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Sick 6 month old buck

2K views 59 replies 12 participants last post by  happybleats 
#1 ·
If you’ve seen my other post about my 9 month old buck, this 6 month old buck started have diarrhea the same day as him. I’ve treated both with the same meds and the 6 month olds diarrhea cleared up, but the day the stool started to firm up I found the 6 month old laying on his side and once he heard me he started screaming. I set him back on his feet and he went back to normal. I moved him into a 4x4 stall and when I went out the next morning he couldn’t stand on his own. So I’ve been standing him up and making him walk and stretching his legs. He’s seemed to be doing good with this but I noticed swelling under his left leg yesterday. The swelling has slowly went down and was almost gone this morning but the he started having log shaped poop and was open mouth breathing, so I took his temp and it was 106.4. He was laying out in the sun so I moved him into the barn and gave 400mls of SQ fluids, banamine, and placed ice packs under his armpits. After an hour it dropped to 103.1 and after 2 hours it was at 101.6. But now the swelling has moved to his right front armpit and shoulder and is bigger than it was on the left front armpit.
He is anemic like the 9 month old buck, so I’m giving red cell, vitamin B Complex, power punch and I have added grain, alfalfa pellets and beet pulp to his diet.
 
#3 ·
For both of them take away any food other than hay for now. Water. You can try some warm molasses water to get them to drink more. Just a small glug in a two gallon bucket. Power punch os good too but the other two are a tad cheaper to use. Is why i suggested them. But keep a clean water out for them too. They may like gatorade too.

Have fecals done on both... if you are doing them yourself i would send off some just to have a second look by someone that does them every day just to be sure my results were the same as someone elses.... unless you have been doing them for years and years. I would also probably ask for a bacteria culture as well to rule out that for the scouring.

Have you checked for bites... snake or spider bites on this one? All up and down the leg and hip and belly. You may even need shave him where the swelling it. If you cannot see for his woolies.

Was this one’s dam tested for cae? Six months is just the threshold for a reliable result for this. You do not usually see cae present this way but it is just a thought since it seems to be by joints. Has he gotten caught up in anything or been hit hard in the last few days? Is the area tender, hard or hot? Is he letting you touch it and push kinda deep without crying out?

Truly if it were me i would have the vet out since they have both been scouring this long. And gone anemic so quickly. Then the leg on this one.
 
#4 ·
For both of them take away any food other than hay for now. Water. You can try some warm molasses water to get them to drink more. Just a small glug in a two gallon bucket. Power punch os good too but the other two are a tad cheaper to use. Is why i suggested them. But keep a clean water out for them too. They may like gatorade too.

Have fecals done on both... if you are doing them yourself i would send off some just to have a second look by someone that does them every day just to be sure my results were the same as someone elses.... unless you have been doing them for years and years. I would also probably ask for a bacteria culture as well to rule out that for the scouring.

Have you checked for bites... snake or spider bites on this one? All up and down the leg and hip and belly. You may even need shave him where the swelling it. If you cannot see for his woolies.

Was this one's dam tested for cae? Six months is just the threshold for a reliable result for this. You do not usually see cae present this way but it is just a thought since it seems to be by joints. Has he gotten caught up in anything or been hit hard in the last few days? Is the area tender, hard or hot? Is he letting you touch it and push kinda deep without crying out?

Truly if it were me i would have the vet out since they have both been scouring this long. And gone anemic so quickly. Then the leg on this one.
I went ahead and pulled food from the 9 month old. I have been doing fecals for about two years now and run fecals on about 20 goats every month. Both bucks have negative fecals and I did fecals on them twice. Both are from disease tested herds, so parents are negative for CAE. On the 6 month old I felt all over the other day and couldn't find any sores or wounds. These two were in a pasture alone when diarrhea started. I can press and rub all over the front legs and the 6 month old doesn't seem painful but if he falls on his front legs he starts crying.
 
#7 ·
I'd also really check his feet maybe a puncture wound is progressing to tetanus with the swelling but a bite also sounds likely. As a precaution I'd give tetanus anti toxin just in case. Maybe even some dex.
But, I'd definitely get involved at this point. Sooner the better.
Do you know what the dosage for dex is?
 
#8 ·
I’d like to know how his body is falling. Is he wobbly, or is he stiff?

Questions are for neurological issues, something like listeriosis.

Possible tetanus.

If he’s anemic, when they get severe, they tend to fall over.

Start on garlic ASAP.

How are his lung sounds?

Might do a quick Benadryl dose in case he got a bite or string to cause swelling.
 
#10 ·
I'd like to know how his body is falling. Is he wobbly, or is he stiff?

Questions are for neurological issues, something like listeriosis.

Possible tetanus.

If he's anemic, when they get severe, they tend to fall over.

Start on garlic ASAP.

How are his lung sounds?

Might do a quick Benadryl dose in case he got a bite or string to cause swelling.
He's front legs are real weak and I think because of the swelling it's hard to move them and loses balance so it's more wobbly. His back feet he can bend and move great and there is no swelling in them.
 
#9 ·
I don't have my book handy so you'd better double check The doses because it's dangerous stuff
1/2-1cc per 20 Lbs but you need to do decreasing doses. For example
Day 1 for a 100lb goat 5cc's
Day 2 4cc's
Day3--3cc's
Till it's down to 1 cc then none
Check dosage with these ladies...Or your vet.
@Jessica84 @Moers kiko boars @toth boer goats @happybleats @Sfgwife
 
#16 ·
Do you have a vet you can call in the morning? You can give a Banamine shot tonight but he needs someone physically looking at him.
I gave him banamine about 6 hours ago when he had the fever. The weather has been normal here, except for the two recents hurricanes causing excess rain but that only lasted about 24-48 hours. Their pasture is cut short about every 2-3 weeks to keep weeds from growing.

Have you had excessive drought or rain? Do you know what is in your fields?
 
#15 ·
That looks pretty serious. He really does need a vet asap. Poor little guy. I hope he feels better soon!
Just a thought but when a snake bites the legs the swelling moves towards the heart and that kind of looks like what's going on. It's really too hard to guess from the pics though...I'd add in Benadryl as a precaution too.
 
#23 ·
I have had two goats get snake bite last summer..first time in 15 years. You may need to shave the area to see puncture. If the snake did a dry bite some venom may have still penatrated enough to cause swelling and pain. Hes a little guy so a full on bite would have killed him. I lost my small buck but my adult Doe was fine. You just never know. Just in case, tonight I would give Dex ( 1 cc per 20# IM) and Benedryl (I would give 10-15 cc) and a Penicillin (1 cc per 20# Sub Q). I would do cool not cold compresses on the swelling. Then get him to the vet asap tomorrow if he doesn't show any improvement. Spider bite is another possible cause. same treatment. Im just thinking to get him through tonight.
 
#25 ·
thats a good start tonight..cool compresses as well to help reduce swelling. DId I read you gave banamine already ?
 
#27 ·
great. Hopefully he will feel better soon.
 
#29 ·
Right, may not be snake but with swelling all of the sudden and such seems suspicious.. treatment mentioned sure wont hurt. I would give a good check for lice too. They have been troublesome this year.
 
#30 ·
Oh the poor baby, he does not look good. He looks stunted and wormy, mineral deficient.

The swelling looks to me like brisket edema, it's another spot that bottle jaw can show up, as you said he is anemic.

My first thought is just get him dewormed for any strongyles and coccidia, and copper bolus him.

Falling over happens when anemia is advanced, so does crying, the gut damage barberpole and other worms cause it's extremely painful.

You need to stop the internal hemorrhaging, so give him cayenne every hour. Mix 1/2 tsp of cayenne with a little molasses and water every time.

I am sorry but I have to ignore your "negative fecals" because I don't know if you are using the correct method, and the goat looks heavily wormy.
 
#32 ·
I used Sulfadimethoxine 40% for 5 days. I also dewormed with valbazen and Equimax the 2nd day of having diarrhea. I did another fecal today and it is negative. I do at home fecals, the same way I do then at my workplace, with the same materials, except that microscope is a couple thousand dollars more expensive then my microscope.
 
#35 ·
Do you have any ponds, standing water, wet pasture, any snails? Could be flukes. They appear as barberpole symptoms but won't show up on fecals.

Valbazen will treat adults, you do need three treatments 10 days apart, though.

When you say negative, do you mean 0? It is extremely, extremely rare to have multiple fecals that all say 0. It usually just means they aren't dropping eggs.

I agree there's no reason not to get a vet involved [emoji846][emoji1]

If still anemic I'd ask a vet about a blood transfusion
 
#38 ·
There are no ponds or standing water in their pasture and I've never seen a snail in or around their pasture. All 3 fecals had 0 eggs. Which the 2/3 may not show any because I gave the dewormer. This buck has had low egg counts,less than 10, but when I run a fecal 1 month later the numbers will be lower.
 
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