More help please

[PrettyPaisley]

Good lord does this ever end? I really need to figure out what I am doing wrong so I can fix it.

I took a fecal sample to the vet and the said Millie has coccidia and some other parasite - something that starts with "striker" or "stiker". I was balancing 2 human kids at the office and I can't recall what they said.

Anyhow-the vet said we needed to give more bio-sponge and a 5 day dose of penicillin to get an overgrowth of the clostridium bacteria in her gut under control. He thinks this happened when she was overfed grain at the farm where we were breeding her.

He then says the coccidia may and this other parasite might be out of control because the scours weakened her immune system and because she's still only about 10 months old.

I took home a grocery bag of meds; bio-sponge, a 5 day coccidia treatment, this other parasite treatment (one day) penicllin and I think that's it.

The question-is this the right course of treatment? And how do you give a goat a shot? That needle is HUGE and needs to get in a muscle. I just tried to give her a shot in the neck as they told me to and it was so tough and she jumped and I had to inject her again. Paisley and I were both reduced to tears.

Millie is as spunky as ever and her inner eyelids are bright pink. She has spent a little more time lying down than usual and has a very watery stool, still. I have been giving her lots of fluids and as much oatmeal as she will eat and lots of hay and have let her forage.


I'm at a total loss.

[KimM]

Is it the Pen you're injecting? The neck??? No way would I ever give a goat an IM (or SQ)in the neck. You can give it under the skin, I usually pinch up a tent of skin (and don't be shy about it) behind the shoulder blade, behind the elbow, or over the ribcage.
I've never heard of a bio-sponge.

[Alice In TX/MO]

I inject everything subcutaneously behind the shoulder, below the spine.

You are not at a loss (don't tell bad stories about yourself), you are really doing fine.

Hay and water and browse. That's it on food. Oatmeal is grain, and you should stop that.

Give the meds, keep your fingers crossed. Drink a cup of hot chocolate. Relax. Pet your goat.

[Oat Bucket Farm]

I would inject sub q. What cocci med did he give you and how much did he say to give?

[myheaven]

If you have to use corid it tastes nasty and you will have to force her to drink it. I mean SHOVE the seringe without the needle and tilt her head up then administer.She will fight you like her life depends on it. I would do sub Q shots also MUCH easyer. I make my kids give all the shots they are great at it. You are on the right track. The coccidia medication will do great. Keep your head up you can do this.

[CarolT]

Please double check with the vet if s/he stressed to go IM with the shot. Many injections don't matter but every once in a while, there's a reason it has to go into the muscle (uptake time can differ). Or that's how I understood my vet to put it, so if he stresses to go IM, it's going IM... Just my 2 cents

[stormywood]

Just sending you ~hugs~. Try not to be scared or hard on yourself. You can do what is needed. Don't worry~hugs~

[fishhead]

Mix some sugar in with the corrid and she won't fight you so much.

[oberhaslikid]

Maybe this will help they are color coded to tell you where to inject what kind of injection.I never inject in the neck.



http://thekebun.wordpress.com/2008/0...jection-sites/

[PrettyPaisley]

UGH! They told me *specifically* to give her this injection intermuscularlly. It's a shot of penicilin for the bacteria overgrowth in her gut from the sweet feed she got into at the other farm. (Sorry-to stressed to deal with spell check.)

We got the other stuff down -the Corid for the coccidia. It's 20ccs once daily for 5 days. She didn't like it but it's down.

I'll stop the oatmeal. She already seems to be doing better. Just got home from work and it was right at 9:30pm and she came bounding to the gate kicking her heels up. And her poop is already starting to firm back up so something must be working.

But it's those IM shots that are freaking me out. The vet tech told me she always injects in the neck but she has horses. This is the 2nd vet that has treated my goat like a horse. She said I could also give the injection in the back of the leg but we are talking a total of 10 shots by the time this is all over. I won't be worth killing by the time these 5 days are over!

oberhaslikid - we definitely got the pink needles. DEFINITELY ! Thank you for that graph! ~But it says a pink needle is intervenous-which is not intermuscular. LORDY. I'm calling the vet right now.

[oberhaslikid]

Your reading the graph wrong hun,Maybe I didnt help?
The colors just tell you what location to give the injection.
If yours are pink that doesnt mean interveniously.
Muscular would be the orange sites. It shows the shoulder or rear leg.

[PrettyPaisley]

^No surprise there!^ I'm a little flustered-tried to read it too fast. I have poured a glass of wine now. I can relax until 5am when I have to do this again.

I just got off the phone with the vet. She told me that in a horse you have to give the injection IM. In a goat you can "get away" with giving it sub-q. Sub-q is the only way I'm going to inject her again. Again, 2nd vet treating my goat as if she were a horse.

Thanks, y'all. Not sure I'd ever attempt goat raising without having this forum to depend on.

[praieri winds]

we inject in the thigh can do one side one day and switch sides the next day and go back and forth till done the back of the thigh is fleshy so can handle the needle better then the neck good luck

[jill.costello]

Goats metabolize things very differently than horses. Give it under the skin. Also, if she overate and is having digestive problems, she REALLY NEEDS injectable Thiamine (which is pure vitamin B-1). The rumen simply cannot function without it.

If you can, call the vet again and politely "demand" a bottle of Thimine to keep around....it is a very necessary part of a goat-owner medicine cabinet....

[Alice In TX/MO]

Sub Q. Sub Q. Sub Q.

[CarolT]

So glad! :-) I know how scary it can be trying to give shots, and you have to be sure not to hit a vein giving IM which you don't with subQ. It's a big needle because penn is so thick it just blows smaller needles off the syringe (which causes nervous breakdowns of their own type LOL) when you try to push it through the smaller hole. Don't forget to give her good bacteria as soon as she's done because it kills the good as well as the bad bacteria But, wait till she's finished the medicine because it does no good before. You're doing great, and you'll get her well :-) Just keep a good supply of wine!

[Oat Bucket Farm]

I want to know why the vet prescribed pen for an overgrowth of clostridium and not C&D anti-toxin.

[SilverFlame819]

The needles are color coded based on where they should go?!

I've always requested pink needles from the vet when I get vaccines because they're the smallest gauge. Even though it takes longer to do the injection, I feel less terrible because I'm not jabbing them with a monster needle.

[shanzone2001]

Sorry you are having to deal with this, Shannon. Hang in there!

[Bearfootfarm]

UGH! They told me *specifically* to give her this injection intermuscularlly.

If it were you getting a shot of Pen, it would be in your butt

That's also the best place to IM a goat