12/17/06, 02:38 PM
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Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Arizona
Posts: 1,370
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Enterotoxemia Scare/Happy Ending
I wanted to share what happened to me yesterday - hoping others here can learn from it as well. I've been raising goats for three years now - not an expert by any stretch of the imagination.
I had a doe kid last Saturday with triplets, and my other two that were due kidded Monday. Yesterday - we broke down individual kidding pens into one large pen, on a fresh section of grass. The babies were all excited, playing, and bouncing around. It took about forty-five minutes.
One of the babies started crying. She was between two buckets laying down. She had a peculiar cry - you could tell she was in pain. She'd get up, stretch, and move her legs strangely, and lay down, then repeat. DH thought she was stuck, but she wasn't. We wondered if she had been stepped on, or butted by one of the other moms. She was desperate to get out of the pen. We let her out, but she kept laying against things, and started flayling and struggling every so often.
Acute onset of symptoms in a moments-before, bouncy kid - I called my breeder and thankfully she immediately answered the phone. I described above, and she listed what it might be, when the kid cried out - she heard it over the phone and she immediately said - 'Entero' - get tetanus antitoxin ASAP. We bought out the feed store a block away, all the while on the phone with Debbie. We gave ten cc's orally, 20 cc's in four injection locations sub-Q.
She was noticeably better within ten minutes - resting peacefully while I made the hour + drive to Marana to have Debbie look over the kid, and give me some banamine, and some powdered magnesium (or something similiar for bloat). It is very difficult to get a vet out to a 'goat' emergency here, as they are all equine vets and frankly, everything else comes first. The best goat vet is about three hours from me - but I wouldn't hesitate to go in an emergency.
Baby ate the moment we got home, and even danced a little on the back seat of the car on the way home from Marana. Checked on baby throughout the night, and she is recovering nicely - awoke before dawn to check her and she was bouncy and running around like the rest of the crazy babies. I've got another box of the tetanus antitoxin in the fridge, just in case. Debbie said I could redose her if the symptoms return. I guess they can 'crash' more than once as the toxins work through their system.
Now that I have experienced entero - and what the cure is, I will always be prepared. I haven't decided about vaccine program - since I've had some 60+ kids and this is the first case.....I'm fairly leery of vaccines in general. However, I am leaning towards including this preventative in my vaccine program, as well as having the antitoxin on hand, at least two doses, ie 60ccs. It would be an absolute waste to lose an otherwise healthy kid to this painful illness.
I would be very interested in reading what other's do in their own vaccine programs - not just with entero. The vet will be coming out soon to do my G6S testing, and CAE testing - so I would like to make sure I have a list of prescriptions that I need to have 'on hand'. Thanks.
niki
Last edited by dezeeuwgoats; 12/17/06 at 05:13 PM.
Reason: incorrect dosage on the antitoxin
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Someone more experienced than I will have to explain to us why it worked......I'm just glad, relieved, and THRILLED that it did!
