Help! What's going on with this goat?

[elevan]

FWIW....personally...I think the CDT vaccine is more of a "must do" for goats than a pneumonia vaccine. Pnuemonia can usually be treated if caught early. Entero and Tetanus are fatal most of the time.

Not saying you shouldn't use a pnuemonia vaccine if you feel it's warranted, but if you are trying to keep vaccines to a minimum, I wouldn't 'not' do the CDT.

There's no holistic cure and the deaths from either are slow and painful.
Nobody ever 'has a problem' w/ something...until they do.

I do tend to agree. CDT is one of those vaccines that you really just can't skip out on.

I would do a preventative pneumonia vaccine every year prior to the cold weather that seems to bring this on. But I wouldn't skip the CDT vaccine.

I don't know anything about holistic medicine. Don't practice it nor do I plan to...so take my advice with a grain of salt and as that of a modern medicinal user.

Hope your girl is feeling much better.

 

[dianneS]

Thanks for all the input, I do really appreciate the advice.

I'm not 100% sure that I'm convinced that her only problem is pneumonia. Those weird symptoms she had a year ago are much too strange and I explained that to the vet. He did vaccinate her for everything and his main concern is getting those lungs cleared up.

I guess all I can do is focus on what the vet has me treating her for at this time, then watch and wait and see if she has any of those strange recurring symptoms. If so, back to the vet and we'll just go from there.

She's doing great BTW, she looks and acts perfectly normal now, but I'm still not going to subject her to this cold weather. The vet really thinks the reason she has these episodes in the bitter cold is due to the pneumonia?? But I guess only time will tell.

I'm taking her out for brief little walks with the other goats to let her stretch her legs and get some fresh air. She wears her sweater outdoors only, she doesn't need it inside anymore. She doesn't want to leave the herd when its time to come inside and she's getting very restless indoors and wants more company than the dogs and cat! I think that's a good sign!

I'll keep you posted and I do appreciate all the advice. I'll just keep working with the vet untill we figure this all out. I like this vet and I did give him a pretty thorough history of the symptoms we've been dealing with. I think he'll take good care of us if and when we need him again. I liked that he was consciensious enough to stagger the medications so as not to overwhelm her system.

 

[ksalvagno]

Especially with it only happening in the cold, I would really talk to the vet about it being mycoplasma.

Glad to hear the she is doing better.

 

[dianneS]

Little goaties temp is normal! She's really frisky and wants to get outside to play with her friends today!

 

[adoptedbyachicken]

Great to hear she is doing better Dianne. I think your on the right track to treat for what is currently diagnosed and look into/watch for other things once that's cleared up. If she has something else that is chronic going on I imagine that could leave her susceptible to pneumonia just as it does for humans.

For the rest of you the bickering between the holistic and the medicinal crowds has to stop. The backhand snarky comments and digs will no longer be tolorated from either side. Consider this the last warning, if you can't present your suggestions nicely without dissing what someone presented or their husbandry method expect to find yourself on vacation from posting on this forum.

 

[mully]

Great to hear she is doing better Dianne. I think your on the right track to treat for what is currently diagnosed and look into/watch for other things once that's cleared up. If she has something else that is chronic going on I imagine that could leave her susceptible to pneumonia just as it does for humans.

For the rest of you the bickering between the holistic and the medicinal crowds has to stop. The backhand snarky comments and digs will no longer be tolorated from either side. Consider this the last warning, if you can't present your suggestions nicely without dissing what someone presented or their husbandry method expect to find yourself on vacation from posting on this forum.

Good ..glad to hear it, most on this site are so helpful but there are some that have a bite.

 

[dianneS]

The little girl is out with the rest of the goats today! She's been making short trips out each day, gradually increasing her time out in the cold. She's been out for several hours recently and did just fine. Today, she ran up the driveway and all the way up to the pasture gate!

Later I was mucking stalls and saw her running across the pasture with two other goats. I rarely see her running. She looks really good and seems really happy.

She gets one more shot of antibiotic tonight and another shot in a week or so. I still don't know what I'm giving her since I haven't gotten that bill from the vet yet!

I think she may be out in the barn for good now. I can finally clean up her pen in the basement, and she sure seems relieved to be out of the house.

 

[ksalvagno]

Good, glad that she is getting better for you.

 

[Emmetts Dairy]

The road to recovery is always the best road to be on!!! Good luck with her!! Shes probally happy to be with her goat friends again!!

Her lungs must be clearin up nicly if shes running around!!!

It would'nt hurt to talk to your vet about pneumonia vacination at all..especially if this is'ant your first run with it.

Personally, I vacinate all my goaties annually. I even have the vet give them thier rabbies vaccine. But thats my personal choice.

However I do agree with the CD&T vaccine for certain. It is soooooo easy for goats to get and sooo horribly painful for them to die from. I believe thats a must in my herd IMO.

But its a personal opinion how one raises thier herds. I know alot of people who practice holistic and medicinal care...and tragically enough we all have horror stories...thats just life on the farm. So I really dont have an opinion if one is better than the other. I just know I looked into both and made a personal choice for what I thought would be best for my herd and what I wanted from them. I use them for dairy and meat...and I felt this management worked for the health of the goats and my family consuming thier goods they share with us.

And personally we try to incorporate both..and it seems to work beautifully. If I know something natural will work well...I will use it...but If I know this infection is'ant gonna go away...I will get antibiotics and wont think twice. I do whats best for my goaties on an individual basis.

I think with anything we do in life!! Balance is best!! But sometimes its the hardest part!!!

Again, glad to hear shes getting better!!! Hope you fiqure out what those little fits were about??? Maybe she was so full in the lungs and she had too much pressure when the rumen was full??? Something got her going?? Very strange reaction???

 

[Ariel301]

That's a weird one...never heard of one acting like that from pneumonia. But then, I did have a doe once who suddenly had neurological type sypmtoms, flipping over, rolling and unable to get on her feet, and she seemed to have gone blind...we thought she was poisoned, the vet was stumped by her behavior...and then it turned out to be just bloat. Some of them are strange, that particular goat was known for being a drama queen over everything so she just reacted to the pain in a weird way.

This certainly does not sound like a tetanus or enterotoxemia case to me. Those kill a goat within a few days usually, and it sounds as though this goat has been acting oddly for much longer than that. I would suspect something digestive, if the pneumonia is not the cause of the weird behavior. I would agree with those pushing you to vaccinate her though. We do a lot of natural/alternative/holistic treatments here as well, but there is NOTHING of that nature that will cure tetanus, and even with regular medicine there's a high chance of death, the best plan is to prevent it in the first place. We lost our favorite doeling a few weeks ago to tetanus, she was the only one in the herd who had not been vaccinated, and it was horrible sitting helplessly by her side while she convulsed and screamed in pain for hours before dying. You don't want to go through that. Vaccinate all animals with CD/T annually and then you can still do the holistic thing otherwise. I hope your girl gets to feeling better soon!