Genevieve update...

wintrrwolf · #1 11/08/14, 06:41 PM

I sorta messed up in that I did not weigh Geni when we first got her home on the 25th of Oct.

I first weighed her Wed Nov 5 she weighed 28 pounds.
Her treatment has been constant as follows:
1. 2ml shot SQ of B complex twice a day am/pm
2. 1 200mg pill of slow release iron pill (I take the same thing everyday)
3. as much hay (mix of grasses, timothy, lespedeza, and clover) she can eat
4. 1/4 quarter cup dairy goat ration top dressed with 5g of probiotic am/pm
I did do a fecal on her that Sunday and found barberpole, not a whole lot though. Dosed with quest. 10 day later ran a fecal no eggs found dosed with quest again. Also have been dosing with replamin plus once a week.
Her eyelids/famacha has become borderline pink so she is midway!
She is still moving around on her front knees, I can stand her up wrap my hands around her knees and she will stand for a bit but soon as I let go she goes down to her knees again, she browses this way.
Today I am happy to report she weighs 33 lbs which means she gained 5 lbs in 3 days!!

Any suggestions to help her to walk normal?

Waiting Falcon · #2 11/09/14, 07:56 PM

How much water is she drinking? If she were dehydrated it may take awhile and if you have Ringers that might get her going faster.
Does she have access to salt?
Sounds like you are doing very well with her, that is a good gain......

msscamp · #3 11/09/14, 08:16 PM

I am not familiar with Genevieve's story, could you direct me to your original thread or fill me in, please?

Clovers_Clan · #4 11/10/14, 06:06 AM

Suggestions? Keep up the good work!!! She will stand again when she starts getting her energy back and is less anemic. Keep encouraging her though so the muscles don't atrophy.

Pony · #5 11/10/14, 11:43 AM

Keep it up, Wintrrwolf! You're doing great!

I'd make sure I got her up (as others have suggested) to prevent further atrophy of those muscles.

Hmm... Is she motivated by anything at this point? If you can identify something that will encourage her to move, you can try placing it just out of her reach, so she has to work her way toward it.

wintrrwolf · #6 11/10/14, 06:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by msscamp

I am not familiar with Genevieve's story, could you direct me to your original thread or fill me in, please?

I adopted Geni from an HT friend that has a larger number of goats then I do. Genevieve unfortunately was a low goat on the totem and got pushed away from the feed too much, plus friend had moved from one state to another so the change in browse didn't help and Geni came down with goat polio.

wintrrwolf · #7 11/10/14, 06:55 PM

She does intake loose minerals, and absolutely loves her water with the apple cider vinegar in it.
She LOVES the dairy ration so I need to figure out how to put it higher so she has to stand I tried one way and she put her chin on it and almost stood completely then the darn bowl fell off grrrr.

msscamp · #8 11/10/14, 10:51 PM

Thank you for filling me in, wintrrwolf! Can you get alfalfa? If so, I would transition her over to a good - not great, just good - fine stemmed, leafy alfalfa hay - 3rd cutting should work very nicely. It is better than 1st or 2nd, but not nearly as hot as 4th or 5th. I know my kids will eat alfalfa a lot better than they will eat grass or even grass/alfalfa mix. I also know that kids do better on straight alfalfa than they do on grass or even grass/clover/lespedeza mixes. I say good instead of great because, until she has her strength back and can stand and run around, you run the risk of bloat with very good/excellent alfalfa hay. What percentage protein does your dairy goat feed carry? I would also consider swapping out the B Complex for a Fortified B Complex because it contains more Thiamine. Something else to consider is giving her Probios paste instead of top dressing her feed with probiotics in case of palatability issues. It is usually recommended to treat a goat for both polio and listeriosis because it is difficult to tell them apart - have you tried Dexemethasone for possible inflammation? You might want to consider talking to your vet about that. I wish you and Geni the very best, and I hope this helps!

As far as putting her feeder higher - I don't know what you are currently using, but could you put a short 2X4 or a 1X2 between it and the fence to provide more stabilization? Push comes to shove, drill a couple of holes and wire the piece of wood to the back of the feeder.

wintrrwolf · #9 11/29/14, 09:48 AM

Quick update.
Alfalfa is a bit hard to get here so I got a bag of premium alfalfa chops which I mix with her grain. After a week she only gained 1 pound. Have added a calcium, mag, zinc vitamin along with the iron and B complex to her daily diet.
Yesterday I devised a sling for her and she spent about 4 hours in it then I took her out of it for the night, this morning I put her grain in the bin I had raised up higher and she got her self up to it, I put her back in sling for couple of hours and took her out just now and she is standing on her own, not walking on all 4 hooves yet.
And no am not going to take a pic of the sling it is embarrassingly silly