The right vet came out today

[ksalvagno]

Well, I finally know what is going through my goat herd. It is a mycoplasma. The vet that I use has 6 vets in the practice and I have gotten a different vet every time I have taken a goat in. Today I had the vet come out to the farm and got the vet that has a herd of 40 goats. Thank Goodness. He finally told me what is going on. He told me that the only drug that works on this mycoplasma is Draxxin but once in a while some of the other drugs work if it is caught early. Well, Draxxin has worked on a few of my goats, Baytril worked on one goat and it is looking like Gentamicin is working on 2 of my goats. So my last 2 remaining goats that have come down with this are going to be on Draxxin, at least to start.

CM, you will love the cost of Draxxin. The vet asked me if I wanted a whole bottle or just the shots. A bottle of 100 ml Draxxin is approximately $450. Needless to say, I took the shots.

By the way, Draxxin is 1.1cc per 100 lb. It is given once every 7 days. According to the vet who has the herd of 40 goats, even with the goats higher metabolism, it is still a once a week dose. He went through this with his herd recently. So apparently it is going around in our area.

The vet that I saw on Tuesday didn't even blink an eye when I wanted to put my 2 goats that weren't responding to other antibiotics on Gentamicin. Never even mentioned not being able to use the milk or meat. But my vets have also been in the business for over 10 years and I have been using this vet for over 10 years so none of us are new to this. Plus they did see the goats and have been seeing them so they knew what was going on with them. I just wish they would have explained things better to me than "you have an antibiotic resistant pneumonia." But I am thankful that someone has finally fully explained to me what is going on.

 

[DonnaBelle]

Hi Karen,

I'm glad you got the right vet today. I know how concerned you are about your goats, as you know,I have one of my own I'm worried about.

I am in the process of dosing Annie with the Sulmet. I don't know if it's going to help or not.

I'm glad to hear you have an experienced vet to use.

Keep us posted on your goats.

DonnaBelle

 

[cmjust0]

PRICEY...

Plus with Draxxen (the livestock equivalent of a 'z-pak,' right?) being such a small, infrequent dose...a 100ml bottle would likely expire in the cabinet anyway. It's super cool that your vet's willing to sell you individual shots. Would you believe there's one vet around here who only sells Naxcel by the vial, on account of his volume being so low that the remainder would go bad if he sold it by the shot?

Glad to hear you're finally getting things worked out, but I'm a little puzzled...I didn't even know you had badness going on?!?

Did I miss a thread? If there was one, point me... If there wasn't...can you expand on your experience a bit?

Teach me. I'm a sponge, ya know. And almost as smart!

 

[ksalvagno]

I actually didn't even start a thread on this. It started with one male goat. He was coughing and it sounded like it was coming from his lungs. This first started on a weekend so I went ahead and started him on Exceed. He wasn't sounding any better in a couple days so I took him to the vet. The vet said he had pnuemonia and gave him a shot of Draxxin. The Draxxin wasn't helping so I went back to the vet a week later and he was given Nuflor. Fecals were also done and only a few coccidia were found.

The antibiotics weren't working (which I considered to be some pretty strong ones) so I decided to see if it was parasites that just weren't showing up on fecals and wormed the heck out of him with Safeguard, Ivomec and DiMethox. Cough still sounds bad. Back to the vet and we tried Baytril. By the way, he had a very clean fecal.

When I got the Baytril, I also found out that I had a resistant pneumonia and I now had other goats sick and at the vet as well. We used Baytril on 2 of the goats (not pregnant or nursing) and Draxxin on the other 2. Draxxin was used on my Boer doeling and her mom because of age for the doeling and nursing for the mom.

A couple days later I had another doe with runny eyes. Called the vet and since she wasn't pregnant or anything, she was put on Baytril.

Now this past Tuesday I had that original male back at the vet and now another one of my males is coughing. Since the Baytril (and Draxxin, Nuflor and Excede) was not working on the first male, I asked the vet if I could use Gentamicin. He had no problem with that but we did put the other male on Draxxin. I also had a doe at home that was not responding to the Baytril and also put her on Gentamicin which seems to be working (symptom for her is runny eyes and she doesn't have runny eyes today).

Now today I have a pregnant doe with runny eyes and one eye is very cloudy. She has a temp of 104. I also have another pregnant doe that is holding her ear down and eye on same side is slightly runny. Turned out that doe also has a temp. Both the pregnant does' lungs do sound a little rough per the vet but no coughing. So now they are on Banamine and Draxxin (safe for pregnant does).

I am supposed to give everyone on Draxxin a second shot of Draxxin so they will be on it for 14 days. The Gentamicin I have to give a shot once a day for 7 days. The lungs on the original male with the problem are not sounding as bad as before so apparently it is working on him as well as the doe. The doe with the cloudy eye I have to put Terramycin in her eyes twice a day for 7 days along with getting the Draxxin.

I did have one pregnant doe that had minor runny eyes (clear discharge) for a few days and went away. According to the vet, she took care of her problem on her own. I now have one pregnant doe and one male that haven't shown any signs of problems and their lungs sound clear. So I'm hoping once we get these last girls through this, it will be over.

I'm not suprised about the vet who won't sell the Naxcel by the shot since it does have such a short shelf life once mixed. That is why my vets pretty much only carry Excenel so they can sell by the shot.

By the way, the does never had a cough. Only runny eyes. So I had no idea that anyone had rough sounding lungs. The first doe that got sick only had runny eyes, lungs sounded fine, no temp. Second doe that got it only had the runny eyes, no rough lungs or temp. The Boer doe only had runny eyes, no temp or anything. The Boer doeling's lungs did sound a little rough and she had a little cough but no temp. The pregnant does have runny eyes, a temp and their lungs sound a little rough but no cough. The 2 males both do have a cough but the second one doesn't cough much and the first one is finally starting to cough a bit less. Both have temps right now.

The vet gave me 15cc's of Draxxin so I have enough if the last 2 come down with this. Plus I will have some left over if anything further comes up.

So far the alpacas seem to be spared all of this.

 

[ThornyRidge]

Poor Lily give her this from me... and I hope she is one that gets better and responds soon (if she has come down with the symptoms).. hopefully it won't affect kidding/kids either... my hope would be too that she responds with no ill effects as she was "healthy as a horse" as a kid and youngster..other than being terrorized that is she was a sound goat. keeping fingers crossed here that everyone stays healthy in this nasty weather we are getting... only bred one doe.. and think she took first time... whew.

 

[ksalvagno]

Lily was the one that didn't need any meds. She cleared up on her own.

 

[ThornyRidge]

good to hear... now hopefully the rest will clear up and all will remain happy and healthy..

 

[Wild Wind Farm]

How is everyone doing? On the mend I hope.

 

[ksalvagno]

It is finally looking like we are getting through this. I've had 3 reinfect but so far no more. Out of my 11 goats, only one never seemed to come down with it. The one with the cloudy eye is clearing up and I'm hoping her eye will be back to normal. I did end up giving her a third shot of Draxxin and I had to give 2 of my boys a third shot of Draxxin. Only the original male who started all of this is still coughing. I'm hoping it will eventually go away. I will probably get the vet out next week and have him check everyone.

I did talk to my alpaca vet about the mycoplasma and she told me that I could be dealing with it all winter since everyone is more confined. Then when I can kick everyone out of the barn and into the fields, see it go away. She also said that Draxxin IS the drug of choice for this. So I wasn't happy to hear that I could possibly be dealing with this for a good 3 more months but I'm hoping the signs I'm seeing now are ones that I will be done with it soon. But I was happy to hear that I was finally using the right drug. Out of all the vets I use, I do trust my alpaca vet's opinion the most.

 

[jhm47]

Last spring I had a calf that came down with a case of pneumonia. I have a neighbor who uses Draxxin on his 2000+ feedlot cattle, and he buys a 500 CC bottle of it. I went to his place, got 2CC of it for $25. Gave the calf 1CC, and two hours later it was up and sucking. Still have the 1CC extra in my syringe in the fridge. Hope I don't need it this spring when calving starts. Draxxin is the best for respiratory problems that I've ever seen. I also like the 1 shot per week.

A warning to everyone: There is a drug named Mycotil which is extremely toxic to humans. Just the tiniest drop of it will kill a person. We have lost at least one rancher in South Dakota to this drug, and I think a vet also died from it. There is no known antidote for this drug, and a tiny needle stick will kill you. A local vet had a drop on his skin, and he nearly died, even though he got it wiped off within seconds. BEWARE!