Help!

[wigg]

Need advice! A friend called me to his house to look at his goats. I've never seen this before. Two nannies at seperate farms were down like they had polio or listeria. Both could see, yet both were down on their sides and unable to get up. I looked for obvious signs as far as feed. The hay was nice grass hay and the feed was cracked corn, oats, and soybean meal. Nothing jumped out and said something was wrong. They all have access to timber. Two seperate water sources. He showed me another goat he had penned up. We noticed two in this pen that walked with a limp like they had a hoof problem and he explained that was how the other two started out. We then found in another pen a one week old kid that was unable to control it's back end and was quite noticeable breathing hard and deep. I've never ran into this. What is it?

[Backfourty,MI.]

I'm not going to be much help here since I don't know what's wrong with your friends goats, but I know people will need more info to help you diagnose them like.......Their temp.'s, are they eating, can they stand, bloated, chewing their cud or drinking, going to the bathroom, I sure hope you get some answers soon & he can get this taken care of because it doesn't sound good to me. I'm also curious to see what causes these symptoms.

[susanne]

i suppose both have the same feed supplier for the corn?
i would look into toxins maybe from the corn.

[wigg]

None of these goats were bloated. They are unable to eat or drink as they are laying on their sides and unable to get up. We didn't take temps. All goats are obviously well taken care of. My suspicion was possible toxins in the grain, but I don't get the 1 week old twin showing symtoms without the other twin and momma showing symptoms. They are all eating from the same batch of feed. That is the only thing I can see that these different groups of goats have in common besides the hay.

[susanne]

maybe the does that are not affected didn't eat from the corn?

[oberhaslikid]

please read the symptoms and see if this sounds like it could be it.I have a doe that was effected by this not Pretty.Need to get on if it is.
http://www.sheepandgoat.com/articles/deerworm.html

[fishhead]

If the week old has the same problem that should rule out meningeal worm.

What is your friend doing for treatment? Thiamine shots?

I would get a temp on the goats immediately to see if it's listeriosis.

[o&itw]

Originally Posted by fishhead

If the week old has the same problem that should rule out meningeal worm.

What is your friend doing for treatment? Thiamine shots?

I would get a temp on the goats immediately to see if it's listeriosis.

A question on this. If the larva can cross the blood-brain barrier, is it possible they could also cross the placenta? If so, the week old kid could have been infected several weeks before it was born and the time requirement would have been met. Not suggesting that... I was just wondering.

[ozark_jewels]

Also need to consider that with the large differences in ages and only *one* kid affected so far, the kid could be suffering from something entirely different than the adults. Back injuries can easily happen to kids when they are playing or in with adults who might push them around.
Just saying I wouldn't discount anything just because it seems like it couldn't affect a kid or vice versa. They may not be suffering from the same thing.

[wigg]

Thanks for the replies! One goat has improved a little. She will eat but not drink. The kid goat appears to have recovered today. We considered the meningeal parasite and treated for it. I'm not sure what to think yet. If we took a temp, what range would indicate Listeria? Some have suggested selenium deficiency. I do think the kid goat had something else wrong with it. We didn't have access to any Thiamine and didn't call the vet since no other animals were looking suspect. I think he will have one posted and hopefully his feed tested.
thanks,

[fishhead]

My little wether had 106.5 when he first started showing symptoms and later died of listeriosis.

[beccachow]

Get to (or have your friend get to) a feed or supply store and get some B vitamins, there's not much time to waste if this is polio or listeriosis. Also start them on Pennicillin if you have any, or get that at the store. Any BoSe around? If your feed store has fortified B vitamins, get that. If not, get what they have but pay special attention to the amount of B1 (that is the thiamine they need) as far as getting up to mega doses needed for aggressive treatment. I was giving Sandy 6 shots at a time to bring the dose of B1 (at only 12 mg per cc) up to the therapeutic level. If you don't have access to these things, call the vet who should have them all. Polio is not contagious, but Listeriosis is. This is a MAJOR emergency (as you know, I'm sure) and any hope for their recovery will be fast and AGGRESSIVE action.

[dragonchick]

The B vitamins from the feed store do not contain enough thiamine. I would get Thiamine stand alone from the vet in this case.

[goatkid]

Thiamin is one thing every goatkeeper should have on hand. Time is of the essence when treating polio. Please don't wait until more goats get sick to get some. The sick ones need to be treated now.

[hoofinitnorth]

Poisoning? Since they are eating timber, they could have gotten into mushrooms. Could using charcoal harm them if they were *not* poisoned?