4 week old baby goat illness

[Capers N Conn's]

Hello all,
we are a newly started small farm in a rural area so getting info and help is a little harder then normal.
so thank you for any advice ahead of time!

we just had a 4 week old baby goat suddenly pass away her symptoms are very much like Enterotoxemia she was fine the night before death no symptoms eating well and happy with the other 3 her age but when morning time feeding came she walked out where we feed and just walked away normally jumping at the bit to eat we went to get her out of the hut when she was found collapsed neck stiff in the backwards position we brought her in and noticed her temp dropped dramatically she cried out a few times but had no strength to move head nor stand up we gave electrolytes and procaine penicillin G. We knew she only had a few minutes of life by her look but hoped we would have a miracle. Unfortunately she passed with in an hour. We did give the other babies a dose of penicillin, electrolytes w/ vitamins and are watching them closely. A friend brought over a bottle of high level vitamin b complex by durvet but we have no administered yet my question is should we go ahead and give the vitamin b shots or wait? Has anyone ever experienced how our little angel passed and what may have stopped or caused it ?

 

[Pearce Pastures]

Very sorry for you loss.
So symptoms came on within 24 hours, she stopped eating, became stiff and had her head turned back. Did you mean you took her temp and it was low too?

The backward neck sounds like it may have been either polio-encephalitis or maybe listeria. Vitamin B complex is always a safe bet---it is water soluble and incredibly hard to overdose so yes, if ever in doubt, give it.

If you gave a single dose of penicillin, it is wise to continue a full 5 day course of treatment so as to not breed resistance. A single dose won't do much for infection of any kind.

Questions:
1) Were the babies vaccinated with Cd&T/ or the dam during the month before delivery?
2) Was the doeling eating or drinking anything other than mom's milk?
3) Have you taken temps on the other kids?