Sick Goat - hoping someone's dealt with this before...

[Bleenie]

Bought a little Nigerian Dwarf doe today and when we got her home we found what my sister thought was an abscess on her jaw/face. When they got her situated on a table i finally looked at it and thankfully it wasn't a cheezy abscess, BUT... it was FULL of hay slivers and what looked like wheat grains.

We scraped the top off with a razor knife and started picking out all the hay stems and grains. got about half a dixie cup full of crap out. I assumed she had a hole(somehow) in her mouth and food was being pushed through. So I made my sister call the vet to find out what to do. I knew this kind of thing happened with horses but was suprised to hear the vet had never seen this in a goat in all his years! He gave us dosage and schedule for Pinnicillin and told us to get it cleaned out as best we could and call on Monday with an update.

For such a small goat ti took 3 people to hold her while i opened her mouth and cleaned out inside(was GROSS). She seemed to enjoy my trying to flush it though. After that i picked out more stems and junk and finally flushed it to get any tidbits out. We gave her the pinnicillin and put some iodine on the hole and put her to bed. Her legs seem really sore after the injections(had to do 2), but I think it'll get better once the medicine 'distributes'.

I am REALLY hoping someone else has experience with this kind of 'injury'. If so I would really appreciate any guidance or input.

 

[Wayne&Kim1963]

I have never had that kind of injury in a goat but have had many goats have reaction to penicillin injections. All goat injections should be given in the neck not leg. I usually use tylan 50 and oxytetracycline. If the hole doesn't go shut is anyone considering sewing it shut? Just a thought. I am not a vet but raise alot of goats. Right now we have 75 head and I have never seen that before either.

 

[Bleenie]

When she told the Vet what the problem was the first thing he said was "hmm, i'd really like to see that". I am guessing the person that brought her to the auction assumed she had CL or just didn't wanna deal with it.

The vet didn't suggest closing it up because we weren't sure we got all the junk out of it and her whole jaw on that side is swollen hard and abscessed a little above the main hole as well. I think he's hoping it'll work it's way down & out now that it's open and we got the big, hard stuff out of the way. If she's not healing up any by Monday he wants to see her in.

I have to give her 2 more doses of pinnicillin tomorrow so I will remember to give them in the neck, is there any specific area of the neck that they do better with? She looked pretty uncomfortable tonight so I picked her up and moved her to the house in her pen and she settled right down.

She got a couple bites of chicken feed before I moved the feeder up but we didn't put any feed in with her tonight, I thoguth it would be easier on her jaw/chewing if we just got some grain tomorrow, though I am not exactly sure what kind to feed her. She's a little skinny-feeling and in need of a worming I think. She also seems to be an older girl, she has one full horn and the other is broken off.

We have named her Ms. Pepperpot, she's that salt 'n pepper color and is kinda pot-bellied right now(worms I suppose). I will get a picture up tomorrow.

 

[Fancychooklady]

I have 30 angora goats and 4 boer . One of the boer had a bad infection in his eye . He was a real bugger to treat, but just when we got that cleared up he developed a large cyst in the side of his throat , we gave him sodium ascorbate diluted with water in a syringe orally. The cyst has since burst and looks fine. A word of caution; it is recommended to have adrenalin on hand when giving goats injections as they are prone to go into shock. Flints oil will stop it getting flyblown but best to let it drain. Look up cheesy gland , Caseus lymphadenitis. Hope this has helped.

 

[Bleenie]

We put iodine on the open wound but didnt cover it so it could drain. I thought maybe CL when she said it had an abcess but then we found the hay stems inside of it, in just the direction they would have been at if they got pushed through her mouth. I am not sure where to get sodium ascorbate but i know people around here use DMSO for goats but not sure what it treats or helps with. All i know about it is that it helped reduce swelling in an abcessed hock on a calf i 'rehabbed' a while back.

I am planning on calling a friend tomorrow that knows more about goats than i do and see what she has to say as well.

 

[Wayne&Kim1963]

I usually find it hurts a goat less if given under the skin right after the shoulder going up the neck and not high in neck, so it is base of neck right before the shoulder bone under skin. They say not to give meds IM to goats because more likely to have reaction and rate they obsorb medications. http://www.goatworld.com/articles/shots-injections_gwmf.shtml I just found this on quick search hope it helps.

 

[Bleenie]

She seems to be doing good with the injections so far but we did just give her her night time one under the skin on her neck like you suggested. It shouldn't bother her much that way. Both holes on her face were draining today so we cleaned them up each time we checked on her so they didn't crust up. She did run from us tonight and ate about 1 cup of grain and the water bucket was lower so she seems to be feeling better. I am going to check inside of her mouth tomorrow and see how that looks. when we first cleaned it out it was caked with gooey green/brown food that smelled AWFUL. as mean as it sounds I did poke around after i got it flushed out with water and i do think it has closed up between the mouth and the hole on her face. So I am hoping the antibiotics knock out the infection so it can heal the rest of the way.

I never realized how bizarre goats mouths were until yesterday... the little 'fingers' in her mouth were really just weird looking

!

 

[Extra Java]

If you are administering antibiotics make sure to give probios as the gut flora will need rebuilding.
Very important for a goat's rumen.