Dead kid, necropsy

farmmom · #1 06/02/09, 12:53 PM

My son just went out to feed, and found my 12 week old wetherling lying dead in the kid pen. I opened him up and found a large, hard pack of grass in the opening between his stomach and intestine that I believe was blocking the passage of food. It was *very* hard. His lymph nodes appeared larger than I would have expected, which could have been caused by intestinal blockage. I know he was eating as his rumen was full. I couldn't find anything else.

What would cause grass to ball up like this? I tore the blockage apart, and it was all grass. I expected to find something in there that didn't belong.

hoofinitnorth · #2 06/02/09, 03:07 PM

I'm so sorry about your goat. I'm glad you had the forethought to open him up and I wish I had some information to offer you.

How were his teeth?

farmmom · #3 06/02/09, 03:11 PM

His teeth looked fine. Even his intestines looked fine except in that one spot. His mucous membranes looked normal, with no sores. His heart looked normal. His lungs were still nice and pink. He hadn't been dead long, actually still bled a little when I opened him up. His liver was normal, no spots, swelling anything like that. The lining of the abdomen looked good. That ball of grass was the only thing I found.

Dodgegal79 · #4 06/02/09, 03:33 PM

the only thing I can think of is not enough water being drunk. Do they have access to minerals?

Minelson · #5 06/02/09, 03:50 PM

I have know idea farmmom....just very sorry for your loss.

You have a lot of courage to open him up. I hope someone will know what would cause that.

deafgoatlady · #6 06/02/09, 03:50 PM

Did u do the cocci prevention ?

Sweet Goats · #7 06/02/09, 04:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dodgegal79

the only thing I can think of is not enough water being drunk. Do they have access to minerals?

The water was my first though also. I am sorry that you lost him.

farmmom · #8 06/02/09, 05:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dodgegal79

the only thing I can think of is not enough water being drunk. Do they have access to minerals?

They have plenty of water at all times. It is cleaned and refilled at least once daily, and checked several times a day. They do have access to minerals, and have been on cocci prevention - though I have never seen any symptoms of coccidiosis.

Annie's Mom · #9 06/02/09, 06:34 PM

I don't have any suggestions, but I am VERY sorry for your loss.

greenhorn · #10 06/04/09, 05:19 PM

So sorry to hear about the goat. I buried a calf this morning (my first ones) and it's really sad.
Did you disect the grass clump? If not I wonder if there is some foreign object in there that blocked him, and the grass lodged around it. I have no idea, but I was reading about hardware disease in calves.

farmmom · #11 06/04/09, 10:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by greenhorn

So sorry to hear about the goat. I buried a calf this morning (my first ones) and it's really sad.
Did you disect the grass clump? If not I wonder if there is some foreign object in there that blocked him, and the grass lodged around it. I have no idea, but I was reading about hardware disease in calves.

I did break the lump up. It was just grass. A foreign object was my thought too, but nothing was there that shouldn't have been.

Ernie · #12 06/04/09, 10:31 PM

Good for you for doing the necropsy! It's not a pleasant task, but to me it's a lot better than sitting around trying to guess why the animal died.

How digested was the clump of grass? A good way to tell if it was blocking is to feel the intestines below the clump. Is there matter in there? If so, it probably wasn't blocking and just sort of stopped there when digestion ceased at the end of his life. Matter will evacuate the intestines in a couple of hours, so the contents of the lower intestines below the supposed blockage is a good measure of how severe it may have been.

Even if it was blocking then it would not have been a quick nor painless death. It would probably have taken a couple of days to kill him as toxins built up from the bowel blockage.

You mentioned the lymph nodes were larger than you expected. Do you have an accurate basis for measuring that? I mean, have you seen normal healthy goat lymph nodes? If the lymph nodes were indeed swollen it means he was fighting off some infection that probably killed him. The clump of grass was just a clump of grass in that case.

Finally, 12 weeks seems to be about the dying point for livestock. A lot of people feel that if you make it to the 6 week point then the animal is in good health, but I haven't found that to be the case with goats and sheep. At 3 months, the animal is entering puberty and subtle birth defects start to come into play as the growth rate rapidly accelerates. That's when the most mysterious deaths also happen. I suspect that a lot of those mystery deaths where the animal suddenly drops dead are due to aneuryisms and heart attacks.

We should realize that almost all of the livestock we know today were domesticated over 10,000 years ago. Since then all we've really done is create individual breeds and variations, not all of them to the benefit of the species. Since industrialization and the decline of our reliance on livestock, most of the breeding has been done haphazardly and with no eye towards improving the health of the species. There are all sorts of hidden time bombs lurking in the health of these animals that the casual eye could never detect.

Cheribelle · #13 06/05/09, 04:42 AM

I have no answers for you, but I want to really give you credit for being able to do what you did to try to find out. I sure wish I could.

kreddish · #14 06/05/09, 03:04 PM

So sorry! And thanks for sharing the results...