OF COURSE: ask the vet, there are several diseases that give a person or a goat for instance the smell of maple syrup...goats when they are preeclampsia (before giving birth its like milk fever but not, it has to do with ketones int he blood, actually the smell is more like aceton but since smelling acetone is a genetic thing (not everyone can smell aceton, i had a vet who cant, so i would sniff urine and the exhalations of a sick mother goat)..and this disease in humans:
The disease is named for the presence of sweet-smelling urine, with an odor similar to that of
maple syrup. The smell is also present and sometimes stronger in the
ear wax of an affected individual. Prior to the easy availability of plasma
amino acid measurement, diagnosis was commonly made based on suggestive symptoms and odor. Affected individuals are now often identified with characteristic elevations on plasma amino acids who do not have the characteristic odor.
[5] The compound responsible for the odor is
sotolon (sometimes spelled sotolone).
[6] Infants with this disease seem healthy at birth but if left untreated suffer severe
brain damage and eventually die.
From early infancy, symptoms of the condition include poor feeding,
vomiting,
dehydration,
lethargy,
hypotonia,
seizures,
hypoglycaemia,
ketoacidosis,
opisthotonus,
pancreatitis,
coma and neurological decline.
if u have the money and time (or vets who want to give free services for research, maybe u should try checking her pee over the course of a month, or blood titers... yes, animals, like people, can sense before they have, a siezure. that is why some dogs and pigs btw can be used as epilepsy dogs for certain people. btw, i have a dog who has minor nondebilitating siezures whne he gets very upset (he's fear biter/aggressor to white tall males,so when he attacks, he immediately also has an attack but manages always to get to his bed first. his jaw chatters, and he gets spaced out for a few minutes and then shakes it off) or when there is a female in heat and he has sniffed her....
intriguing i must say... could be changes in something chemical that is triggering her attacks... proteins? sugars? (yp like tea cup puppy dog hyporglycemia) ; the pre eclampsia type thing in goats also has to do with amounts of nutrition vx amount the goat is managing to eat, and happens when they have twins/triplets, its diffferent then the human type with females and highblood pressure etc.
i suspect u need a vet that is speicalizing in endocrinology or swine, together with neurologist (probably major expense but could be a good research project.some vets just like to solve problems , especially if they mostly have run of the mill doggy/cat problems. i worked here in israel that was such a person. a large animal vet with very few large animals (here people with large animals dont use vets too much), and liked to ask one question: hmmmm , now why is that?
good luck
