Sciatic Nerve Damage - Temporary Paralysis - Long!

[nehimama]

I did this to my lovely young Buck, Dastardly Dundee a few weeks ago, and I felt absolutely horrible & ashamed!

Back Story:

Dundee had a bout of pneumonia. I administered his antibiotic via IM in his Left rear leg. That leg immediately buckled. Next day, a visiting goat friend with years of dairy goat experience agreed that Dundee needed a second round of ABX. Instead of further irritating his Left hind leg, the injection was given in the Right rear leg. Well! THAT leg immediately buckled as well, paralyzing my poor li'l Dundee!!!

I kept a close watch on him daily. Soon as his appetite returned, I knew he'd beaten the pneumonia, but he was literally DRAGGING himself around on the ground. Gawd! I felt just AWFUL! One night, he couldn't drag himself into the shelter. He lay in the damp, chill grass, looking pitiful.

I'm lame in my Left foot (Drop Foot Syndrome), but I swore that little guy would NOT spend a wet, chilly night without shelter. I managed to pick him up (he's in rutt, too!) and carried him to the calf hutch shelter. I placed him on his chest and covered him with loose hay. He was fine next morning, but still paralyzed in his rear legs.

Over several days he slowly began to regain the use of his rear legs. Finally, one day, the Left had straightened out & was fully functional. HOORAY! 2 days later, the Right was also operating normally. HUGE SIGH OF RELIEF!!!!! When he nosed his pen mate's rear end (a doe), I knew he was fully fit & functional!

Does anyone have a link to a pictorial of Goat Nerve Anatomy? I've searched for hours, and can't find this. I'd like to avoid this problem in future!

[where I want to]

Only the old rusty trusty "where to give a goat a shot" chart which I'm sure you have seen a million times.
What a horror. I'm so glad he is recovering. I hope you are too.

[nehimama]

Originally Posted by where I want to

Only the old rusty trusty "where to give a goat a shot" chart which I'm sure you have seen a million times.
What a horror. I'm so glad he is recovering. I hope you are too.

Does anyone have a link to that? Thanks!

[where I want to]

Took me awhile to find it- I had an old chart from my first goat breeder.

http://theikga.org/how_to_give_injection.html

[nehimama]

AH! Thank You!

How To Give An Injection

There are two kinds of injections -
a subcutaneous (SUB Q) injection (under the skin) and an intramuscular (IM) injection (in the muscle).
To give a SUB Q injection, you pinch and pull up a small piece of skin making a "tent". Use a 1/2" needle to avoid going in one side of the tent and out the other. Inject the medicine or vaccine.
To give an IM injection you place the needle directly into the large muscle in the lower hip (primary site) or the shoulder (secondary site). Again, use a 1/2" needle. To make sure you are in the muscle instead of blood vessel you may want to pull back on the needle plunger a tiny bit to see if you can see any blood in the syringe. If you do, then select another site.

[Pony]

Glad your fella is up and operational, Nehimama!!

Thanks for sharing the chart.

[dozedotz]

Yes, thanks for the chart! I had never seen it. Mac administers shots here and he is forever fearing he is going to hit the nerve!! Emily (I'm quoting what I THINK she said, so if it is wrong, NOT her fault!) that the only time you absolutely have to give the injection IM is with hormone shots. Needless to say, he always does SQ! Anyway, I marked this chart for future reference. Glad your boy is ok...and you, too!! lol

[nehimama]

Yup! I do believe I'll go the SQ route here from now on!!!

[Ford Zoo]

I don't recall where I found the info I use for Im injections in the hind leg, But this is what I do (forgive my lack of goat anatomical terms): Area for injection is the upper third of the hind leg, where the muscle is largest. Palpate the back of the upper leg bone then draw a vertical line between the bone and the back of the leg muscle. There is a nerve that runs down the back of the leg along that vertical line. Inject halfway between this vertical nerve line and the back of the muscle, making sure you insert the needle perpendicular into the muscle (towards the middle of the animal, not towards the middle of the leg-aiming that way could still hit the nerve).

Hope that makes sense. It has always worked when I needed to give IM's to the goats.

[Backfourty,MI.]

I'm so glad Dundee is back to his normal little self but how scary for both of you!

[where I want to]

On the SQ part of the chart, it does not mention the loose fold of skin on the barrel behind the elbow. Since Tim is now towards the end of three months of weekly shots, I have started using that too and it works well.

[Frosted Mini's]

I give SQ injections over the ribs, so that if they get an abscess, it won't be possibly confused with a potential CL abscess.

I do IM injections in the rear part of the rear leg, caudal to the sciatic nerve (semimembranosis/semitendinosis muscles). The needle in that case is angled toward the goat's rear end a little bit. IM injections can also go in the dorsal lumbar muscles (loin), but I guess you wouldn't want to do that with a potential meat animal, and the tricep in the front leg (back side upper leg, opposite side of leg than biceps (muscle people like to flex to show off)). You can give injections in the neck muscles too, but dairy goats at least, don't really have much there.