goat sickness

[marlymcdonald]

We recently adopted a male goat, Jack. After only a week he was vomiting badly. We used a home remedy and were able to stop the vomiting. Now he has what appears to be pinkeye. Both eyes are weeping badly and are clouded over to the point where he cannot see at all out of the one eye. Could this all be related? And do you have any advice on the eye infection and how to treat it? Thankfully he is now eating and drinking well, so I think he is on the mend. We just do not want the eyes to get worse. And, if this is related somehow, we need to know what it might be to keep it from resurfacing.

 

[Roll farms]

Pink eye is the one thing we haven't had to deal with...YET.
(knock on wood)

BUT...I've read a lot about it because I get a lot of calls from locals w/ sick goats and I work at a TSC and we get customers who need help with it.

From what I've read, oxytetracycline is the best drug to treat it. You can use veterinary eye ointment to help keep the eyes moist and I've read you can squirt a couple of drops of oxytet into ea. eye daily to help speed the recovery time.

It's sort of like a cold...no way to stop it, it has to run it's course...but you can help lessen the severity and give the goats comfort with ointments and oxytet.

I found a thread with a lot of info in it here:
http://www.goatworld.com/articles/pinkeye/pinkeye.shtml

Hopefully someone w/ experience dealing with it will come along....
Good luck and

 

[marlymcdonald]

Thanks so much for the response. We are treating him with a topical eye solution, but it is not an antibiotic. Our TSC was out of a lot of the goat supplies so I got some Duramycin to add to water and the topical. We will check another place tomorrow for the antibiotic ointment. We are apprehensive about shots...we had a horse take an allergic reaction several years ago, and it "traumatized" us, or we would have maybe gotten the old stand-by, penicillin. Just really, really feeling sorry for Jack right now, as he goes and hides in the corner since his eyes are so sensitive. And we just got him. No chance to even get a regular vet check-up or anything before we got right into sickness that we are obviously pretty clueless about.

 

[Roll farms]

Duramycin is a brand of oxytetracycline antibiotic. If you're not comfortable giving him the shots, giving it orally is the next best....
but you might buy some injectable just to squirt into his eyes.
(Draw it up into the syringe and then pull the needle off and squeeze it into his eyes.)

From everything I've read, penicillin doesn't do much for pink eye.

I can understand being gun shy after having a reaction in a horse.

Poor fella....good on you for taking him in.

When he's well you'll need to see about getting him vaccinated and checking to see if he needs dewormed / hooves trimmed, that sort of thing.

 

[marlymcdonald]

We have two rotten (and I mean ROTTEN) baby pygmy goats we got a couple of months ago, so we have wormer ready. We just wanted to get him used to being here, get his diet stable, then hit him with the wormer.
I hate that he is sick. He has been a neat addition to the farm. My heeler is still trying to figure him out, and Jack has been pretty gracious about it. The pygmies just head butt the dogs and the cats when they get too personal. All of our other animals are so well-behaved, and those two are heathens. I keep telling myself they are still babies, but trying to get Jack to eat and keep them away has been a battle.
Just in case the vomiting was rhododendron poisoning, we are spending tomorrow barricading the bushes over the far bank in the yard. I have never seen them anywhere near those bushes...but you never know. The goats are only loose in the evenings or weekends when they can be monitored, but they are goats. I was just happy to see him eat and drink well today. Two days ago I was wondering if he would make it...and how upset my 8 yoa daughter was going to be over it.
I am looking forward to him getting better so I can watch three dogs, a full grown goat and two pygmies chase after the four-wheeler again. That is flat out hysterical to see!

 

[SDGsoap&dairy]

We had to deal with pink eye once, but I really suspect it was due to an injury rather than contagious conjunctivitis. Only one doe got it and it only affected one eye. Granted, we treated everyone preventatively once we figured out what was going on, but by all accounts conjunctivitis spreads like wildfire. Or, we just got super lucky!

We did a full course of oxytet injectable, given both subQ and a few drops directly in the eye. LA200 burns like heck and my goat took months to stop being miffed with me. Biomycin was unfortunately unavailable locally. My vet pointed out that while some antibiotic eye ointments might be helpful, be sure to stay away from any ointments containing a steriod (particularly if the cornea has detached.)

It took about a week for my doe's eye to go back to normal.

 

[marlymcdonald]

Just finished doctoring Jack again. I see improvement, but still worried. The eyes are cloudy and weeping still, but he is more active...even went out into the sunlight despite my wishes (not for long, though). Gave him more Duramycin solution orally and administered eye salve. I am hoping that we are on the mend, as the eyes are not ulcerating and show slight improvement overall. Everything I have read says 7-10 days for it to run its course. He started vomiting Tuesday, but the eyes were not noticeable till Wednesday. Best case scenario we are halfway there, I guess.
Thanks again for all of the advice and support.
I am glad you told me about the LA200 burning. I will have to remember that and use it as a last resort in the future.

 

[marlymcdonald]

Finally, we got the Terramycin opthalmic salve yesterday, and administered it much easier than what we anticipated. It has been about a week, and we have done everything. We actually have been using port wine squirted into his eyes for the past few days. I read where one farmer said he gave some to the goat, some to himself, and some in the eyes. Thought it was funny, but Jack really likes the taste of port wine. Thankfully, we are seeing improvement. I had him out today, as it was beautiful out for the first time in several days, and he was so happy to be free. He still cannot see much at all, but he is such a good boy to follow on my heels and heed my voice commands that it was not hard to get him to the yard. I had to stay with him, but that was fine. I would pull leaves off for him to eat, and grab tree branches down. The tearing is pretty much gone, and I can see where the cloudiness is trying to dissipate. It is just a matter of time now, I am sure.
Thanks to all who gave advice, as well as those who post or host other sites. The internet was invaluable for researching this disease.

 

[Calliopia]

A friend got a free pure Nigerian because his breeder didn't want to deal with a case of pink eye. When he arrived his eye looked dead and 3-4 weeks later it was clear as anything and he was chasing the girlies like it never happened.

 

[marlymcdonald]

Your friend got a deal! I can almost understand the breeder not wanting to deal with the pinkeye...since it is so contagious and time consuming.
I wish someone could tell me how long this will go on. Jack seems to be at a standstill. The cloudiness will not budge. We are at about the two week mark. The weeping is gone, for the most part. I think the terramycin makes the eyes weep a little, still. I am hoping to get this under control soon, before the weather turns again.
Poor guy is adjusting to the lack of eyesight. He steps cautiously and slowly. He cries out if he cannot hear us in the yard, and there are times we have to leave for a few minutes and it is heart-breaking. But, he is at least at a place where he is not as likely to get hurt by falling into the ditch or something.
I just wish this would go away! Soon! And, I know it could be so much worse, so I am grateful for the progress made and all of the advice. So far the other two are not showing any symptoms, and I would love to get rid of this before that happens...and we get to start all over with this craziness!!!