Experiences with adult goats eating plastic bags?

[Nancy_in_GA]

Here we go again with these Saanen wethers. (I just posted about cuts and scrapes).

Could anyone please share their experiences---good or bad---with adult goats eating plastic bags?

Three days ago we think one of these 1.5 yo wethers ate about 3 one-gallon size plastic food bags. Can we assume any danger from this has passed by now, or could the bags get lodged somewhere and cause a blockage that would show up 3 days later? He is just not acting right today, and this is the only thing that we can think of.

Thanks,
Nancy

[Ryou-Sama2]

My best friend's family has raised goats for about their entire lives and one of them ate some plastic from a bag of bedding at a show. We caught him doing so and we gave him a tiny bit of mineral oil every few hours and it just passed naturally. I'm not sure how long things can stay in their systems, though. Has he been going to the bathroom since then?

[Nancy_in_GA]

When the goats came back from browsing yesterday morning this one looked really thin---ribs sticking out, sides sunken in behind ribs, drooping and dragging way behind the rest, no cud chewing---nothing to chew.

His temp was 102.5, no cough, no runny nose, feet and hooves OK. Did a fecal last night, and it's not worms or coccidia. He did have one of those gashes right behind his front leg, but it is clean, dry, and scabbed over nicely.

I gave him a big dose of Probios (vet said it can't hurt), tried some Gatorade without much success, carried him a large bunch of good browse (poplar, sumac, sweet gum) and he gobbled them up. Added some alfalfa pellets, with just a dash of oats and sunflower seeds. Awhile after that he started chewing cud, so I think that is a good sign. Pooping and peeing was fine.

Today he is doing much better. I would just like to figure out what caused this little episode, so I know what to do if it happens again. And the only thing I could think of was the plastic bags. Actually I'm not even positive he ate them, I just know they are missing.

Thanks for asking. This is probably more than you wanted to know.
Nancy