Lost one to UC+ ?

[Nancy_in_GA]

Lost my first goat yesterday---a 1.5yo Saanen wether.

Sunday night he dragged in wobbly, uncoordinated, unable to chew and swallow, sunken eyes, drooling, temp 100.7, went down and we couldn't get him up. Tubed a lot of water, gave a fortified B shot, and he seemed to get better. But by morning he clearly had urinary blockage (no signs of urination all night, then just a series of grunts, it was truly awful).

Because of the holiday I played phone tag with the vet, who was on emergency-only call with no staff. End result he never showed up, but I believe it was too late anyway. Palpitated and squeezed everywhere I could think of. Didn't have any muscle relaxer. Came close to giving him a few shots of Jack Daniels, but didn't, couldn't have hurt.

Delivered the goat to the UGA vet school for euthanasia and necropsy.

I've been thinking about this all day long, and wondering if dehydration could have triggered a pre-existing tendency for UC, I don't know. These goats get 1/4c of BOSS per day, and browse---no grain at all. It seems like as soon as I decided to enjoy these goats and quit worrying so much about something awful happening, it did. Don't know if I can take another episode like this.

Nancy

[Goat Freak]

I'm so sorry we lost a little boy, 4 month old Boer Buck named Burt, to urinary calculi and it was jst as you described. He was never very friendly and when he let us pet him we knew something was wrong because he would not get up for anything. We thought he was dehydrated so we gave him lots of water and the next day we found out what was wrong and it was too late, so instead of letting him suffer everyone, including me, told my father to shoot him. I am sorry that this hapend to ya, it really stinks to loss a goat.

[maryanne]

I am so sorry for your loss. I am too wondering constantly about my boer doe that died monday..its just terrible.

[Nancy_in_GA]

This is to update you all on our wether that died on Labor Day.

The necropsy report just came back showing no stones. He had listeria infection in the brain and acute pulmonary edema.

The goat seemed to swell up, and did not urinate for 24 hours, so we assumed it was UC. The swelling was evidently due to build up of fluid around the lungs, and they said an infection in the brain can cause all sorts of unusual symptoms, including an inability to urinate or defecate, or he could have just been dehydrated.

We are almost obsessive about clean living and eating conditions, and the goats get no grain, let alone silage, so we never even thought of listeriosis. Just thankful we had the necropsy done.

I've got some questions now about listeriosis, but will start a new thread as soon as I've had more time to think about this. Wanted to clear things up so you all weren't left with the wrong information.

Sorry about this,
Nancy

[titansrunfarm]

No need for apologies, I'm glad you posted back with an update. Being new to goats I'm always grateful to see posts about illnesses and treatments.