I know what this is. Do you?

the male goat is wearing his boots with spurs while dating?

Ahhhh. Having never seen a marking harness it looks rather painful. We hand breed each doe. Never more then 4 does to any one buck per day

Susie

__________________
"My darling girl, when are you going to understand that "normal" is not necessarily a virtue? It rather denotes a lack of courage."
http://www.agesagoacresnubians.com/

This is how meningeal worm presents itself in my herd. The larvae are migrating from the rumen, trying to find the brain. These lesions are from the goat scratching himself and self-mutilating.You can see the direct line very clearly, and it's always the first thing I see when one has picked it up. The first goat who got MW was weak at the back end already. I didn't know that the itching could have been something else until it had progressed that far. I had been treating for lice, not knowing what this was.

Sadly, because of have my broken foot, I haven't been able to keep a close eye on my guys the last couple of weeks and this has progressed pretty far. I hope I got it in time...there are no signs of neurological damage yet.

I don't understand why in most of the articles I read about Meningeal Worm, they don't mention this itching….and it's a huge red flag, to me. Do goat owner's not get this same symptom or do they not look at their goats as closely as I do?

Either way, I wanted to share so that if one of you sees this in your goat, you'll know what it is and can treat immediately.

4 out of 5 of my goats have had it and it's always around the same time of year. NOW

Thank you for the pics and the information. We have literally tons of deer but have never had it here in our part of the Ozarks...maybe more southern than we are???

I'm in Georgia, but it's not only a southern thing. It's passed from deer to snails. So you have to have standing water, I think....with deer. Or at least snails....with deer. Maybe my deer are just wormy?

Moose get it as well.

We too have tons of deer but so far never a case of MW, thankfully. I think CoSo had a doe with it once. But I don't recall her looking like that. We taught the LGDs to treat the deer as a threat to the goat herd and to keep them ran off and out of our woods

__________________
"My darling girl, when are you going to understand that "normal" is not necessarily a virtue? It rather denotes a lack of courage."
http://www.agesagoacresnubians.com/

Their ticks alone are a threat. ---- deer : (

I know, goat leaning against a frozen fence post or something, its freezer burn. wait, its worms?

The standing water may be it because water of any kind is rare around here! LOL. Everything runs downhill so fast it rarely has time to do any "standing." We have dry, open woodland is the technical term used by the Conservation department and in this case, I guess I am glad of it!

Wow! I have never seen that! Thank you for sharing!

That's interesting! You should contact a research university. For whatever reason this strain of worms were drawn toward the outside of the animal, rather than migrating internally toward the spine. I've read about itching and irritation being a possible symptom as they wander, but never in such a distinct pattern.

These are definitely internal worms traveling inside. The sores in a straight line are from him scratching....I assume scratching where they are internally. This line is very distinct. The other goats have also had sores in a line, but not as straight. And not as noticeable, I assume because I've caught it early enough to stop some of the scratching.

What is the treatment?

Can most vets identify this disease?

Is it in other animals besides goats and deer?

Treatment is a LOT of high doses of wormer. There are different protocols....you can google it. What I do is: 3 days of ivermectin injected, double the cattle dose followed by 5 days of fenbendazole 4x the cattle dose. I should also include Banamine and dexamethasone too, if I have it. But, I don't think those actually treat....just keeps him more comfortable. Tho Dex helps with the inflammation.

Some vets get it, I'd say most vets don't. When my first doe had it her spine was curved. Vet said inner ear infection. Had I listened, she could be dead.

Alpacas and moose get it also. It doesn't effect deer - a natural host. But a dead-end or abhorrent host is the animal that has trouble.

Interesting! I have never seen meningeal worm infestation, but I have heard of it.

Thank you for the information. My goats are gone more than 15 years and I had two different vets come out and euthanize them. Itching, back legs weak and then useless. Also turning their heads up and cirlcling them around. We have multitudes of deer. I know that my goats also tested positive for CAE. Didn't know about that disease when we bought them.

It was such a sad and expensive situation that I've never wanted to try goats again. Ours were beautiful and we had them for over 8 years...

They all did get sick between Sept and Jan I believe.

I was aggravated at the way you posted this thread but I am very grateful you took the time to do so.

lightrain. I'm surprised that you didn't recognize the trail of sores, if you've encountered this parasite. I wonder why my goats present this way every time?

I wasn't trying to aggravate anyone....just thought it would be an interesting way to start out and interesting to see if anyone recognized this immediately. I had every intention of sharing the info. That was my point. I figured it would get more attention this way and therefore spread to more people.

This is a nightmare parasite, and you can save the goat if you see the tell tale signs. Which I rarely see listed as a symptom.

This was a previous case. You see the pattern from the sores going from stomach to spine. Not as clear as the goat who currently has it, but it's there. (yellowish color is betadine). Also closer to the front leg, which is usually where I see it.

Just more info...

Attached Images

rocco MW_sm.jpg (47.4 KB, 0 views)

I didn't recognize the sores just remember that they had intense itching and I could see no external parasites. I also remember that the last few days before I had them put down they went off their alfalfa hay and goat chow and even treats. At the time I thought it was the CAE but I also questioned that because the symptoms came on relatively quickly and got horrible real fast.

I never bred them since one tested positive for CAE and I had never spoken with any other goat owner that had gone through this. Ya know, sometimes folks can be tight-lipped if they think their animals might have something that would make their value go down... Again, thank you for your post. It may have been what we had with our own animals.

I've only had one doe fall victim to this nasty little bug but she never presented with a line like that. Since then I have done everything feasible to keep the deer off my property. The rat terriers do a good job of running most everything off.

It was devastating as Sunny was my first doe and the vet just could not care less about my or her distress.