Goat toxicity

[Mrichard0930]

Hello I’m new to goats it’s been two months and I’ve already dealt with lice but now I have a much bigger problem. I’m awful with plant indentifying hut apparently we have a rhododendron and my goats free range mainly eating briars all day but the one guy must’ve eaten something he shouldn’t have possibly the rhododendron (which I’m in middle of getting rid of cause I hate it anyway). I just got back from a vet after taking George when I came out this morning to greenish brown throw up everywhere in barn and he was staggering walking. The vet gave him IV fluid and antibiotic. He’s so much better now pooping normal his temp wasn’t too bad the vet said and he’s had normal poo the whole time. He just ate grass hay and drank water. I’m just now starting to google and get crazy seeing videos of goats dying the next day or even two days later. I’m trying to do anything I can to help keep him alive is there any more things that people found effective. I’m seeing an overwhelming amount of remedies and quite frankly I’m not pin pointing one and afraid to try most such one being beer. Most are remedies like charcoal which isn’t helpful at this point since it’s going on 24 hours since he ate something wrong. Any advice would be appreciated. I hope owning goats gets easier

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Free choice baking soda can help keep the rumen from getting too acid. I always have a dish available to mine.

 

[Mrichard0930]

Thank you- yes I always have that avaialable and I made sure to restock it after I cleaned whole pen out

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Hopefully he does okay than. Goats tend to take small bites of stuff and move along, so poisoning is said to be rare, but not all goats listen. Give him hay. It will help.

 

[MGG]

Hello I’m new to goats it’s been two months and I’ve already dealt with lice but now I have a much bigger problem. I’m awful with plant indentifying hut apparently we have a rhododendron and my goats free range mainly eating briars all day but the one guy must’ve eaten something he shouldn’t have possibly the rhododendron (which I’m in middle of getting rid of cause I hate it anyway). I just got back from a vet after taking George when I came out this morning to greenish brown throw up everywhere in barn and he was staggering walking. The vet gave him IV fluid and antibiotic. He’s so much better now pooping normal his temp wasn’t too bad the vet said and he’s had normal poo the whole time. He just ate grass hay and drank water. I’m just now starting to google and get crazy seeing videos of goats dying the next day or even two days later. I’m trying to do anything I can to help keep him alive is there any more things that people found effective. I’m seeing an overwhelming amount of remedies and quite frankly I’m not pin pointing one and afraid to try most such one being beer. Most are remedies like charcoal which isn’t helpful at this point since it’s going on 24 hours since he ate something wrong. Any advice would be appreciated. I hope owning goats gets easier

Sorry about your goat! @cassie any suggestions?

 

[littledog]

Kudos to you, for taking him to the vet right away and researching other remedies later, instead of putting all your trust in Dr. Google. I hope George continues to improve and regains his health with no ill-effects.
I bet owning goats will get easier for you, since you obviously did your research beforehand (eg. baking soda.)

 

[Mrichard0930]

Thanks ! yeah I immediately started calling vets because I’ve only lived here 4 years and not so sure of vets etc. I did google for a few mins while waiting to leave for our appt and thought no way can I handle all this overwhelming amount of info right now. I’m so glad we were able to not only find one but they gave us an appt hour and half away which it was hour drive anyway so we moved fairly quickly. I have someone coming today to tear out the rhododendrons and two other plants the prior owner had all in the garden bed that I have no idea what they are not being a flower person I have no clue but I found a way to google picture and see if something is poisonous I don’t want anything in our yard that is. Because even stopping them from free ranging I walked them from our deck to the barn and George literally went to take another bite of rhododendron - I now understand goats and they really do need watched more than I thought

 

[cassie]

As for goat keeping getting easier, a wise old vet once told me that the difference between sheep and goats is that sheep blunder into trouble but goats seek it out.

 

[Mrichard0930]

Lol good to know thanks !!

 

[Hardknockshomestead]

Hello I’m new to goats it’s been two months and I’ve already dealt with lice but now I have a much bigger problem. I’m awful with plant indentifying hut apparently we have a rhododendron and my goats free range mainly eating briars all day but the one guy must’ve eaten something he shouldn’t have possibly the rhododendron (which I’m in middle of getting rid of cause I hate it anyway). I just got back from a vet after taking George when I came out this morning to greenish brown throw up everywhere in barn and he was staggering walking. The vet gave him IV fluid and antibiotic. He’s so much better now pooping normal his temp wasn’t too bad the vet said and he’s had normal poo the whole time. He just ate grass hay and drank water. I’m just now starting to google and get crazy seeing videos of goats dying the next day or even two days later. I’m trying to do anything I can to help keep him alive is there any more things that people found effective. I’m seeing an overwhelming amount of remedies and quite frankly I’m not pin pointing one and afraid to try most such one being beer. Most are remedies like charcoal which isn’t helpful at this point since it’s going on 24 hours since he ate something wrong. Any advice would be appreciated. I hope owning goats gets easier

Oh my heart goes out to you. It's so scary when an animal gets sick or injured!
I don't have any advice for you except to second the advice given about baking soda being good for goats.
I wish you the best of luck!