Lost a girl yesterday- any ideas on cause?

deetu · #21 12/14/09, 10:44 PM

I had a doeling go down like that. Vet checked her after she died and was surprised to find her full of worms. Surprised me too because I wormed regular with two different wormers. Wormed the others with Cydectin and they all put on weight after. Maybe you should have a stool done just to be sure or check eyelids.
Sorry for your loss.

cjb · #22 12/15/09, 03:03 AM

Oh I'm sorry.

I have run into bad luck in the past and wanted to quit farming of any kind. You will learn and have wins and then you'll wonder what you ever did without your farm and critters.

I don't know if cost to purchase goats has been an issue but I know that some of us learn that spending less costs us more in the long run. Maybe wait awhile, save up and get a goat from good, sturdy and tested stock.

Time will heal and I sure hope you don't give up. We lost one of our very first goats and then had zero losses until an unfortunate loss of twins this Spring.

GoldenWood Farm · #23 12/15/09, 03:41 AM

QoTL first off I am so sorry you lost your little girl

. I have known people who have done goats for twenty years who still have losses. I myself have been doing goats for 8 years now? I have lost a few kids over that period of time for some reason or another. So try not to beat yourself up about this. Honestly with your little girl I am not sure what she could have had. I think the only way to really know is have a local vet take a look at her (necropsy?).

I personally wonder when we vaccinate so much against some things that the goats don't loose some natural immunity to things such as enterotoxemia but this is just my opinion based on things I have found in my herd and seen. I am so sorry about your little girl. It sounds like you did the best you could for her and that is all anyone really can do in something like this. <<<<hugs>>>> for you and your family. Don't give up on farming or the goats though. Everyone here is giving great advise and we ALL have been in your boat sometime or another. <<<<huugs>>>>> again.

Justine

Oat Bucket Farm · #24 12/15/09, 09:42 AM

I'm sorry you lost her. I agree that the only way to know for sure may be to do a necropsy (sp?). It is heart breaking to loose them like that, when despite all you do they just go so fast on you. Don't give up. Do your best to try and figure out what she died from so you can watch for it in the future. (((HUGS))) Again, so sorry you lost her.

QoTL · #25 12/15/09, 01:18 PM

Thank you all so much for your kind support. It really means a lot to me.

I spoke to another goat expert, who wondered about pneumonia or entero due to our drastic weather change recently. Neither quite fits, but it gives me a start.

I have been reading reading, and am finding a number of goats this same age going down with the same symptoms- and getting better, then fading. I have some bizarre newbie theories there, which I won't bother to bore you with, but it does make me wonder what's going on, and to realize that maybe it was less my fault than it feels like it is.

She was a very sweet, foolish, loud baby. She is very sadly missed.

It is so kind of you guys to remember me. I'm very VERY flattered. I don't visit here as often as I used to due to time constraints, and I was never a very active poster anyway. Thank you for that.

I still have my other goaties, so I'm not out of them by any stretch. We'll see what happens, I guess.

(((hugs)))

pookshollow · #26 12/15/09, 04:19 PM

It's been a very strange year, altogether.

I was at a goat meat producers' focus group a couple of weeks ago and I happened to mention that none of my bucklings did well this year, although the doelings all looked great. Another breeder looked shocked for a moment and said that she had the same thing going on in her herd. I had a couple of bottle babies, one doeling and one (now) wether. Same milk, same feeding schedule. The doeling looks good, the wether is still a little on the puny side.

Sometimes, I wish they could talk to us.

Qvrfullmidwife · #27 12/16/09, 10:31 AM

There is not enough information to come close to saying what happened. Temperature? Normal berries? Rumen sounds?

BUT I can say that it pretty clearly wasnt tetanus. I've seen tetanus. Not just the jaw is locked--the entire animal is rigid.

QoTL · #28 12/16/09, 10:45 AM

Temp- not sure. I didnt get one

Mouth, ear tips, and feet were cold though, and I would hazard a guess she was sub-normal when I found her.

Normal berries, and normal urine. She did lots of both.

Rumen seemed to be working fine. Lots of rumbling and was chewing her cud.

shanzone2001 · #29 12/17/09, 01:42 AM

Meghan,
I just read your sad story....
(((hugs)))

goatkid · #30 12/17/09, 10:14 AM

Sorry you lost her. A couple of thoughts here. Maybe goat polio or pneumonia. A kid acting like that here would receive shots of thiamin and Nuflor.

Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians · #31 12/18/09, 03:18 AM

Enterotoxemia is very painful, I have seen kids literally thrashing on the ground trying to kick at their bellies as they die. I vaccinate and have never had a kid of mine with it.

Next time take a temp, always look at the eyelids, go to dairygoatinfo.com and look up the famacha anemia chart in goatkeeping 101. Have several goat folks phone numbers you can find most of them on their websites, like mine.

Although we would like to explain away loss with entero, polio, tetanus, it is usually something like anemia from parasties, listerosis from moldy hay that is used for bedding or becomes moldy once peed on that she is eating (in fact the purchasing of hay to be used as bedding is the number one cause of listerosis in my area due to our humidity).

Order lactated ringers from Hoeggers, simply giving her subq fluids usually is enough to perk them up while you get more help. Have some really basic things on hand, a wormer that works for your area, perhaps learn to fecal this winter, Fortiefied B Complex or thiamin from your vet, any 200 mg tetracycline (not LA200) and any 300,000 unit pennicillin (aqua one is best)

Please don't first turn to oral old wives tails, unless you know how to tube giving things by mouth especially watery products or alcohol goes right into the lung and can hasten death, mimic pneumonia when it's really inhalation pneumonia.

Read read read. Vicki