I lost my Zoey.....

Zilli · #1 12/14/12, 03:56 PM

I really debated even posting this because this is very difficult for me.

I lost my year and a half old Samancha doe today. She is the one I have posted about fairly frequently and who I just had bred a little over a week and a half ago.

I don't know what happened. She had run a fever early in the week and was just "off," not eating or showing much interest in anything but up and around. No diarrhea.

Late Monday afternoon, I ran her into the vet because her temperature was 103.8.

He did an exam - no congestion, nothing obvious. He gave her a shot of Nuflor, vitamin B complex (with thiamine), and Banamine. He did say her rumen sounded "slow."

He said to watch her for four or five days, and if she didn't improve, then we should repeat the treatment.

I've been giving her probiotics and watching her closely and taking her temperature, which did run a little low over the last couple of days - a little above 101 - which I attributed to the weather.

Yesterday, she seemed to be doing a little better. She nibbled at her grain and ate a few animal crackers. Both morning and evening meals, I watched her eat alfalfa.

I had already decided that if she didn't show a marked improvement today that I was going to go in and pick up more of the shots, but when I went out there this morning, she was gone.

I'm sick.

I called the woman I had taken her to to get bred less than two weeks ago to tell her and she was shocked. She said she was a "big, strapping girl" and she had commented to me when I had taken her there about what great shape she was in.

No other goats are sick. Nothing is different - no change in feed or pasture or conditions.

I don't know what else I could have done or checked for.

Minelson · #2 12/14/12, 04:00 PM

Oh Zilli what a shock! I am so sorry! I don't know what to say.... ((((hugs))) Hopefully more experienced people here can help. Have you thought about a necropsy??

where I want to · #3 12/14/12, 04:03 PM

I'm so sorry for your loss. You obviously were blindsided by this fast growing illness as would anyone have been. Are you going to do an autopsy? Other than that, I can not think of anything more you could have possibly done with so little warning.

Zilli · #4 12/14/12, 04:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Minelson

Have you thought about a necropsy??

Yes....no.

She's 170 pounds and I'd have to load her into my car and take her to the vet, and to be honest, I just don't know that I can justify the cost.

If I thought my other goats were at any risk, I would find a way to do it but there just isn't any indication that that's the case.

I am going to call my vet - I just haven't been able to bring myself to make the call yet. I'm actually in a bit of a daze at the moment.

Like the friend I took her to to be bred said, there was nothing at that visit to indicate a problem at all. She was very impressed with how she looked and there were no red flags - and that was just eight days before she got sick.

Oat Bucket Farm · #5 12/14/12, 04:16 PM

I'm so sorry

andabigmac · #6 12/14/12, 04:27 PM

I'm so sorry. It sounds like you did everything possible. You're a good goat mom.

RIP Zoey

GoldenWood Farm · #7 12/14/12, 04:28 PM

Oh Zilli I am so sorry

. It sounds like you did everything you knew to do. I know how excited you where for her babies as well

. ((((((hugs))))) It has been a bad day all around for a lot of people, I am so so sorry again about Zoey.

Justine

Jyllie63 · #8 12/14/12, 04:30 PM

I have no words of wisdom, but I do want to say I'm very sorry you lost her

JBarGFarmKeeper · #9 12/14/12, 04:43 PM

My first thoughts were to do what you and the vet did *except* I would have given Nuflor everyday for 3 days. Pneumonia in goats is 'sneaky'. It is the #1 goat killer too. It lives in their nasal cavity and ANY stressor (even weather changes) can cause it to flair.

I am very sorry for your loss. I lost a young EXTREMELY promising doe a few weeks back 'sneakily' (as my 5yo wold say). I was devistated also. I am sorry for your loss.

The last necropsy I had done done cost me about $50 and I wasn't happy with the vet. However, I have had them done for $20-25 and thought it money well spent when I had a decent vet doing it. I can be great if it relieves your mind of "I wonder if I could've done something different."

Zilli · #10 12/14/12, 04:52 PM

I am going to call my vet and I will ask about a necropsy.

It's a hard day - the tragedy in Connecticut, which makes my loss seem so unimportant - and I haven't even been able to bring myself to go out and milk today.

I had to pull her out of the goat house - all 170 pounds of her. My old Saanen doe wouldn't even go in there to eat until I did.

Now I have her out there by where I milk, wrapped in a tarp, and I'm not sure where on this hillside I'm going to dig a big enough hole to bury her. I suppose I'll have to drag her somehow down to the bottom end of the property where digging a hole will be a little easier. No one here to help me until tomorrow.

Dreamgoat Annie · #11 12/14/12, 05:03 PM

Oh, I'm so, so sorry for your loss.

Sue

Jyllie63 · #12 12/14/12, 05:33 PM

When we had illness in our alpaca herd, I drug many a dead body out of the barn...NOT FUN! The tarp became my best friend

. I know how hard this is for you...again...I'm so sorry!

beccachow · #13 12/14/12, 05:36 PM

Zilli, I am so very sorry.

Zilli · #14 12/14/12, 06:26 PM

I called the vet.

If I have the necropsy done, I was told it would have to be done tonight. It would cost me $50.00, plus any testing on tissue samples, etc.

And that is if I can take her into them. If he comes out here, there would be an additional charge for the farm call.

There is no way that I can get her loaded into my car by myself.

His assistant said they have had several sheep lately go down quickly with pneumonia - fine in the morning, dead by evening - that they have done necropsies on.

The Tin Mom · #15 12/14/12, 06:48 PM

Oh, I am so sorry for your loss! How heartbreaking!

((((Hugs))))

JBarGFarmKeeper · #16 12/14/12, 07:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zilli

I called the vet.

If I have the necropsy done, I was told it would have to be done tonight. It would cost me $50.00, plus any testing on tissue samples, etc.

And that is if I can take her into them. If he comes out here, there would be an additional charge for the farm call.

There is no way that I can get her loaded into my car by myself.

His assistant said they have had several sheep lately go down quickly with pneumonia - fine in the morning, dead by evening - that they have done necropsies on.

We had issues with pneumonia a few years ago, that's why I don't play AT ALL with that. Goat's metabolisms are so much faster meds need to be dosed daily for 3 days straight. Watch for others, but they may be fine.

Backfourty,MI. · #17 12/14/12, 09:58 PM

I am so sorry for your loss Zilli.

nehimama · #18 12/14/12, 10:39 PM

I'm so sorry for your loss and your heartache. I lost my Zoey..... - Goats

iloveafarmer · #19 12/14/12, 11:42 PM

I'm so sorry for your loss.

Zilli · #20 12/15/12, 12:04 AM

Thanks to everybody for their kind words. They are really appreciated.

I was totally blindsided by what happened and I somehow missed this:

Quote:

Originally Posted by JBarGFarmKeeper

My first thoughts were to do what you and the vet did *except* I would have given Nuflor everyday for 3 days. Pneumonia in goats is 'sneaky'. It is the #1 goat killer too. It lives in their nasal cavity and ANY stressor (even weather changes) can cause it to flair.

I am very sorry for your loss. I lost a young EXTREMELY promising doe a few weeks back 'sneakily' (as my 5yo wold say). I was devistated also. I am sorry for your loss.

The last necropsy I had done done cost me about $50 and I wasn't happy with the vet. However, I have had them done for $20-25 and thought it money well spent when I had a decent vet doing it. I can be great if it relieves your mind of "I wonder if I could've done something different."

You give the Nuflor every day for three days? I wonder why my vet gave the single shot and said it would be good for four or five days and that at the end of those four or five days she might need another?

Sometimes I feel like we really are at the mercy of our vets and their knowledge (or lack of). I am aware of only three vets in this county who see goats. One is the one that I've been using and is the closest to me - about sixteen miles. The other two are 25 - 30 miles away and one of those (the one that I hear the most positive things about) works very limited hours - four days a week and no emergency after hour or weekend calls.

I have some very old animals - a fifteen year old dog and a fifteen year old cat, a Saanen doe who will be fifteen in the spring, some other goats that are all around twelve and thirteen, even a cockatiel that I have no idea how old he is but that I've had for sixteen years and he was an adult when I got him. I even buried an old pet rabbit (ten or eleven years old) a couple of weeks ago. So, I've been expecting some losses and have been trying to prepare myself for those, but to lose an otherwise healthy (I thought) young animal like I did today is hard to understand.