# Urgent - Goat with VERY pale eyelids! - UPDATE



## Goatgirl47 (Jun 1, 2017)

What do you use to worm goats when they have (or you suspect they have) barber pole worms? I just looked at my new Nubian does' lower eye lid, and on comparing it to the FAMACHA test, she is in a very critical condition. Her eyelids are very pale. I have to leave early tomorrow (I'm going out of country) and won't be back until June 11. This is very distressing. 
We have been worming her with SafeGuard so far, but I don't know if that helps with barber pole worms.

Thanks in advance!


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## Southern by choice (Jun 1, 2017)

First- what dosage and what course of treatment with the Safeguard have you been using?


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## Alaskan (Jun 4, 2017)

How is she doing?


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## Goatgirl47 (Jun 12, 2017)

Update!

So I left for China early in the morning on June 2nd, and didn't get back until late last night. My Mom (she's a cow person, not a goat person) and sisters had to take care of Matilda. 
The day I left Matilda went downhill fast. 

This is something my Mom wrote at 7:00pm on June 2nd: "I took her in and had another fecal done. Haemonchus contortus. A very heavy load. She (the vet) said get DuMor Goat Dewormer with Rumatel. I just bought it, along with goat treats. Gave her four ounces in a bowl with goat treats. She won't touch it. Tried to put other things in there - goat food, sunflower seeds, organic chicken grains.... Put electrolytes in a bowl, won't touch it. She's BARELY eating!!"

To make a long story short, my Mom had our vet come out to our property 4 more times. On one of those our vet came out because we had scheduled an appointment a few weeks earlier so that our calf could be de-horned. That time the vet still worked on Matilda though.
Over the past week they've given Matilda IV fluids, electrolytes, Quest, two blood transfusions, more IV fluids, electrolytes, & B Complex. When my Mom had first taken Matilda to our vets' office they weighed her and she was barely 51 pounds.  She was on the verge of death and I can't believe she has made it this far! While I was gone she barely ate anything at all. They had her free-ranged (so she could eat grass and brush) with access to the lean-to, but she still just had no appetite. 

*Today: *Matilda was out browsing and while I observed her, ate grass and brush hungrily. She also ate some sweet feed and sunflower seeds! I am so happy! My Mom and sisters have been bottle-feeding Geoffrey (her buckling) milk replacer 3 times per day, because she simply wasn't making enough milk for him. He is also still nursing on her every now and then but wasn't really getting anything. 
Geoffrey is very healthy and happy and is growing fast! Matilda isn't out of the woods quite yet, but she is obviously doing much better. My Mom and siblings did a great job and I am so thankful!

These pictures were taken this afternoon.




 


 


 
Look how big Geoffrey is compared to her! He isn't even 3 weeks old!


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## Goatgirl47 (Jun 12, 2017)

Also as you can see in the pictures Matilda's left ear is injured. We don't know what happened, but I suspect our Border Collie. Every chance he gets he will chase our more vulnerable goats. Jasper did get out once but my Mom said he hadn't been able to get to Matilda, and that her ear had already been like that before Jasper had gotten out. Geoffrey also has a few tiny sores on his ears.
Any idea what this might be? Thank you!


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## Devonviolet (Jun 12, 2017)

Oh WOW!  Poor baby!  I'm so sorry she is so sick.  The photos make me sad, to look at them.     I'm glad she is finally eating.   I don't know anything about the parasite she has.  So no help there. 

It is possible your dog got ahold of their ears.  But, other than that, I can offer no help. Sorry.

As far as her not wanting to eat, when she was at her sickest.  I have learned that our goats just LOVE molasses.  I am giving them herbs along with Vitamin C, to build up their immune system (they are called "dose balls"). I mix all the herbs together & add enough molasses to make it all stick together.  Each dose ball is 1 Tbsp. (About the size of a walnut) rolled into a ball and wrapped in wax paper squares, ala' taffy candies.  The girls go bananas for them. I break each ball in half, so it isn't such a big bite. That way, they think they are getting two "treats", instead of one.  That is a good way to hide a med/pill that they don't want to take. They don't chew much.  A couple, three chews and down it goes.


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## Bunnylady (Jun 13, 2017)

Oh, man, poor Matilda! While I hate to think what all those vet visits have run to, it sounds like all that heroic effort is paying off, and Matilda is getting better. 

(Geoffrey is adorable, BTW!)


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## Latestarter (Jun 13, 2017)

Hope (otherwise) you had an enjoyable trip to China. I've been to Hong Cong, but never the mainland. Glad to hear Matilda is on the mend, no idea on the ear issue. Sure am glad I don't have those vet bills though


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## Goatgirl47 (Jun 13, 2017)

The vet bills will be costly, but we also paid a lot for this goat and can't really afford to lose her. I haven't been outside yet to check on her (I am still getting used to the time change so my sisters are doing the morning chores for me right now) but I will soon.


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## Hillaire (Jun 13, 2017)

did you do a fecal on your other goats so they don't end up getting to the stage Matilda is in right now?


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## Goatgirl47 (Jun 13, 2017)

Hillaire said:


> did you do a fecal on your other goats so they don't end up getting to the stage Matilda is in right now?



The vet took fecal samples from all nine of our other goats last week.  The results should be in soon. 

I think Matilda's previous owner is going to run fecals on her goats too, so we can see if Matilda picked up the worms at our farm or hers.


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## Hillaire (Jun 13, 2017)

good call... hopefully you get good results


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## Green Acres Farm (Jun 13, 2017)

Goatgirl47 said:


> The vet took fecal samples from all nine of our other goats last week.  The results should be in soon.


It takes like 15 minutes to do a fecal... I would think you'd have your results by now.


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## Goatgirl47 (Jun 13, 2017)

I think they sent them in to a lab.


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## Goatgirl47 (Jun 13, 2017)

Took these today.


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## Green Acres Farm (Jun 13, 2017)

Goatgirl47 said:


> I think they sent them in to a lab.


That makes sense then.


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## Goatgirl47 (Jun 27, 2017)

On Friday the 16th of June, Matilda started looking and acting a lot better. She was eating more, starting to take a bigger interest in her grain, and she looked more filled out - her sides weren't as sunken in. She is still too thin, but is definitely on the road to recovery!

A week or two ago the fecal results on all of our goats (except for Geoffrey) came in:

Cap, Harriet & Sage - very high worm load (Barber Pole)
Annie, Melody, Hildy & Midge - some worms (Barber Pole), but not a lot
Verity, Benji & Matilda - NO worms! Hurray!!

Below are some pictures of Matilda from today, and of Geoffrey & their two Nubian buddies (these were taken yesterday).


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## Hillaire (Jun 28, 2017)

she is looking much better! how are you treating the goats with the high load?


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## Alaskan (Jun 28, 2017)

Kind of odd that the super skinny one isn't wormy.


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## Hillaire (Jun 28, 2017)

she's putting on weight, I thought she was already treated and that's why she is putting on a little weight.. it is weird


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## Goatgirl47 (Jun 29, 2017)

Alaskan said:


> Kind of odd that the super skinny one isn't wormy.



You mean Matilda, the brown one pictured above? She had a fecal done before that and had a VERY high load of Barber Pole worms. But we de-wormed her and then the vets took fecal samples from all of our other goats, and a new one from her too, to see if the de-wormer had worked. And it had.


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## Goatgirl47 (Jun 29, 2017)

Hillaire said:


> she is looking much better! how are you treating the goats with the high load?



We gave them all one dose each of Prohibit, recommended by a new vet we just started using. 

About a week before we found out that Matilda had Barber Pole worms, we had taken a fecal sample from her and dropped it off at our local vet's office. They ran a fecal and said that she had a different kind of worm (triple strongyle). They didn't find any BP worms, so I don't know if that was a (big) mistake on their part, or if Matilda didn't have BP then. They haven't been very helpful in the past though when it came to running fecals on our goats and figuring out what kind of worms (if any) they had.


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## Alaskan (Jul 2, 2017)

Well...getting better is better.  Hope they all continue inproving.


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