limping goat

[HenCam]

I have a not-quite one-year old Nigerian mini goat wether who is limping. It's been a mild lameness for the last week, but this morning he wasn't putting weight on his right front foot. There is no heat, no wound, no obvious stone bruise. His hooves are trimmed properly. Caper is not the most agile goat, so I assumed he pulled a muscle and was letting it work itself out. But, since today the lameness seemed worse, I thought I'd ask you folks what you think. Worth a trip to the vet?
(You can see him at www.goatcam.com where I have a live-streaming cam on my boys.)

 

[ksalvagno]

If you feel it is worse, then I would take him to the vet.

If you have Banamine on hand, you could try some Banamine first and see how that works out. You can only give Banamine for 3 days in a row though.

 

[Roll farms]

We've had several goats like that over the years....to the point I no longer 'panic' when I see a limper like I used to.
Sometimes we find a rock or thorn or *something* stuck up in the hoof where it can't easily be seen.
Sometimes we just wait and see and they are tenderfooted for a few days and then get better.
Once we had a doe with a thorn so deep in her hoof it went up into her LEG....that one had to have surgery.

 

[mully]

I would wait a few days and see if there is improvement ...could have twisted the pastern

 

[cmjust0]

I've had some start limping and even knee walking over what we call "hoof scald." Depending on who you talk to, though, some folks use the terms "foot" and "hoof," or "rot" and "scald" interchangeably.. So one man's "foot rot" may be another man's "hoof scald."

Then you get some people who say "hot foot," just to totally obfuscate the situation.

As far as I'm concerned, though, hoof scald and foot rot are totally different things. To me, foot rot is bacterial. Conversely, hoof scald is fungal...to me, at least.

In a nutshell, to me, hoof scald is roughly equivalent to athlete's foot in goats. You don't necessarily get any obvious heat or swelling with hoof scald, as its' primarily just an outer skin irritation. It can be pretty subtle.

Pick his gimpy foot up and look at the flesh between the claws...you might see a little bit of white, perhaps powdery looking something on the skin. If so, I'd call that a definitive case of hoof scald.

Or, you may not see that at all...which doesn't necessarily rule it out.

I know, I know.

What you can do besides just wait it out -- and I'd really recommend doing this, as it's easy and really can't hurt anything -- is dip the foot in copper sulfate maybe twice a day for a few days.. You can get copper sulfate foot stuff (Kopertox, I think it's called?) at most farm stores, and it shouldn't be terribly expensive.

If it's just a fungal scald, that'll cure it. If it's not...oh well. He'll have a green foot and you'll be out a few bucks, but neither of you will really be any worse for wear.

It's definitely worth a shot, if you ask me.

 

[HenCam]

Thanks for your replies so far! His foot is really clean (I know horses, thrush, etc.) but I'll double check for that white powder. I'm assuming there'd be a smell with rot of any sort. I think he looked so gimpy this morning because he had just woken up (he's my lazy boy) and I saw him when he stood for the first time after a night's rest. Later today, Caper was still ouchy, but not even a third as lame as he was this morning. That makes me think it's a muscle pull.

One more question - if I do take him to the vet, do I take his twin brother, too? They've never been separated.