Dog attack on 6 month old doeling

[nuts4goats]

I have a 6 month old Nigerian dwarf doeling that was attacked by dogs today. Luckily my kids were home at the time, and were able to get her away from the dogs. She recieved severe trauma to her neck with deep puncture wounds. She went into shock and pooped and peed on herself and went limp. I rushed home from work while my kids held pressure over the wounds and stopped the bleeding. I have 2 vets. One which I love, who I use for my dogs, and one who i use for the goats who is a fruitcake but who is my only option. When I got home I called the goat vet and he wanted me to bring her in for "magnetic therapy" for pain. I nixed that suggestion and called my dog vet. He agreed to sell me a bottle of bantamine but admittedly doesn't know anything about goats but agreed to help me with meds if I need them.

This is what I have done so far:

Immediately flushed all wounds with 10% betadine solution and sterile saline as per fruitcake vets recommendation. One wound that I flushed has an entry and exif because the puncture went straight through the bottom of her neck. When I flush it goes in one side and comes out the other! Her airway is good. I dont hear any air or gurgling.

Gave her tetanus antitoxin

Gave her 3/4 cc pen G per fruitcake vet. Was told to give twice daily for 5 days

Gave her .3ml of flunazone (generic bantamine) IM per dog vet

Dressed wounds with triple antibiotic ointment and sterile 4 X 4s with gauze to secure.

My question:

Is there anything else I am missing, or should or shouldn't be doing?
Dog vet gave me dosage for bantamine but didn't say IM or SQ or how often and for how long.

After getting her quieted down, warmed up, shaved, dressed, and medicated she is standing and eating. Hoping this is a good sign. Im really worried about infection and tetanus.

Any other suggestions?

 

[elevan]

You're doing good so far from the sounds of it!

Banamine (Rx)0.25 ml / 25# IM injection (Don't give more than 48 hours or you can cause liver damage)

Penicillin - 1 ml/ 15# IM injection 2x day for 7 days (can give SQ)

While giving antibiotics give Probiotics (Probios or even yogurt) during the entire course.

Keep packing the wounds with triple antibiotic ointment for 48 hours and then switch to Blue-kote or something similar.

Remember to give the tetnus vaccine in 14 days.

 

[nuts4goats]

Elevan- on the Banamine- how often can she have this? Is this every 12 hours?

 

[nuts4goats]

Also- if I use the banamine sparingly, can I administer over a longer period? This morning she seems to be pretty comfortable so I may wait to give it to her because I have heard the third day is the worst, pain wise and I want to be able to give her something if I need to. Or perhaps, is there another pain med I can interchange? What about 325mg of crushed aspirin instead? Have you ever used aspirin?

Also- do you think I need to set up a drain for the deep wound? I've never done that before and I'm hesitant about manipulating the tissue on this area as it is very friable. But if you think it will help the healing process I could give it a try.

 

[redtailgal]

Can you show a pic of the deep wound?

While I agree that deep wounds often do best with a drain, if you cannot clean the wound THOROUGHLY and maintain a sterile field, it may not be a good idea to pout one in. It may be better to pull the wound open daily, and clean it well, allowing for a slower healtime from the inside out.

 

[SheepGirl]

I would spray iodine on it. I sprayed iodine on my ewe lamb's flystrike wound and it dried up and started scabbing over by the next morning.

 

[terrilhb]

I don't know the answer but I pray your baby gets better real fast. It was good that your children were there to get the dogs away. Poor baby.

 

[nuts4goats]

Redtailgal- after I got home from work and redressed the wounds, the deep one is looking alot better than I thought. Yesterday she was so swollen, it really made it look catastrophic. It is still open on both ends and when I flushed it with saline and betadine the solution is going clean through, so I'm thinking since its basically draining itself, I'm going to skip the drain. She was pretty uncomfortable this afternoon so I did go ahead and give her another shot of bantamine (first one today). She perked right up 15 minutes later. I think keeping her pain under control is going to allow her to get up and move around alot more and work out the soreness. We went ahead and cleaned out a stall and put down clean fresh straw bedding and gave her fresh hay and pellets and she seems a whole lot happier outside closer to her buddies. The laundry room is not a good place for goat ICU- haha. I think as long as i can keep her wounds clean, covered, and dressed, and keep away infection she will be ok.

I'm going to use the bantamine for one more day, then switch to aspirin as needed. Does anyone have any experience with aspirin, how much to administer, and how frequently?

I sure would love to switch to an oral antibiotic, as I HATE doing these shots. Is there an oral antibiotic I can switch to in a few days that would do as well as IM penicillin?

Thanks for everyones advice.

 

[bonbean01]

I'm so sorry this happened to your little goatie but...so glad those horrid dogs did not attack your children...this is bad, but could have been so much worse!

Sorry I am no help with giving crushed aspirin...have been fortunate here in not having this happen yet, but read these so that should it happen I will have an idea what to do.

Hope she heals up super fast!!!!

 

[ksalvagno]

You can give Banamine once a day for 3 days in a row. That is what is considered safe. If she is still in a lot of pain after 3 days, use your judgement. It can cause kidney damage but I had to give an alpaca Banamine shots for a full week and there was no damage done and the alpaca was fine. The big thing is to keep swelling down and pain down. You can give it SQ or IM.

I think my only concern with giving aspirin is that it has to be processed by the stomach and it could cause ulcers.

I hope your little one gets better quick.

All shots except hormones can be given SQ. If you give them IM, it gets into the system quicker. I like to give antibiotics SQ. I have seen more reactions from giving IM than SQ which would make sense since IM gets it into the system quicker.