[Belinda83]

Hi.
We are beginner goat owners and have only had goats for one year. They are our family. Our beautiful little 10 month old boy and his twin sister fell very sick last week with worms 😔. We attend to worming prevention regularly and are very loving responsible owners, it’s just been so awfully wet here that the vet says it’s been unavoidable lately 😢🥺.They are responding well to treatment so far, but then over the last 4 days our little boy has been confirmed totally blind now due to a separate bacteria picked up from being weak in health.We are heartbroken that we may have to put him down, but don’t believe in cruelty if he will have no quality 💔. I’d be so grateful for your feedback on if he can have any quality of life after being able to see for 10 months, to now being blind? Warmest regards, thank you so much, Belinda 🙏🧡

 

[ksalvagno]

Why can't you put a bell on the sighted goat?

 

[MellonFriend]

I've heard of blind goats getting along just fine. As Ksalvagno suggested, putting a bell on his buddy who can see might help him to learn where his friend is in order to find food and water. I am so sorry that this happened. Hopefully someone will come along who has some actual experience. I hate that it had to be under these circumstances, but welcome to the forum. 🤗

 

[21goaties]

Of course he can have quality of life! Some of our goats (wethers) are blind. Is the vet sure that the blindness is permanent? Was the goat treated for what I am assuming was an infection that caused him to go blind?

You just need to make sure he has a buddy goat that can see, keep him in a secure area, and stick to a routine that he can memorize. Basically just give him a lot of TLC.

 

[Belinda83]

Thank you so very much Karen, MellonFriend & 21 Goaties. We are so grateful for your helpful suggestions and kindness. Really means a lot to us all the way over here in Australia. We will keep persevering with the worm treatment, electrolytes etc and get a bell for our boy’s sited sister ☺. Sadly the vet did say he is permanently blind @ 21Goaties and the he did give him an injection of antibiotics to try to reverse the infection in his eyes however, the vet feels it wouldn’t change things, we wanted him to try anyway. We just feel so sad because the vet came out just 3 weeks ago on his rounds and said how healthy and happy our 5 goats looked. How fast things can change 😔. I’m so happy we have found this supportive forum, even be it under these unfortunate circumstances. Thank you for giving us hope. Belinda. 🌷

 

[21goaties]

You're welcome!
Would you mind posting some pictures of your blind goatie's eyes? I'm curious if they look like our blind goats' eyes.

 

[lazymsquare]

Blind animals can definitely have a quality life, I have a friend that had a totally blind sheep and a totally blind cow that lived in a pasture setting both had companion animals that had bells they could listen to, they raised offspring, knew the routines of the days and seasons and never had problems navigating the pastures as long as they were with their bell buddies. They both lived to ripe old ages.

 

[DDFN]

I had a blind horse that lived into his late 20's early 30's (rescue so didn't know exact age). Blind animals can have a completely normal life and be happy. Just keep the water in the same location and spend time teaching him where things are located. Safe fencing and I agree a buddy with a bell and he will be fine.

Here are pics showing my old horse having a normal life and I used to do demos with him at shows to raise awareness. The only thing he didn't like was the wheel carts at parades. They rattled and made too much noise for him to understand what it was , so we didn't do any more parades when we found that out. He could smell the barn cat way before any of us could see him too!

I had him all vocally trained too. If I said easy up it meant the ground was starting up hill slow but if I said up up up it meant a big step. Same with easy down and down down down.

 

[littleheathens]

There's an episode of Queer Eye where the fab 5 work with a woman (I think in TX?) that runs a shelter for animals with handicaps. They did the bell on a little goat's sibling- I wanted the whole show to be about them! It was the sweetest thing. The woman did therapy with other human kids with her animals- blind child with blind horse, etc. It's a pretty special place and the animals looked very happy (of course, it's a tv show).

You may not have the setting, capacity or conditions to do it, and if not, that's okay too. Maybe someone else would take him with his sighted friend.

 

[happybleats]

Definitely if the conditions are safe for him. He can have a happy fulfilling life. But lots of supervision is needed as he learns to adapt.
Has the vet tried A&D shots? Did they say what bacteria caused this? Was/is it pink eye or chlamydia? I'm just curious on what treatments were tried to help his eye site?

Best wishes

 

[toth boer goats]

I didn’t hear the eyes were treated directly?
What does the eyes look like?
Any ulceration, cloudiness etc?

 

[Jessica84]

We had 2 butcher steers and one was totally blind. He depended on the other a lot but the blind guys other senses kicked in stronger. A lot of things with him was memory. He knew exactly were the gate was, the feeder, water and so on. As long as we didn’t move anything he was fine. We moved the feeder once not thinking it was a big deal. He could smell the feed but ran right into it when sniffing it out. He wasn’t hurt but we realized just don’t mess with anything.