Sick goats?

[Goat Lover 3]

I have two, almost 2 years old female pygmy goats, a 1 year old pygmy buck, and 2 four month old half Myotonic & half pygmy kids. October, 3rd, I brought the two 4 month old kids home. The person I bought the kids from doesn't take care of them! He feeds them corn in the dirt, doesn't trim their hooves, had a buck run with 150 does and 85 of them had kids in 3 days, after that the buck died, etc.

It was time for all of my goats to have their yearly shots again, so October, 5th, my dad and I gave all the goats Ivomec in the mouth (orally) and their yearly shots. About 2 hours after giving the shot and the Ivomec to them, they started acted really sick. They were jerking a lot, not very interested in grazing, and they were also running away from me! We called the vet and she said it sounded like a reaction to the shot or the Ivomec. October, 7th, I took Tilly (one of the 2 year old does) to the vet. The vet said that she had a fever, and gave us one Penicillin shot for each goat. The next day, only 2 goats acted better. The 3 goats that were still not acting right got a stronger antibiotic shot October,10th. They are all acting a lot better today. Except the 2 does are still running away from me? The kids are running too, but they were wild when I got them. The buck is acting better, but not his normal self! Since this has taken so long the vet said that it sounded like a sickness was going threw my herd, that was spread from the kids.

My question is, does it sound like they had pneumonia? And why are they still running from me? Is it because they are afraid I am going to give them another shot?

 

[cassie]

One shot? Unless it is a long lasting type of penicillin, they need about five day's worth. I always give worm medication the route it is supposed to go. If the directions say by injection, I inject it. If they say pour-on, I pour it on. If it says orally, I give it orally. I figure the manufacturer knows how to give their own product. The goats may be leery about getting another shot which is why they are running from you. One way to prevent this behavior from developing is to give a treat right after the injection. That way they forget about the shot and remember the treat.

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

Did you use the right dosage of ivomec? It sounds like maybe some sort of reaction to something you gave them, but it would be difficult to determine what. What were the other shots that you gave? Also, where did you give them?

I would also agree that they need more than just one shot of penicillin for it to be effective.

 

[Goat Lover 3]

The vet is the one who gave us the Penicillin, and Antibiotics. One of the vet's secretaries is the person that gave us the Ivomec. When we took one of the goats to see the vet, she said that it looked like her secretary gave them too much Ivomec! She said that you could give them 10 times as much Ivomec and then it could be fatal (of course she didn't give us that much!). Since the goats were still acting strange the vet said that it sounds like a sickness was going through my herd. Like pneumonia! They are starting to act better now.

Yes, they had one shot.

 

[Goat Lover 3]

I held the goats while my dad gave them the shots. (He used to give pigs shots). He gave the Ivomec in the mouth, the penicillin he gave to them in the muscle, at the bottom of part of the neck (they cried when they got this shot), and they got the antibiotic shot the same way he gave the Penicillin (they also cried when got this shot)!

I didn't give them treats after the shots. Good idea though!