Help my milking goat isn't doing good!

[goat newbee]

Yesterday she was acting really stand offish she's usually pretty outgoing and runs to her stantion to be milked. I had to get in and get her. She looked spaced out. She also didn't have that healthy look in her eyes. I took her temp it was 101.5. Didn't really eat her grain or wasn't even interested all that much in it. She also shivered. Anyway long story short I talked to a local "goat lady" and she told me it sounded like possibly bloat because she was bigger on on side. She told me to give her 2 cups of vegetable oil and take her for a good walk. ( she's a Alpine by the way) Well I took her on a close to a 1 1/2 mile walk last night. This morning she's laying down and doesn't want to get up. Any suggestions?

[Cliff]

At this point call the vet.
Now it sounds like an emergency.
Did you ever see her go poo last night?

[Alice In TX/MO]

What are you feeding? Did she eat something that is poisonous?

[susanne]

when was she last wormed and what did you use? what is the color of her eye membrane? how much is she milking normally, how much this morning? what are you feeding her? any change in feed? nasal discharge? runny eyes? is she eating at all?
first aid here would be fortified b-complex and bo-se.
a doe, not wanting to get up,, is an emergency.

[goat newbee]

I used ivermectin paste last month. Her eye membrane is off white. She normally milks 6 cups a day. I only milk her once a day. She doesn't look like she has much milk in her today. My daughter and husband gave her corn husks the other day thinking maybe to much?eyes seem a little runny. Haven't seen her eat. going out side again to watch her. I also was thinking she might have been stung by some bees. They are everywhere and my husband got stung 6 times last night. Never saw a bee til this morning. She did get up finally this morning when I went up to her and told her come on but everytime I'm out there she just wants to stay laying down.

[goat newbee]

So now she's refusing grain and hay.

[goat newbee]

ok taking her to the vet.

[goat newbee]

Now waiting for all the test results. She's on antibiotics and a diffirent kind of dewormer.

[pookshollow]

Good luck with her - you did the right thing getting her to the vet in time.

[Alice In TX/MO]

She is seriously anemic.

Here's an example of the FAMACHA eye chart:
http://www.new-ag.info/03-2/develop/dev04.html

[Minelson]

I'm glad you were able to get her to the vet. The eyelid color is scary so hopefully the dewormer will work. It could be that she did get stressed from either bee stings or the corn husks and that made the worm load go bonkers and everything went haywire. Personally, I am really afraid of feeding corn husks. When I was a kid (many moons ago) My guinea pig died from choking on the stringyness of them and I never forgot that LOL! My horses love them but, I remove all the silky strings before I give them any and only give them a little bit at a time.
I hope your goat gets better for you.....keep us posted

[Alice In TX/MO]

Unless it was a LOT of corn husks or moldy, they shouldn't be a problem.

[Sweet Goats]

I hope she is fine.

I talked to a very reputable goat vet the other day and we were talking about what to use when they bloat. She did say oil of course. she said NO mineral oil as it has no taste and no smell and the can and will (but not always) aspirate it. She said NEVER use Vegetable oil. Not because it will hurt them but because it is VEGETABLE oil and they will just break it sown in the rumen and it will not do the job totally. She said to always and always have Thera- Bloat for bloat. She said that "hey that is what it is made for" and it tastes bad and smells bad. No chance of them aspirating it.
I had heard not to use vegetable oil before but I have also gotten my head ripped off for saying it, but I thought I would tell you just so you can make the choice yourself.

[goat newbee]

Originally Posted by Minelson

I'm glad you were able to get her to the vet. The eyelid color is scary so hopefully the dewormer will work. It could be that she did get stressed from either bee stings or the corn husks and that made the worm load go bonkers and everything went haywire. Personally, I am really afraid of feeding corn husks. When I was a kid (many moons ago) My guinea pig died from choking on the stringyness of them and I never forgot that LOL! My horses love them but, I remove all the silky strings before I give them any and only give them a little bit at a time.
I hope your goat gets better for you.....keep us posted

sorry about your guinea pig but it quite the conversation piece at the table tonight.

[goat newbee]

Originally Posted by Sweet Goats

I hope she is fine.

I talked to a very reputable goat vet the other day and we were talking about what to use when they bloat. She did say oil of course. she said NO mineral oil as it has no taste and no smell and the can and will (but not always) aspirate it. She said NEVER use Vegetable oil. Not because it will hurt them but because it is VEGETABLE oil and they will just break it sown in the rumen and it will not do the job totally. She said to always and always have Thera- Bloat for bloat. She said that "hey that is what it is made for" and it tastes bad and smells bad. No chance of them aspirating it.
I had heard not to use vegetable oil before but I have also gotten my head ripped off for saying it, but I thought I would tell you just so you can make the choice yourself.

Thanks for the bloat advise. Next time that happens maybe then it won't be such a messy job. Poor goat was just full of it.

[goat newbee]

Originally Posted by Alice In TX/MO

She is seriously anemic.

Here's an example of the FAMACHA eye chart:
http://www.new-ag.info/03-2/develop/dev04.html

Thanks for the eye chart.

[DQ]

Originally Posted by Sweet Goats

I hope she is fine.

I talked to a very reputable goat vet the other day and we were talking about what to use when they bloat. She did say oil of course. she said NO mineral oil as it has no taste and no smell and the can and will (but not always) aspirate it. She said NEVER use Vegetable oil. Not because it will hurt them but because it is VEGETABLE oil and they will just break it sown in the rumen and it will not do the job totally. She said to always and always have Thera- Bloat for bloat. She said that "hey that is what it is made for" and it tastes bad and smells bad. No chance of them aspirating it.
I had heard not to use vegetable oil before but I have also gotten my head ripped off for saying it, but I thought I would tell you just so you can make the choice yourself.

an animal can aspirate any liquid when you are trying to squirt it down there gullet. if anything a a bad tasting liquid will make them fight it more and increase the chance of aspirating it in my experience. the use of oil is a bit controversial. goats don't break down large quantities of fat easily. a large dose of oil will give them diahrea for that reason which is sort of the point.

[goat newbee]

Well she is on 6 different meds now. Her calcium and magnesium is low. She has coccidious and parasites. She also is still not eating or drinking. The only med I'm worried about giving her is cmpk drench-calcium-hi potency. How can I make sure it doesn't get in her lungs? Any suggestions?

[Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians]

Very similar post to the other goat dieing on the forum. On face value your milker is down from milk fever, but with anemia, is the lowered temp and no milk and lethargy from it?

It's super important your vet gives you numbers on cocci and worms and identifies the problems worm for you, otherwise you won't know which wormers to use and if she actually has cocci...and adult doe can carry several hundred cocci occyst on fecal and it won't phaze her. Using a sulfa for cocci is fine though in an ill doe since it also has bacterial qualites for use when pnemonia is a problem and a doe who is ill will die from pnemonia sysmptoms.

The whole mineral oil and veggy oil discussion is rediculous. You want to use something to fill the rumen with oil to keep whatever is in it from impacting.

Most folks aren't treating true bloat anyway, we see it over and over on this forum folks treating bloat in perfectly healthy working rumens. Once you have started feeding goats really well, they build huge rumens, plus there are 3 other chambers to their stomaches that are also big an full....of course in a thin, anemic, emaciated, sick animal this stomach is going to appear huge. Unless she is crying in pain, kicking at her stomach or it's as hard as a drum and sounds like a drum when slapped, quit killing all the rumen flora your goats have by tubing them with oil. Plus tubing with oil for bloat means up to quart of oil, a few cups is not doing anything. And yes DQ's point is exactly correct, you want diarrhea you want this all out of the system. Vicki

[goat newbee]

She's up and eating hay this morning. She's still not 100% but I can tell she is feeling better.