Please help! Need advice .. Something is wrong with my goat!!!!

Hi, I do not raise goats, or any other animals. We just have 2 Nigerian Dwarf goats as our pets and we love them with all of our hearts. They have basic backyard they share with our dogs and everyone gets along great. We've had them since they were 1 month old and they are now 4 1/2 years old.

One of of goats, his name is Andy, was limping, and noticeably, not putting any pressure on his back leg. He likes to try and reach a specific tree's leaves in our yard and they've eaten up so much of it that it is now a challenge for them to reach! He has been known to stand on his tippy toes, like a ballerina, and even, literally, balance on a barrel that we have, in order to reach these leaves. So, I figured he was pulling one of these stunts and injured his leg. I watched him, he rested a lot, but progressively started putting pressure on his leg again, until he was once again walking normal. This all happened over the course of about 4 days - 4 days being when he seemed to be walking normal again.

Then, this morning, maybe today is like day 6 or so-ish, I broke off some of his favorite leaves from that tree and he tried to eat it, but he actually didn't open his mouth. This was super odd since him and our other goat usually fight over who gets it first. He put his lips on it, but he appeared to be unable to open his mouth to eat it? Then his eyes looked off ... they arent red or anything, but they almost look to be rolling back a little, but they go back to a more normal look. They don't continue rolling. I'm hearing some grinding from his teeth too. I can't get a good look at his hoof that was limping, because it's just me and he is STRONG and bucking his back legs really aggressively. I can't hold on. I saw him urinate today, once. I haven't been watching constantly, but while outside with him, he did pee. I have not seen him drink or eat today.

I should note that he's been eating and, therefore I'm assuming, drinking, fine over the last week, even with the injured leg while he was limping. What I am confused about is if he has a wound on his hoof, that caused the limping, that may have caused tetanus (?) or something -- thinking of lockjaw? -- then wouldn't he still be limping? This is why I thought he was fine because he was limping, but eating and drinking fine, then stopped limping and was eating and drinking fine (as far as I noticed) but now .. he seems to be walking fine, but not eating or drinking. He's definitely not himself. His breathing even looks shallow by the in and out motions of his belly.

I have him booked with our vet at 330 today.

Does anyone have any suggestions or input on this? The other goat had urinary calculi years ago and the vet wanted to put him down .. long story short, through the help of previous posters on this forum, I was able to gather all the medications they recommended and SAVE my goat. He's doing fantastic and that was years ago. I am terrified of a vet telling me to put down our pet when there may be a way to save him.

Thank you in advance .. Carre.

 

Cathy .. thank you!! So, it's 1 pm here now and his appt. is at 330. Should I not wait? I can go buy those things but by the time I gather them and administer, it'll be getting close to 330, I'm assuming. I'll do though. So, forgive my ignorance here but what does 'pull back and check for blood before injecting first' mean?? Thank you!

 

Also, does penicillin go bad? I have some from a couple years ago, I think. Do I need a prescription for this? Wonder if my local supply store will carry some

 

Hi Everyone. Thank you so much for your input.. really, it's great insight and help.

So, he is at the vet. We took him yesterday and decided to let them house him because he ran blood work on Andy and came out and said he was surprised he was even alive .. They said his blood work was very confusing. Sodium and potassium and calcium dangerously low. They wonder if he's losing fluid somewhere internally so they will do an ultrasound later today. He has been given his 2nd dose of antitoxin and penicillin, also some thiamine - as of today (he was admitted yesterday) and he is peeing and pooping. He is still eating too, not sure how much, though the interest was still somewhat there. The 'third eye' was sort of a thing yesterday, half way presenting itself form time to time, but the vet on duty today did not notice that today. He did not startle easily and they said that would be more indicative of tetanus. Temp yesterday was 103, and his lungs sounded fine. His heartbeat sounded okay too he said. He didn't hear a lot of noise in the gut, however. But they were able to do a stool sample and he wasn't concerned with that outcome.

I think that is everything. He is 4 years old. He's been hooked up to fluids of saline and bicarb.

Basically she'll do the ultrasound later and re-run his chemistry and let me know.

She suggested the possibility of rabies too?

Any further ideas? (thanks!!)

 

Hi All who've been so kind as to offer advice and warm wishes,

They did an ultrasound on Andy and nothing was amiss. All went well with that. The vets both said they expected to not find him alive this morning, yet he was still hanging in there. He said he does appear to be more stiff in the muscles, but that is it. They continue to give him the antitoxin and penicillin and hydrate etc. They re-ran his chemicals and said they look good, back to normal. He's leaning mostly towards tetanus and I asked that he please do everything they can to keep our boy alive. He said he doesn't seem any worse, at this point, so he agrees it makes sense to keep trying to help him try to get through this. Oh, and he's giving him muscle relaxers to help ease his discomfort.

I sure hope he will .. we love this damn goat, and his brother is being very vocal about his buddy being gone

I'll keep updating.