My Warning to Others (posted for Josie)
I have been raising goats for three years now. I thought I at least had some kind of clue as to what I was doing. I decided it was time to grade up from my starter goats to a registered herd of milk goats. I reserved my first two kids many months in advance from a very reputable breeder and anxiously awaited their arrival. I picked them up at one week old...bouncing and healthy and happy. Big, brown eyes and long, floppy ears and total baby goat cuteness, I was in love.
All kids had been dewormed the previous week and treated with Baycox for coccidiosis. I was feeding them 3 times a day, 20 oz bottles of warmed milk. Free choice Right Now Onyx minerals, baking soda, and nice coastal hay. They were getting maybe ½ a cup of my whole grain mix, plus alfalfa pellets in the evenings. A bit of grazing when I could supervise them.
Thursday, I let the babies out to play while I did chores. She was always a friendly kid, but she just wasn’t running and playing with the others like normal. She mostly stood near me and at times, pressed her head against me. Other than that, she seemed normal. She was eating and drinking and eliminating normally.
Friday morning she was normal. Friday night, she only took part of her bottle. Saturday morning she again took only part of her bottle. Saturday evening I noticed that her head was slightly tremoring. I treated her with Bendryl for a possible allergic reaction, Biomycin and B-Complex for good measure. I gave her a dose of Banamine for pain.
Sunday morning, same thing…she was hungry, but couldn’t really take a bottle. I continued treatment Sunday. Sunday morning, she was running a fever, Sunday night her temperature was normal (her sister served as the baseline). No improvement.
Monday morning I noticed that as she was walking towards me, her back leg crossed slightly over her midline and she kind of tripped herself, but kept her balance. I was really questioning my management practices at this point. My other four bottle babies continued to be fine, even though they shared bottles/nipples.
I started researching signs and symptoms and possibilities. I determined that she needed to be treated for Listerosis, Polio, White Muscle disease and Enterotoxemia. I discontinued treatment with Bendaryl and Biomycin. I did not have the Anti-Toxinto treat for Entero. Crap. I had asked about it a few months ago at the vet clinic, but hadn’t followed up on it. I started calling around. Our Co-Op said they carried it, but after I got there, they realized they only have the vaccine (Toxoid) not the Anti-Toxin. Our TSC does not carry it. My vet clinic doesn’t normally stock it.
I found this article here:
http://www.goatworld.com/ This seemed to cover her symptoms. I proceeded to drench with Penicillin, B Complex, Thiamin and Baking soda. As I drenched her, she coughed and gagged and immediately fell over and went in to a seizure. I thought I had killed her. I have to say I was probably in shock. It was horrible to watch. After what seemed like an eternity, but was probably only seconds, she got up and acted relatively normal. I felt I had diagnosed the issue, and I hoped the treatment would take effect. I hoped I caught it early enough. I went to work. I called the vet on my way to work and left a message. I worked a half day and went home to check on her and repeat medications.
She was falling over and couldn’t get back up on her own without a struggle. If I helped her up, she could lean against me and stay upright. When she fell over, I could prop her up sternally and she could stay that way a bit, but once she stretched out, she couldn’t right herself. She had another seizure...non-med induced (before I redosed her). Her seizures were flopped over, stretched out rocking horse-like head pulled back and over to one side while screaming. Her eyes were “spinning” around in her head. It was awful. I thought she was dying. Meds should have been helping by now. They weren’t.
I considered putting her down at this point. Instead, I loaded her up and took her to the vet. I ordered the Anti-Toxin and had it overnighted. I gave the vet a list of symptoms and what I had done and treated with. The vet mentioned that in the back of our mind we need to think about rabies.
She(The goat, Allegra) needed Dexamethasone for brain swelling/Encephalitis. They continued treatment with Thiamine, Dex, Banamine, switched antibiotic to Excenel RTU and Anti-Toxin. They put her on IV fluids and tubed her. She never quit trying to take a bottle, but she just couldn’t. Some days she seemed a bit better, some days she seemed worse. A few times, we managed to prop her up sternally in the cage…often times, she would seize and lay flat out on her side, legs stiff and rigid, eyes spinning. She came down with pneumonia from laying recumbent too long. They tried to flip her every hour and kept her propped up with towels to make her more comfortable and to try and keep her from hurting herself when she had seizures. At some point they switched the antibiotic to Nuflor and then to Baytril.
I wanted to give her 3 days to make improvement. She wasn’t making any. I went and saw her again Friday after work. She was crying out and having a seizure, I made the call to have her put down. Hard decisions had been made; I said goodbye. I felt like I was giving up on her. She was still trying to take a bottle.
We scheduled a necropsy for Saturday morning. I wanted answers. I wanted to find out what I needed to do to protect the others and prevent this happening again. I was worried about Thiamin, Cobalt, Selenium or Copper deficiency. I wondered about an outside chance of Tetanus or Scrapies. Entero was still at the back of my mind. Treatment should have worked, unless I waited too long to treat for the right things? Man, goats are hard.
Saturday morning I went in to the clinic to observe the necropsy. They told me she had passed away during the night. I guess I made the right call then. I wish I had made it sooner and I would have, had I known. On necropsy, her heart and valves looked good, lungs were bad only part of one lobe was probably still working well. ----, she probably suffocated. Poor goat. Her stomach looked normal, not acidotic. Her intestines looked normal…she was still making pellets. We ruled out Anthrax-her blood was clotting. The vet took a sample of spinal fluid to look at. She saw bacteria and possible fungus? Sent this on to the lab for confirmation. She took a urine sample to check for bacteria as well. Kidneys and ovaries looked good. Her liver had some striations that she called small abcesses. Took a sample to send in to the lab. I asked for a mineral panel to check for deficiencies. We sent the head off for rabies testing. Then, asked them to send it back so we could send it off for Scrapies testing. Waiting on results drug on and on. Everything was sent off Monday morning for testing.
Wednesday afternoon, I got a call from the vet to say the results of the rabies test had come back positive. Wow. Not something I had expected.
The Texas department of Health & Human Services called me to conduct a phone interview. They determined that I needed to go in for “rabies shots” --Actually Immunoglobulin to counteract exposure and then a series of 4 rabies vaccines to provide future immunity. Egads, this is expensive.
My farm is quarantined for 6 months for the high risk of exposure animals—the other bottle babies and for 45 days on my previously vaccinated, but current animals. I was required to make a decision to either euthanize my high risk animals, which they recommended, or to vaccinate them and then watch for symptoms. I chose to vaccinate. The protocol depends on the age of the kids. Some will require two boosters and the youngest will require a third. I also chose to vaccinate/revaccinate everything on my place. I am holding my breath until they are in the clear.
Only on looking back now do I realize that she first exhibited neurological symptoms (head pressing) on 6/6, Thursday. I had not had any firsthand experience with any of these issues and was going off of information I had read. That made it really hard to know when to draw the line. I hope that someone out there can benefit from my experience. I also hope that none of you have to go through this at your farms.
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