Stumped on a goat with polio

1440 Views 34 Replies 10 Participants Last post by Jessica84, Jan 21, 2022

Jessica84

Discussion Starter · Jan 16, 2022

I seem to be in a rut with this goat and I’m totally stumped.
Back story on her: bought her close to 5 months ago now. After a month of isolation I bred her so we are about 3 1/2 months along now. She is 3 years old and never been bred before now.
Tuesday she was just standing there looking normal and next thing I know she starts having like a seizure. She ended up falling over so I got her out in the open so she couldn’t get a leg or head stuck in the fence and got the penicillin and B1. When I got back out there she was up, a little shaky but then walked off like nothing happened just kinda away from everyone. I went ahead and started her on the meds anyways. Wednesday she was the same until that evening she was grinding her teeth and standing hunched. Thursday morning she was down and convulsing. So I bumped her up to 12cc of B1 every 2 hours and 6cc of dex. She was finally able to sit up, then get up, then walk but blind as a bat. So yesterday I stuck to the same thing and still the same. Half way threw the day I ran out of the thiamine and started her on B complex. We are still the same. No improvement no going down hill. I don’t get it.
I admit I have only ever had polio once before and she responded well the first day and knocked me on my butt the next and I couldn’t go on with treatment so maybe this is actually more normal for polio I just don’t get why she responded wonderfully when she was on deaths back door and now we are stuck. Maybe I’m not giving enough of the complex? Not enough dex or penicillin? I don’t know. This is the thiamine in the B what should I be giving her?

Bottle Liquid Fluid Glass bottle Drink

I figured the 12cc every 2-3 hours was over kill but maybe not. Do I need to give more then 6cc of dex? More penicillin or cut it out? I’m wracking my brain and I can’t figure it out but she needs to get better because even being blind she is killing me here.
Hopefully that wasn’t too much blabbering I’m tired and frustrated

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GoofyGoat

· #2 · Jan 16, 2022

oh geez, I’m so sorry you’re dealing with this along with your crazy schedule!
It may be a stupid question but are you doing a double dose of penicillin to cross the blood brain barrier? Because you’re right on for B1 ...with the dex she’ll probably abort but it is what it is, sorry. It sounds more like listeriosis to me rather than polio so treatments will take a while. How’s her temp holding?
I pray I’m wrong and she gets better quickly!
Hang in there.

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ksalvagno

· #3 · Jan 16, 2022

Your thiamine is right.

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Jessica84

Discussion Starter · #4 · Jan 16, 2022

No I guess I forgot to say how much penicillin I’m giving. I’m doing 5cc per 100 and rounding up on her weight 2X a day. And I figured she’s going to abort that’s why I waited on the dex Incase I was wrong on what was going on. But that’s fine.
I just don’t get why we are stuck where we are. I would think she would at least slowly get better or I didn’t get to her in time and keep going down hill

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happybleats

· #5 · Jan 16, 2022

Ugh..im sorry she's not responding. Penicillin for addressing listeriosis should be 1 cc per 10 pounds. Sub q every 6 hours. B complex is fine...you need 500 mg thiamine every 6 hours. These are in a 24 hour clock. Dex should be 1 cc per 20 pounds once a day. Reducing each day for 5 days after she is recovered.

Remember..listeriosis can be contagious to humans. Take precautions just in case.

Best wishes

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Jessica84

Discussion Starter · #6 · Jan 16, 2022

Thank you I’ll go ahead and change the penicillin to that dose and time line and see if that helps.

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GoofyGoat

· #7 · Jan 16, 2022

I’m sorry, I should have been more clear yes 10ccs per 100lbs every six hours...same with thiamine 500mg every 6 and dex.
It’s a long process to reverse...It took me four weeks when I had a friends doe in my care because she couldn’t do the injections because of work and family problems. The good news is it can be reversed she was fine after.
one thing I did different than the standard treatment was after she stopped displaying symptoms instead of stopping treatment after 24 hours symptom free I did half doses for 48 hours then thiamine daily for a week. It worked for me with no relapse.
praying your doe makes a full recovery too! ((HUG))

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mark.b.matar

· #8 · Jan 16, 2022

Hello Jessica, that's so sad, keep us updated please

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Jessica84

Discussion Starter · #9 · Jan 16, 2022

No goofygoat your fine! I messed up when I was looking at the dosage of penicillin. I went ahead and gave her 20cc and keep going with it but I did a fast search on listeriosis and I don’t think that’s what I’m dealing with. She never ran a fever and it sounds like it’s pretty aggressive and with underdosing she should be dead by now. I was going to wait for tonight to give the dex, that would be 24 hours since her last underdose but I better give it to her now. It’s going to have to end up being longer then 5 days before she’s off of it now.
Please don’t tell me 4 weeks! My legs are literally black and blue right now in less then a week. Agh stinking goats, some days I think I should have stuck to cows lol they are just lucky the babies are so cute!

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GoofyGoat

· #10 · Jan 16, 2022

May never had fever either, she did have the seizures and blindness though that’s what told me to lean to the listeriosis. I think because you gave her some supportive care early, you might have warded off the really aggressive part. It was a long slog to get May well, but she’s still great. Hang in there, do you have a chute so you’re not getting so bruised? I hope things get better quickly

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toth boer goats

· #11 · Jan 16, 2022

Cathy is right.
Up the penG.

Hope she gets better and stays that way. How frustrating.

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GoofyGoat

· #12 · Jan 16, 2022

Jessica84 said:
No goofygoat your fine! I messed up when I was looking at the dosage of penicillin. I went ahead and gave her 20cc and keep going with it but I did a fast search on listeriosis and I don’t think that’s what I’m dealing with. She never ran a fever and it sounds like it’s pretty aggressive and with underdosing she should be dead by now. I was going to wait for tonight to give the dex, that would be 24 hours since her last underdose but I better give it to her now. It’s going to have to end up being longer then 5 days before she’s off of it now.
Please don’t tell me 4 weeks! My legs are literally black and blue right now in less then a week. Agh stinking goats, some days I think I should have stuck to cows lol they are just lucky the babies are so cute!

Dex is daily until she’s recovered, then you wean down for five days. It’s to prevent the brain stem swelling while sick. unless I read your post wrong, sorry if I did.

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Jessica84

Discussion Starter · #13 · Jan 17, 2022

Ok so I had called the vet to see about a appointment to get some more B1. He was booked and no RX without physically putting his hands on her but he did offer to FaceTime and give advise. So that was cool of him and we did that.
He thinks she is over it and she just has the blindness which could take weeks to recover from even though she is not technically sick any more.
I am going to stick with the correct doses though until she can see again and then start cutting her back. He thinks that’s over kill but correct me if I’m wrong it wouldn’t hurt anything? The main thing would be aborting but I pretty much excepted the fact that it was going to happen anyways when I pulled the bottle of dex out.
I did get her some alfalfa pellets, some grain and shredded beat pulp and gave to her this morning and she sucked that down like it was nothing. I was also concerned about her fluid intake so dumped her larger trough yesterday and just gave her a small bucket and we are defiantly drinking. The hay I have right now is pretty grassy which none are overly thrilled about so I currently have my husband going to the feed store for good straight alfalfa for her to see if she eats better with that.

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ksalvagno

· #14 · Jan 17, 2022

Sounds good to me. I hope she fully recovers for you.

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GoofyGoat

· #15 · Jan 17, 2022

Yay! Eating and drinking...that’s progress! 😁 way to go Jessica and Sage I’m so happy 🥰🤗😊

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happybleats

· #16 · Jan 17, 2022

Definitely keep up the treatment. We know by experience that stopping too soon can cause relapse. Glad she's improving.

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Moers kiko boars

· #17 · Jan 17, 2022

Good Job! Good goat mama!

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HoosierShadow

· #18 · Jan 18, 2022

I sure hope she pulls through and has no more issues. Hopefully if she aborts it will go smoothly. Would love by miracle for her to not do so, but it is what it is. If she pulls thorugh and has no issues in the futuer you could always breed her back. Why must they throw these curve balls...

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Jessica84

Discussion Starter · #19 · Jan 18, 2022

I’m kinda shocked she hasn’t aborted yet. I keep walking out there expecting it but it hasn’t come yet especially with that and the stress of the shots. The poor girl hears me coming and she is up and bouncing off the sides of her little area trying to figure out how to get away from me

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happybleats

· #20 · Jan 18, 2022

It's so hard on them. And us human skin pokers

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