Pineapple and Goats..........?

[farmmaid]

I sold a doe and her yearling doeling (Nubian)to a first time goat couple. The yearling was held over to breed for the first time this fall. They had the goats 6 weeks and I have visited several times and they looked great. Got a call today that the yearling had very runny stools, standing around and growning. Her mom had soft stools and a little "off". I went to see and the yearling was in distress. I gave her some bloat meds, baking soda and NutriDrench. I checked the eyelids and they were pink. I stayed for about an hour and the doeling laid back down with her head up, legs under her and not growning. I got a call 1 1/2 hours later that she was dead. I went back up to check the doe and she was back to her normal self.

I asked if anything different was introduced. Come to find out their visiting niece gave the chickens some leftover pineapple.....the goats also have access to that area. The timeline from throwing the pineapple over the fence to the death was 26 hours. Could the doeling got cut internally from the pineapple "spines" on the outside of the pineapple? She said the niece also through over some watermelon. Any thoughts...........?

[Alice In TX/MO]

Any abrupt change can trigger enterotoxemia. The pineapple killed them.

[mrs whodunit]

We feed all our pineapple scraps to our goats..... havent had any issues from that.

[mygoat]

Fruit has a lot of rapidly digestible sugars in it. It depends on how much was fed (or who hogged it all) and how used to it they are.

Hmmm. It would be nearly impossible to definitively prove that eating pineapple caused any harm. Mine sporadically get pineapple with no ill effects. They also eat many other natural fruits and vegetables with no problems.

Instead I would see what was done in the week leading up to the symptoms.

Were they vaccinated? If so, shouldn't that have prevented possible Entero? I know there are many different Clostridium strains...but.

If vaccinated, with what and when?
Recently dewormed? With what and when?
What feed? Grain?
Ask about anything management wise they did during the last week. Including hoof trimming, anything they may have drenched them with, anything in the last week.

Goats will mouth many things. Possible she accessed chicken feed or anything else? I ask because I know of some that fed pet wethers straight cracked corn. The wethers never had a good outcome.

Of course something definitely happened, but I highly doubt it was pineapple or watermelon.

I'm interested in what you find out on the week leading up to both does becoming ill at the same time.

[mygoat]

Originally Posted by Davstep

Hmmm. It would be nearly impossible to definitively prove that eating pineapple caused any harm. Mine sporadically get pineapple with no ill effects. They also eat many other natural fruits and vegetables with no problems.

Instead I would see what was done in the week leading up to the symptoms.

Were they vaccinated? If so, shouldn't that have prevented possible Entero? I know there are many different Clostridium strains...but.

If vaccinated, with what and when?
Recently dewormed? With what and when?
What feed? Grain?
Ask about anything management wise they did during the last week. Including hoof trimming, anything they may have drenched them with, anything in the last week.

Goats will mouth many things. Possible she accessed chicken feed or anything else? I ask because I know of some that fed pet wethers straight cracked corn. The wethers never had a good outcome.

Of course something definitely happened, but I highly doubt it was pineapple or watermelon.

I'm interested in what you find out on the week leading up to both does becoming ill at the same time.

As far as the vaccine, entero is by far a management disease. That being said, the vaccine helps protect to some degree and gives a 'cushion' for events like this, where the gut environment may have changed rapidly.

[farmmaid]

Thanks to all who replied. I checked the doe this morning and she seems back to normal....eating her hay, no grain today. I have seen them many times since I sold them and the couple were taking excellant care, doing everything right. The goats were/are up to date on CD/T, worming.... all was GREAT until the pineapple.
I believe it was an accident on the part of the niece as they only fed grain, hay and minerals...no scraps.

Accidents are hard to accept sometimes, we ALL have been through freak situations....BIG learning curve, I feel soooo bad for them!

I'm sorry they lost one of their goats. For the sake of the niece, I hope they explore the other items I mentioned above. Not sure if their niece is a child or not, but it would be horrible if they were to impose that she killed their goat by simply feeding them some pineapple and/or watermelon.

My thoughts would be on something other than the fruit. Hope they will find a companion for their doe.

Best wishes.