# sick (goat) doe: unexplained illness



## redtailgal (Jun 10, 2012)

This is not my doe, I am trying to help a friend.

7 year old pigmy doe, never bred.

Precocious udder.......came into milk about a week before all this started (3 weeks ago).

She came into milk, and seemed fine for about three days.  

Noticed a stiff neck.

Neck has gotten worse.......she will not put her head down to eat or drink, but will drink readily out of a raised bucket.  Will eat hay from the raised hay feeder and eats grain just fine if its also in a raised feeder.  She will not put her head down to graze, but will occasionally LAY DOWN so that she can reach.

No fever.
fecal revealed a mild amount of brown stomach worms and a couple barber pole.  Wormed 2 weeks ago with safeguard, followed up with ivermec (per vets instructions)
Neck exam and x ray revealed nothing.....no swelling, no tenderness, nothing abnormal.

Treatment so far:
wormed as stated above, plan to repeat the fecal tomorrow.
treated with thiamine inject x3 (I dont know the dosage used)

Fed:
free range browse (on good pasture)
noble goat chow
loose mineral (this was just started last week at my request)

Poops are normal, but shinier than normal
pee normal

behavior is slightly lethargic and seems somewhat dizzy.


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## 20kidsonhill (Jun 10, 2012)

that is going to be a tough one.   Sounds like she has done a lot for her.


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## 20kidsonhill (Jun 10, 2012)

I would treat for Listeriosis, and see what happens. 

I am sure you have seen the treatment for it and/or can look it up, but here it is anyway. 

"Listeriosis is brought on by feeding silage, suddenly changing type and kind of feed (grain or hay), parasitism, dramatic weather changes, and advanced stages of pregnancy. The encephalitic form is most common, causing inflammation of the nerves in the goat's brain stem. Symptoms include some or all of the following: depression, decreased appetite, fever, leaning or stumbling or moving in one direction only, head pulled to flank with rigid neck (similar to symptoms of tetanus), facial paralysis on one side, blindness, slack jaw, and drooling. Diarrhea is present only in the strain of Listeriosis which causes abortions and pregnancy toxemia. Listeriosis can be mistaken for rabies. Immediate treatment is critical. There is no time to waste with Listeriosis. Recovery is more difficult and time-consuming than Goat Polio. A goat can go blind and completely recover its eyesight and overall health if proper treatment is provided; such treatment can take days or even weeks, depending upon the severity of the illness and how quickly treatment was begun.

Treatment involves administration of high doses of procaine penicillin (300,000 International Unit strength) every six hours on a 24-hour cycle up to and through 24 hours after the last symptom has disappeared to avoid relapse. Higher-than-normal dosage of procaine penicillin is needed to cross the blood brain barrier to put sufficient amounts of the antibiotic into the tissue of the goat's central nervous system. A chart of dosage by bodyweight accompanies this article. 
http://www.tennesseemeatgoats.com/articles2/Resources/chartlisteriosis.gif
 Very Important: Continue all treatment until 24 hours *after* the last symptom has disappeared to avoid a relapse. Give the procaine pencillin SQ over the ribs with an 18 gauge needle so the goat doesn't become a pin cushion of holes from repeated injections during this intensive treatment. This author also uses Vitamin B 1 (Thiamine) along with the penicillin treatment. Thiamine is an appropriate addition to treatment of any sick goat. Dosage is outlined above in the Goat Polio section of this article. Dexamethasone ( cortico-steroid) injections can be used to reduce brain stem swelling. Dexamethasone will induce labor in pregnant does, but the doe is likely to abort anyhow as a result of this infection, so producers might be wise to abort the pregnancy if they wish to save the sick doe. Dexamethasone dosage is 5 to 6 cc per 100 pounds bodyweight given IM in decreasing amounts daily. Example: Goat is 100 pounds liveweight. Dosage is 6 cc into the muscle on Day One, 5 cc on Day Two, 4 cc on Day Three, 3 cc on Day Four, 2 cc on Day Five, one cc on Day Six, nothing on Day Seven. If the goat is over 100 pounds, drop dosages daily in increments of two or three cc's. Example: Dose a 200 pound goat at 12 cc on Day One, 10 cc on Day Two, 8 cc on Day Three, 6 cc on Day Four, 4 cc on Day Five, 2 cc on Day Six, nothing on Day Seven. Dexamethasone should be tapered off rather than quit abruptly. This writer would be reluctant to use Dexamethasone on young kids six months of age or less except under the direction of my veterinarian."


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## bonbean01 (Jun 10, 2012)

Tetnus was my first thought...but whatever it is Red...if you are there helping your friend, please be careful to not bring it home with you on your shoes or clothing to infect your animals.  

20kids has some very good information!


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## ksalvagno (Jun 10, 2012)

When was the last time this goat was vaccinated. I would suspect Tetanus as well.


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## SheepGirl (Jun 10, 2012)

Tetanus was my first thought as well. I would give her a shot of tetanus anti-toxin.


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## Roll farms (Jun 10, 2012)

I hate to tell you this, but I'd be doing 2x a day Pen G shots...NOW.


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## redtailgal (Jun 11, 2012)

I had Doc go out to look her her and we did an exam together.  Doc is learning about goats, too, so this is a good case for him to see.

Ok, she is started on Pen G, and was given the tetanus anti.  She is current on her CDT, had her last one 7 months ago, but we did the anti anyway.  Grasping at straws.

Question:  Wouldnt tetanus advance quicker?  She's been like this for three weeks.......no change, hasnt gotten worse but hasnt improved either.

What about a meningeal worm?  I was worried about that and had her go ahead and worm with the ivermec (injected, goat screamed her head off and the owner bawled).  That was last week.....if it were a meningeal worm, how soon should we see improvement?

Polio.......???

Thanks for the concern for my guys.  I am being very careful, and wearing the coveralls that I wear when working with Doc.......they come off and go straight to the wash and I shower before visiting my goats. (I have shoe covers, too)

Her udder is HUGE........she looks like she could feed quads.  The owner had to milk her out a little as she was in considerable discomfort.  This doe hasnt been around a buck in over a year.

I got more history on her.  She has been with this owner for a year, and is part of a herd of 8 that was rescued.  All 8 were emciated (two dead in the field, one was a buck) when taken.  Several had wounds from coyote attacks.  This doe HAD been bred, delivered triplets that were all stillborn (premature from the sound of it). She kidded about 10 months ago.  The rest of the herd is doing fine, eating strong, nice poop etc.  Everyone but this doe is nice and pink in the eyes.......she is about a 3 on famacha scoring.

SHe is also is poor condition, but was in good condition three weeks ago (the rest of the goats are now fat, but not obese). 


She's been seen by three vets now, including Doc........no one has a clue.  SHe has three days of Banamine.......1cc (she weighs 107 lbs), but the Banamine didnt make any signs of improvement at all.

Her gut was quiet yesterday, we dosed her up with probios and got some gut sounds, so I am having the owner continue to give probios daily.  She is bringing up cud to chew (and chews with both sides), and does get up to greet us.

Gums are pink and moist, she showed no signs of dehydration.  Temp was 103 (warm day  here, so not too worried about that).

Good vision out of both eyes, some stiffness in the shoulders, but the neck is noticably immobile.


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## Roll farms (Jun 11, 2012)

Yeah, w/ tetanus, my doe went from "fine" to "locked up" overnight.....3 weeks is too long a time span.

In every case of Meningeal I've seen, the back end gets weak, not the front (from the worms chewing through the spine).

Sounds more like an injury and it's possibly completely unrelated to the udder situation.

A friend of mine has a pet wether who's kept his head down constantly for the last 3 yrs.  Walks that way, stands that way, etc.  Cannot raise his head, period.  Our vet can only figure it's some sort of injury to the neck.

But I'd keep up a full 7-10 days of Pen G and the B shots for a while, just in case.  And the Probios.


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## redtailgal (Jun 11, 2012)

Roll farms said:
			
		

> Yeah, w/ tetanus, my doe went from "fine" to "locked up" overnight.....3 weeks is too long a time span.
> 
> In every case of Meningeal I've seen, the back end gets weak, not the front (from the worms chewing through the spine).
> 
> ...


Thanks Rolls.  

She bloated early in the AM.  Drenched with 4 doses of bloat ease and a ton of baking soda.  She has decent gut sounds now, but is sore from being beat on. (We were working pretty hard on that rumen side for quite a while before she belched)

After talking with Doc, we decided we are gonna start her on some steroids in the hopes that this is an injury.  The steroids will hopefully reduce any inflammation in the neck area.

SHe is CAE negative, but Doc is starting to wonder if we are dealing with some severe arthritis in her neck.  He wants to re-do the x-ray.  We looked at the first one done by a different vet and the image quality is very poor.


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