Severe Bloat (Sad Ending - Page 4)

[Livinwright Farm]

Thank you to everyone for your condolences.

Please pray that no more of our animals get sick, and that those who are being treated would get into excellent health soon.

 

[Mossy Stone Farm]

My heart breaks for all of you.....

Peace and Blessings!

 

[Roll farms]

I don't suppose you picked up any Nuflor to keep on hand while you were there....?
Sorry you lost her....

 

[Livinwright Farm]

Just got the call back from the vet on the necropsy results: Severe bloat, and a small obstruction in the bowels(not big enough to be considered the cause)... Now to decide what the best option is... spending the money on gas for the 3 hr round trip to go get Minnie's body and bury her ourselves, or spend the $75 for Minnie to go into group burial..

Oh yeah, vet also asked what we feed them, if there had been any changes etc, so I told them we feed goat feed, hay, produce scraps(including but npot limited to: corn husks, strawberries, beans & peas, celery, carrot, lettuce, apples, mango, and green peppers), the then told me that we should "only give them hay and water. They don't need anything else... you could get them a round bale of straw for them to nibble on, because goats love to nibble on things, but other than that they really don't need anything other than hay & water".
...
...
...UHH.... since when!?!?!?!?

 

[Livinwright Farm]

I don't suppose you picked up any Nuflor to keep on hand while you were there....?
Sorry you lost her....

We asked for a script for it, but the vet disagreed and said no... we were lucky enough to buy a bottle of SMZ-TMP to keep on hand and get a script from them for BoSe.

Oh, and they gave us the name and number for a different vet that is a little closer to us, that can make farm visits to Ossipee, NH... looks like we still don't have a primary care vet after all.

 

[SDGsoap&dairy]

Vet is too far away to get anything to Minnie or Daisy ASAP... thinking we will go the Tylan 200 route... especially since I KNOW this is a product our TSC actually carries!

I highly recommend to folks that if they are aware that there is a limited selection of commonly used non-prescription meds available in their area that you order them online and stock your medicine cabinet before there is an emergency.

The rumen flora takes time to adjust to new foods. Too much of any new food (particularly fruits- like mango) fed inconsistently and without working them up slowly could easily have caused bloat. I'm not against feeding whole foods, but the rumen is finely tuned and should be treated with care in order to remain balanced. While the vet missed the mark in suggesting that goats required only hay and water, it still affords an opportunity to examine the safety and effectiveness of your current nutrition management.

 

[Pearce Pastures]

I am so sorry I hope you have a better day tomorrow.

As for the IM injections-If you follow the link to this book on Amazon.com and check out page 169, they give a visual on injections and how to do both SQ and IM (yes, I own "Goats for Dummies" )

 

[Livinwright Farm]

Vet is too far away to get anything to Minnie or Daisy ASAP... thinking we will go the Tylan 200 route... especially since I KNOW this is a product our TSC actually carries!

I highly recommend to folks that if they are aware that there is a limited selection of commonly used non-prescription meds available in their area that you order them online and stock your medicine cabinet before there is an emergency.

The rumen flora takes time to adjust to new foods. Too much of any new food (particularly fruits- like mango) fed inconsistently and without working them up slowly could easily have caused bloat. I'm not against feeding whole foods, but the rumen is finely tuned and should be treated with care in order to remain balanced. While the vet missed the mark in suggesting that goats required only hay and water, it still affords an opportunity to examine the safety and effectiveness of your current nutrition management.

We are thinking it was either the dose of Ivomec she got 2 days ago or the alfalfa we picked up and started feeding a couple days ago that caused the bloat... and not the produce scraps/trimmings/"waste" which they get for 3-4 days in a row every week.
The mangos were available in the bucket of scraps Friday through Sunday, the alfalfa was given(mixed in with their normal hay) Monday & Tuesday, Wednesday she got a dose of Ivomec 1% Injectable for cattle(given orally, as suggested), she really started acting odd yesterday, so I gave the molassess/baking soda/nutri-drench mix, and she started looking better... So I gave her a selection of her normal faves(molasses misted alfalfa, regular hay, a black birch branch, etc)... I wasn't expecting her to be so horrible this morning... though looking back I should have only given her the regular hay until she was back to 100%.

JYK, our other 2 does(Momma & Daisy) are just fine, except for a cough that come to find out is due from the dustiness in the barn(getting a box fan installed in the loft window tonight)... and they ate just as much of the mango and other produce as Minne. Momma has an elevated(not dangerous) temp, vet said more than likely due to stress from the drive down, which is why we are either starting her on a 5ml 2X a day PenG Procaine therapy for 5 days(as suggested by the vet)... or Ibuprofen or Asprin therapy.
We would prefer to go with something like Ibuprofen or Asprin, where she might kid within a week's time... and fear the safety of her unborn kids with giving Penacillin.

 

[elevan]

Some goats are more prone to bloat than others...she may have been one of them...you really haven't had her that long to know if she was one.

Ibuprofen should NOT be used more than 48 hours MAX (I go by a rule of 24hrs) or it can cause damage to the liver of the goat.

 

[Livinwright Farm]

Some goats are more prone to bloat than others...she may have been one of them...you really haven't had her that long to know if she was one.

Ibuprofen should NOT be used more than 48 hours MAX (I go by a rule of 24hrs) or it can cause damage to the liver of the goat.

We are keeping an eye on her temp, if she is still a bit warm come morning, we will go pick up a bottle of asprin(unless the enteric coated kind is safe to give goats? ) and administer that to her. We decided against ibuprofen after doing a bit of google-ing and discovering the list of harm that can come from giving NSAIDS.
After more thought, we really don't feel comfortable giving antibiotics to her for just stress from "shipping", if she had an infection, that would be a different story. Better to save the doe, than lose doe & kids, right?