Acute onset of weirdness?

[bbredmom]

Zeus still spooks whenever he smells something burning, so I third (fourth?) the idea that maybe something bad happened to her. Do ya'll have bobcats in your area? Maybe one jumped her, but got spooked my a dog or got a horn in the gut.

Do you feed them primarily in the barn? Maybe its a food issue...but that wouldn't explain the fear.

I dunno. Goats are weird. I have a lovely new barn for mine to sleep in, and they'd rather sleep under the van.

 

[cmjust0]

Ok, so.. The rip in her ear turned into a little dangly thing, and I watched her flipping her ear *constantly* a few nights ago. Began to suspect then that maybe she was thinking the dangly was a bug or something trying "git her" somehow..

Then last night, my wife was out with her in the pasture and told me she was still just acting really weird and seemed to have a pretty wicked gash at the base of her *other* ear.. Went out there to observe, and she was still flipping the dangly -- but flipping the other ear as well. I hadn't noticed that before, though I had noticed that she had a little crustiness over there when I first examined her. I didn't think it was anything consequential, though.

Decided then that she needed some more work.

Got her in the stanchion, and upon further investigation, she really did have a pretty good hole at the base of the other ear...prolly 1"x3/4", and at least 1/2" deep. It was crusty and looked like it would be really, really painful.

She also had a really nasty looking scab on the other ear...the one with the dangly...but this scab was unrelated to the aforementioned dangly. And the scab looked like it may be holding some infection.

Ripped it off. Saw some cartilage and a little bit of infection. Gross. Iodine.

Snipped off the dangly..she didn't like that. Iodine.

Scrubbed the gash on the other side until all the crust was gone and it was raw and angry looking... Iodine. Packed it with furazone..

Biomycin, 6ml. Fortified b-complex, as a general picker upper...6ml. Cylence, because she was due for some and also to keep the flies away..

She was pretty royally p/o'd by the time I was done with her, and the side of her face was all bloody from the work I did...but then I gave her some grain and she ate like a pig, as usual.

I'll continue to repack the gash with furazone at least once a day, as well as continuing the bio-mycin for probably 5 days.

Oh...I hit her with Safe-Guard, too. I got it in my head that she might have some kind of meningeal worm or something because she was being a 'neurtotic' weirdo.. Probably nothing, but she hadn't had it in a while anyway and I like to find some excuse to give it to each goat at least once a year...just to treat the stuff (like tapes, if there are any) that the other meds don't hit.

We'll see.

She's not on death's door or anything like that.. She could reduce her own intake of feed for weeks and weeks and probably come out the other side in BETTER shape than she's in now...she's way fat. Typical boer herd queen. Easy keeper.. Born to eat, and lets very little get in the way of doing just that.

I'll keep up on her.

 

[warthog]

How's she doing and news?

 

[cmjust0]

She's still being weird. Her wounds are healing up, so I'm less sure it's got anything to do with her physical injuries...or, at least, the physical nature of her physical injuries (like pain, fever, etc...it's not that.)

Something else I'm noticing is that she's just not really wanting to be a herd member right now. Like, if the other goats get too close to her, she gets SUPER MAD and screams at them. And it's this really low pitched, primal, gutteral scream.

And it's not as if they have to *do* anything to her....sometimes she does it if they get too close and crowd around her.

I dunno. I don't get it.

She still grazes/browses, although mostly kinda off to herself...still drinks water, still runs over to her stall for grain every night. Still allows her own baby near her when she's out with the herd. Still fat as a bear and slick as a whistle..

I did notice that she *may* -- and I haven't nailed this down yet -- but she *may* have a slight limp in one of her front feet. Not sure what that would have to do with much, aside from a hesitance to climb hills and follow a herd.

Doesn't explain the anger/fear/yelling, though..

 

[aggieterpkatie]

If your goats bite each others' ears, she could be afraid she'll get bit on her already sore ears.

Also, curious what kind of iodine you're using. Do you mean betadine (or an iodine solution)?

 

[Roll farms]

They say animals become like their owners over time....mebbe she's just taking after you...

 

[tiffanyh]

I just want to throw in another idea on top of the others: although it seems you already have a good feel for the situation.

Is it possible she is having difficulty hearing? Or even seeing? When I first read your post, I was immediately going to respond mentioning the vision thought since as a CVT, I have seen many behavioral issues manifest from something like that. They obviously rely highly on their senses so a change can really shift their behavior making them apprehensive or cautious when they normally would not be.

Now that you have mentioned the deep ear injury, perhaps it is related to her hearing. Maybe it has been injured or she is hearing fluid or muffled sounds in comparison to normal as a result of her injury and she is reacting with apprehension that you are recognizing as behavior changes.

Just a though.

 

[cmjust0]

If your goats bite each others' ears, she could be afraid she'll get bit on her already sore ears.

Also, curious what kind of iodine you're using. Do you mean betadine (or an iodine solution)?

Could be the biting thing, I guess.. It wasn't another goat who did this to her, though, and I've never known anybody to bite this one's ears. She's generally the tuffy of the bunch.

As for the iodine -- nope, not 'gentle 1%' and not betadine. I use the good stuff...tincture of iodine. As in, 7%. The stuff that will LIGHT YOU ON FIRE and dry things up reallyreally fast..

The spots that would do well to be dry got iodine. The one spot that was deep, where iodine would probably only irritate and make things worse...well, it also got iodine ( ), but only to disinfect, and the iodining was followed immediately by packing with furazone.

The wounds are actually looking OK, and she's not flipping her ears around as much...just being weird.

They say animals become like their owners over time....mebbe she's just taking after you...

Could be...I, too, have been feeling more and more like abandoning the herd lately!

 

[cmjust0]

I just want to throw in another idea on top of the others: although it seems you already have a good feel for the situation.

Is it possible she is having difficulty hearing? Or even seeing? When I first read your post, I was immediately going to respond mentioning the vision thought since as a CVT, I have seen many behavioral issues manifest from something like that. They obviously rely highly on their senses so a change can really shift their behavior making them apprehensive or cautious when they normally would not be.

Now that you have mentioned the deep ear injury, perhaps it is related to her hearing. Maybe it has been injured or she is hearing fluid or muffled sounds in comparison to normal as a result of her injury and she is reacting with apprehension that you are recognizing as behavior changes.

Just a though.

It's a good thought, and one I've considered...but probably not enough. And it's one I plan to investigate further, if I can figure out how..

I know she can hear at least somewhat, because if she's elsewhere in the barn and it's time for grain, all ya gotta do is yell "Sassy!" and she comes haulin' oats right to the stall door. She's one of the few goats we have who actually seems to know her name, and she still responds to it..

As for eyesight...I *think* that's OK, too. I haven't noticed any blown pupils, lazy eyes, swelling, weeping, infection, ulceration -- nothing like that.. She isn't circling or stumbling, either, and she doesn't seem to have any depth perception issues.. In fact, she caused me *much grief* this weekend by persistantly walking over my water line trench, knocking dirt in each time.

I did take that opportunity to make a mental note that her spacial orientation is good...when she stepped over with her front legs, her back legs "remembered" where the hole was and to take a little extra stride to get over it.

She seems to have her faculties...it's almost like she's just irritable as hell.

Which...when you think about what Roll said...

 

[SDGsoap&dairy]

In fact, she caused me *much grief* this weekend by persistantly walking over my water line trench, knocking dirt in each time.

They just can't resist "helping," can they?