A friend who purchased one of my nigerians two years ago had her come down with symptoms that to me sound like classic listeriosis or polio. Stargazing, going in circles, falling down, leaning to one side, cranking her head over her shoulder, temp of 106. She started treating with Procaine Pen and Vit B injectable plus banamine. She tried to get her vet but the vet was booked up for two days. So when the vet finally got out she laid into my friend, reducing her to tears (and my friend had the flu and had just endured a 3 hour dental procedure!) saying she never should have treated this on her own. (So what was she supposed to do - nothing while her goat was seriously ill?) The vet thinks it is a middle ear infection and not listeriosis since the 7th cranial nerve is not involved. She gave her four syringes to give to the goat, one every third day. The doe is only drinking a bit of water, a little hay and some small amount of grain. My friend is also giving her Nutridrench. What is in the syringe and what do you think of this whole episode? What would you recommend to try and get her to eat? I don't think the goat should be on too much grain at this point. This has been going on for about four days btw.
She gave her four syringes to give to the goat, one every third day. ............................ Well first lets ream the vet a little, there isn't an antibitotic that will keep it's bloodlevel up in the goats quick metabolism, when given it every 24 hours let alone 36! A got with a temp like this needs meds every 12 hours. If the diagnosis is inner ear infection fine, use the meds (find out for us what they are so we can give her a better idea of how to use them) but also give mega doses of B1. In fact this all sounds very much like polio (poliomilitisencephalitis) along with all the wonderful information the vet gave her :no: I would start her on B1. She can use any B complex she can fine at the feed store giving the dosage for the B1/thiamin only, much harder on the goats liver than purchasing plain B1 from the vet. So have her give the doe 15cc which is 3 times the amount you have to give if you get the vet script, subq, and every 6 hours. If she sees improvement, do not stop giving it. A doe with a sluggish rumen (did she get more grain than she is used to recently, moldy hay doesn't only cause listerosis but can harm the flora of the rumen) and especially if you see she is not chewing her cud, is not producing vitamin B1 in her system. Hence no appetite, it would be like you eating even though you know you are going to throw up. She can't chew or ruminate her food, so why eat. Do not let this doe get dehydrated, make the vet give her lactated ringers, and IV set up is soo convienent to keep around, not for giving in the vien, but for putting under the skin, making large handful size mounds of fluid up high over the shoulder, the doe can then drink some, but also absorb this fluid if she needs it. With kidding season coming I hope everyone gets these to put in their kidding kits. You can also purchase lactated ringers you syringe up yourself, just goggle a search, I get mine from pipevet.com since they are not just a supply catalog but a vet clinic. If after the 3rd shot she is not seeing improvement, than go down to the bottle dosage, since it is not polio, the vet was correct, but she still needs the B1. I would also go get a couple of tubes of Probios, give her 5 grams everytime you give her shots of anything. When a doe is down like this I also put them on a sulfa, since cocci is such and opportunistic problem down here, she will also need to be wormed when this is over. Good luck with the doe. Vicki Edited to add: Just curious how much pennicillin she was giving? Any 300,000 unit pen is given at 3cc per 50 pounds subq, twice a day if she is running fever, down to once a day once getting better, 5 to 7 days, sometimes as high as 10 days. With amoxicillin being the number one drug of choice for doc's with kids ear infections back when my kids where growing up, would have thought a correct dosage of pennicillin would have nipped this in the bud, if it is inner ear. Just curious. Vicki
I think the vet needs to get a better attitude. He had no business chewing her out especially when he couldn't find time to work her into his busy schedule. Besides, I don't see that antibiotics would hurt anything anyway. Smart elic. We homesteaders are not vets and we do not have their "book knowledge", but sometimes we just gotta do what we gotta do. I hope the goat(and the owner) gets better soon.
I sure hope the goat is better, and i would like to know what he gave her to give every three days, and I would look for another vetBut you know I am a smart mouth, so I would have come back with, look stupid, I called you were tobusy,, so waht did you want me to do, let the goat die? see I am just a big mouth some times,, but I think it is polio. Do as Vicki said, I think that is the best course to take. some vets don't know a thing about goats. trust me on that one debi.
Is this the lactated ringer you buy, Vicki? http://pipevet.com/pharm.asp?cat=12 Do you just pull it out into a regular syringe, or use the IV set? Tracy
Well Treat her like she is a queen then, with a little bit at a time feed her favorite healthy treat. My freinds goat acted similary thrownen her head back and doing all kinds of stuff, well this particular goat was a major drama queen as you might say, any way she wouldnt eat while my friend was home she wouldnt even drink or so we thought. One day her husband took her car to the shop so she satyed home, he then cam back and took his car, well she noticed that the goat was acting normal so when she would normally come home, she went out and the goat was acting funny again, no one knows to this day why she was doing it. I am not saying that she isnt acting funny for a dumb reason i just wanted to tell you what happened to my friend in the similar experince lyn
Yes Tracy that is what I use. I had forgotten the warming part In kids it's eaiser to use the IV setup, but use it under the skin. You can get the big ole bottle and just syringe it under the skin also. Simply make a handful size mound, give more when it is almost absorbed, switching sides. I don't use Nufour, but you could look it up in the saanendoah.com med info on the chamiosee site, in the FAQ section. Vicki
