Hey everyone,
I came home lastnight to unfortunate news. My husband found our 8mo doeling dead. He had already burried her by the time I got home and I don't have the time to have a look myself until tomorrow and by that time there won't be much I can tell. I am suspecting two things: 1, Polioencephalomalacia 2, Toxin.
My husband told me lastnight that when he came home Tues. night he found her with her head stuck in a partition in the barn (they have access in and out of an enclosed section). He got her out, and he said she seem "dazed" looking up and out of it. I'm now thinking stargazing. She didn't eat that night. He looked her over, saw she was okay as far as injury and let her be. He wasn't worried just counting her behavior as stress as he had no idea how long she had been stuck. I probably would of done the same.
He comes home lastnight to find her under the barn dead. He is pretty sure that she had gone under the barn sometime Tues. night and died from the looks of her. She was down on her side, legs straight out (he said if you took a standing goat and knocked it over that is what she looked like) and had a small amount of froth on her mouth. No BM to observe.
She had been active and her usual bouncy self up until Wed. evening. These are the only two possibilities I can consider without having a chance to see the body or perform a necropsy. As much as I know and have experienced I just wanted to bounce it off of you all to compare notes.
Her abdomen was not distended either Tue. night, nor out of what you would expect when she was found yesterday. So I am ruling out bloat. She showed no signs of distress Tue. evening that would inciate bloat either my husband checked her thoroughly afraid of any stress induced complications.
The only two things that could bring a goat down so fast without any additional outward symptoms would have to be polio or a toxin to me...
We are very upset about this loss. It totally came out of the blue and we were hoping to breed her come next year. She was the prettiest champagne color. She was also the first born on the new place. Her momma is pretty distressed by her loss as well.
I will say that her momma had a bad bout of diarhea about two weeks ago. She had been wormed recently but I gave her another dose just in case. I did not do a fecal. She was fine otherwise, on feed, good weight, healthy gums and sclera, and her coat is that beautiful glossy red, so I really didn't think it was a parasite load but err'd to the side of caution. No fever, no signs of distress. I attributed it to something she may of eaten when she was out of the paddock. I gave her electolytes and pro-bios for three days and she seemed fine. Poops returned to 100% in about 5 days. Haven't thought anymore of it. Fiona never contracted diarhea, and was happy to bounce around care free.
I'm half way tempted to take tissue samples for testing but the spinal fluid, brain matter may be too corrupted for lab tests to be conclusive anyways. Ugh its frustrating sometimes.
Any thoughts are appreciated. Thanks.
Hope you all don't mind but I attached one of my favorite photos of her.
so sad
