# Injured leg on goat



## Moody (Mar 28, 2016)

10 month old Nubian buckling somehow torn a gash in his leg to the bone. We tried to clean it yesterday and i think we should do antibiotics to keep that nasty wound from getting infected. 

He did it yesterday. He walked  on it fine yesterday but today of course is not putting weight on it. 

I can pen him separately so he rests and doesn't injure it further but goats don't like that and it may be a worse idea to keep him penned alone than with gentle mamas and babies. 

Would you treat proactively with penicillin?


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## Moody (Mar 28, 2016)




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## Latestarter (Mar 28, 2016)

Is he up to date on tetanus? If not, I'd do that first off... using the one that's for immediate use, then follow up with the long term vaccine. Did you find out how/where he managed to do this to himself? If he's otherwise healthy, I'd just try to keep it clean and let it heal. It's not really fly season yet, so hopefully you won't have to deal with that issue. I don't believe in throwing antibiotics at anything until/unless it's warranted... so if there's no infection/pus, I wouldn't use any, but keep an eye on it. I can't zoom in, but depending, I might put a stitch or two in, NOT to completely close it, it need open to be able to drain/dry out, but to help it heal better. Good luck, hope he recovers well & quick!


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## Goatgirl47 (Mar 28, 2016)

I'd take him to the vet if you can. Our 21-month-old doe got a smallish hole in her leg five or six months back and was limply pretty badly (it didn't look nearly as bad as that though) and we took her to the vet just to be on the safe side.


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## frustratedearthmother (Mar 28, 2016)

I'd be real careful with that...it's so close to the joint that if any infection sets in it might turn serious fast.  If you don't feel that you can get him to a vet, in this case I would  use antibiotics.  I'm like Latestarter and don't like to just stab and jab for nearly anything, but this looks like it could use it - especially since it's worse today.

Double ditto on the tetanus!


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## OneFineAcre (Mar 28, 2016)

frustratedearthmother said:


> I'd be real careful with that...it's so close to the joint that if any infection sets in it might turn serious fast.  If you don't feel that you can get him to a vet, in this case I would  use antibiotics.  I'm like Latestarter and don't like to just stab and jab for nearly anything, but this looks like it could use it - especially since it's worse today.
> 
> Double ditto on the tetanus!


X2
And some type of wound spray if you haven't already


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## Moody (Mar 29, 2016)

He's never been vaccinated but I do have the antitoxin on hand. I will need to google to find out dosage. But I can get it in him tonight. I need my husband to help since the only thing I can do is milk stand with head gate and it's not great for the bucks. They break my headgate. 

He had to have done it on the goat shed. Either somehow got his leg caught under a metal sheet on the back and scrambled like crazy to get up or he possibly could have done it trying to get on top. 

Vet is not really an option. There aren't any good goat vets around here. 
We only had alushield on hand and did use some after cleansing with water and peroxide. My husband also dabbed some iodine on it. Before the light coat of alushield. 

The penicillin says to use until symptoms are gone plus one day but not more than 4 days total. I assume I use the 1 ml per 100 pounds it suggests on the back?


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## Moody (Mar 29, 2016)

And it is fly season here already.... I'm not in an area where 3 ft of snow recently fell. I'm in an area where it's already been close to 80 a few times this month and all the trees already have leaves or are getting them quickly. The flies are already diving into their water buckets.


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## Moody (Mar 29, 2016)

Looks like the dosage is one ml for adult goat for the antitoxin


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## frustratedearthmother (Mar 29, 2016)

If you have the small 1500 unit vial of tetanus antitoxin, I'd give him the entire vial.  No sense in fooling around with splitting the dosage.  I know that some websites suggest 1 ml. but my vet, and the manufacturer of the vaccine suggest the entire vial.  Tetanus is not pretty and so easily prevented. 

Hope he heals up well for you!


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## Moody (Mar 29, 2016)

Me too! He is a sweet little guy. 

So I can give the entire thing it is the 1500 container. Do I need to do that again in 7 days? Or start the vaccination with the vaccine in 7 days?


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## Moody (Mar 29, 2016)

I assume all refrigerated injections should be warned to room temp for a couple of hours prior to injection.


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## frustratedearthmother (Mar 29, 2016)

If you pull up the medication into the syringe you can just wrap your hand around it for a few minutes and it'll warm up quickly.

Yes, give the entire amount.  I would also try to start his long term protection by giving him a tetanus toxoid at the same time to impart long-term protection.  You would need to booster the tetanus toxoid in 3-4 weeks.  You will often find CD/Tetanus toxoid vaccinations that are together in one dose. 

If he were my goat, I'd also do a second tetanus anti-toxin in 10-14 days because his long term protection won't start to kick in until that second toxoid booster.


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## Moody (Mar 29, 2016)

Thanks for all the help 

I just gave 1 ml pennicillin IM (neck area) and the entire tetanus antitoxin (small bottle) SQ in the area behind the shoulder half on one side and the creation the other. Turns out I didn't need the mans help. The goat got up on my stand (even injured like he is) and didn't freak at a needle. 

I never vaccinated for cdt because the folks I purchased from didn't. I just followed their lead. I will get the herd up to date. 

the stitches idea never occurred to me, I don't think we could have managed that ourselves anyway. I did think about the tetanus antitoxin but dismissed it and forgot all about it when we were cleaning the wound and worrying about infection.


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## Colorful_Goat_Mama (Apr 16, 2016)

How is he doing now?


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## Moody (Apr 17, 2016)

He is walking on it and has been for a couple of weeks. He seems okay. 

the skin chunk fell off. I couldn't keep the wound clean. It still seems a bit swollen but it could be scar tissue. Pretty soon he will be fully vaccinated against tetanus. 

Thanks for all the help you all! It is much appreciated.


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