EMERGENCY! Puncture wound in abdomen, tetanus and peritonitis?

[ksalvagno]

In case you didn't know, banamine should be administered at 1cc per 100 lbs. I would get some in her just to relieve the pain. While banamine can be hard on the stomach, I really don't think one shot will hurt.

 

[Ariel301]

I just got off the phone with the only large animal vet in town. He HAS the antitoxin, but says it doesn't work on goats, it's only for horses. Told me to just keep pumping her full of fluids and antibiotics, that is what he said he would do if I brought her in. We don't have a Tractor Supply within a hundred miles, just a few locally owned stores that mostly cater to the horse crowd. They didn't even know the difference in toxoid and antitoxin, they kept trying to sell me a tetanus +3 way shot for a horse.

She's the only goat in the herd not current on her CDT. It figures. I got her during the summer from my neighbor, not vaccinated yet, and decided to wait and vaccinate her with the rest when they are due in January, so they all are on the same schedule. I will NEVER do that again, from now on any newcomer will get one right away. It's just my luck that the one unvaccinated goat would find the one sharp bit of loose wire in the whole pen. I found what she probably got hurt on, and fixed it to prevent it hurting anyone else.

I've got her comfortable wrapped in blankets in the bath tub, since it is quiet, warm, and dark in there. I gave her some banamine for the pain. She's getting more fluids once an hour, the poor thing is a pincushion from all the shots. I'm guessing she's going to be in need of some vitamin B since she's not able to eat. And to top it all off, I found lice on her when I was shaving the area around the wound. Which tells me that all my goats are probably infected with that. It seems to have been a real problem around here this year, never saw it before this spring, and every goat I know has been sick with it since, as well as poultry.

I'm going to order a bottle of antitoxin to keep on hand. I was planning on putting in my order for vaccinations and restocking my medical kit tomorrow, I was making my shopping list yesterday evening. I always make a big order right before kidding season starts. I even saw the antitoxin in the catalog and considered it for a minute! Why, oh why did I not order a week ago when it would have been here now!

 

[Ariel301]

I'm thinking now that she isn't acting a whole lot like it's peritonitis. The muscles around her belly are stiff, but if I squeeze her belly, she doesn't cry like it hurts. (tested this before the banamine so her pain response would be normal) She also has no fever. There's a couple of holes in her skin like the wire went in, and then came out through another, and then she backed up to get off of it.

I just looked again to get an idea of exactly where the wound is, it's hard to remember stuff like that in a panic. Looking again, it's not so much between the legs as right in front of/slightly under the stifle joint, more to the side than the bottom of the goat's belly. Which, I know from gutting enough goats, doesn't have a very thick layer of protection between the abdominal muscle and the intestines. I tried getting some photos, but my camera battery is dead. I'm charging it and then I'll get a picture of the wound and swelling. The swelling is not hot to the touch like I'd expect with an infected wound...odd. I cleaned it up and there was some pus draining from it. It puzzles me that she had a wound that sore and never limped or complained or did anything to make me think she wasn't fine, she's normally a huge drama queen about anything, she screams like she's dying if the feeder is running low. I was sitting in the pen petting her for half an hour yesterday and had nothing to make me think she was sick. She's so fuzzy with winter hair that I never would have seen the wound if I had not rolled her onto her back and saw dried blood.

 

[Ariel301]

What TICKS me off is the antitoxin IS NOT a controlled substance!! I can't for my life figure out why they wouldn't sell it OTC...

Vets sometimes...ARGH.

Sorry!

I hope you're able to find some antitoxin...get several vials of it.

Our vets are like that with everything. They won't even sell you a tube of ivermectin without an exam. They're worried about lawsuits...now you have to sign a consent to treat form for your animal, same as if you go to the hospital yourself, so they can treat without worrying as much over you sueing them.

We lost our horse last year because they would not send me home with IV fluids for her while she was colicking. They wanted to hospitalize her for it, at the rate of $300+ per day. She died of dehydration while I sat and watched, because the stupid vet wouldn't sell me a bag of SALINE. I was on hold with the vet's office while she died, while they thought about what they might do for me...they left me on hold for an hour during an emergency. I later ordered IV sets and fluids online, over the counter just in case I needed them again. I am glad that I have a good deal of veterinary training, with the way vets are here. My neighbor has a stockpile of meds that vets won't give out, but unfortunately no antitoxin.

 

[Roll farms]

FWIW, when I nursed a goat through tetanus once, I used Pen G....it was 'the' recommended antibiotic for treatment. I just googled 'tetanus treatment' and everything I came up w/ also recommened Pen G.

It's probably not going to help now since you started w/ oxytet (they react against eachother).
Mainly telling you for future reference.

The goat I treated for it had been vaccinated, according to the guy I bought her from. I had taken him at his word.
Later I found out he used the antitoxin to 'vaccinate'...

Now, EVERY goat I buy gets a CDT vaccine before they get unloaded, regardless of what the seller tells us. It was awful nursing her through it.

Good luck w/ her.

 

[Ariel301]

She died a few minutes ago.

It seemed like she was having trouble breathing, she coughed a few times and was mouth-breathing. I went to the kitchen to take some pain meds for myself and a friend of mine who is an EMT had arrived to have a look. We went in and she was gone.

 

[Our7Wonders]

I'm so very sorry.

 

[chandasue]

I'm so sorry...

 

[Ariel301]

Thanks for the help that was offered, everyone.

She was the twin sister of the buckling in my avatar, and my husband's pet. She loved sitting in his lap.

Time to go put another hole in the ground. We've got way too big a graveyard for the little time that we've been raising goats.

 

[cmjust0]

Really, really sorry to hear she's gone.