeling MUCH better btw), she didn't even do that the first time she was with him. Could she have passed the fetus today? I have a really gross picture of what I found in her box today, I assumed it was intestinal lining...

So WARNING NEXT POST WILL CONTAIN GROSS PICTURE...


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## mirandaleecon (Sep 29, 2015)

Here it is:


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## babsbag (Sep 30, 2015)

I am not sure what that is. I would expect a formed fetus if she has been bred for 5 months and aborted somewhere along the line. I suppose it could have died very early on and she just retained it but I would think that it would have caused in infection a long time ago, not now after 5 months. Not sure at all, kind of thinking as I type.

If she were my doe and I wanted to breed her I would ask the vet to do a uterine flush with an antibiotic just to be sure she is cleaned out and then expose her to the buck.

From that picture I would say that is not fecal matter, but again, I may be very wrong.

Glad she is feeling better.


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## mirandaleecon (Oct 6, 2015)

Update: she seemed to make a full recovery, lots of energy and eating well but now she doesn't seem herself again today. She's not like she was before but she didn't come running when I opened the gate or the feed bucket (which she has been begging for since we stopped giving it to her because she was ill). She is walking around and nibbling on grass, her poop is almost normal, (lighter brown than normal and not perfect oval, but still pellets), and she's peeing. Her side does look a lot bigger than it has been but it's not hard like I thought bloat was supposed to be. Could this be the beginning of bloat? Could she have an upset stomach from all the antibiotics? 
I don't have a tube but I do have some needles, although I don't know if the gauge is big enough to let out enough gas. I also have maybe one dose of kaopectate left...any ideas what I should do?


Oh and if it makes any difference, when she got better she immediately went into heat. Once that happened, there was no keeping the visiting buck penned and they def had a fling. We took him home saturday. I will never own a buck after that...good riddance!


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## babsbag (Oct 6, 2015)

Aren't bucks fun?   I have three at my house and it is very disgusting out there right now.

That is a hard one with your doe. Mine can look huge after they eat and in the last 7 years of owning goats I have had bloat once and once 30 years ago so I am no expert on it. Yes, she can be "off" from the antibiotics; have you been giving her probiotics? The way I have treated bloat both times was with vegetable oil (not mineral), we drenched them with about 1/2 cup. Releasing the gas with a needle is usually used when they are near death and there is no other option. You can rub her sides vigourously and it will help break up the gas.

Sorry I am not more help. Hope she gets better all by herself.


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## BlessedWithGoats (Oct 8, 2015)

How is she doing?


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## mirandaleecon (Oct 9, 2015)

She is doing better. I think her stomach is still just recovering from the antibiotics. She was begging for pellets again yesterday so I take that as a good sign. She is very quiet though, which isn't like her...


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## mirandaleecon (Oct 9, 2015)

Oh, and I have been trying to give her probios, which she ate willingly the first time but not so much now. I'm trying to give her a break from cramming so much medicine in her mouth because that seemed to stress her out a lot. She isn't as trusting in treats anymore


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