Year: 2008
I want to share with ya'll some very bad experiences I had this year with my goats. Some very hard lessons
learned but I hope my experience will help others who find themselves in this same position maybe you'll be able
to save your goats.
First a little background. We bought this property almost 3 years ago. We come from the city never owned farm
animals till we moved here now we have the chickens, goats and now pigs. So we're learning as we go. Well
anyway when we bought the property is was heavily over growned we still have allot of clearing up to do. Around
the house was not bad. But this year we wanted a bigger pen for our bucks.
So we fenced in almost an acre of land allot over growned with trees, bushes,vines ect. Not exactly sure what was
planted or grew wild over the years. Well we placed our guys in this pen thinking with all the vegetation and
browse they had they would be fine. I still made sure they had hay out every day. But then my males started
acting funny when Spring came around walking in circles going down on their back hunches, pressing their head
up against the wall and leaning their side against anything they could fine. One of the little ones start having his
left eye twich then he went off feed and would hardly stand up. I really thought I would lose him. Well brought him
to the vet ( their knowledge with goats is still new) So I had researched the symptoms on the net what I found was
Goat Polio / Listeriosis . Here's a link to the site http://www.tennesseemeatgoats.com/articles2/listeriosis.html
Well anyway I started giving my guys shots of penicillin and Thiamine every 6 hrs for 24 hrs till the last symptom
was gone then for another 24 hrs to make sure they had no relapse. All came thru it took the little buck longer but
he made it. Needless to say they're not in that pen no more but back where they were at before. All have had no
recurring symptoms so I'm guessing it was something in that pen they had eaten. And the thought of having to go
thru that much land to find the culprit is daunting.
Now pneumonia Some of you know I have brought in goats from several states a very costly expense. But I
wanted good genetics. But I lost my little girl I had brought in from Michigan from this. Their is a major factor that
play in when you get goats from that far up North their not use to our hot humid climates so if you do bring in
animals from out of state make sure you do it around Nov so they have time to adjust before summer hits. Also
make sure you have Nuflor on hand. It's vet prescribe. And costly but can save their lives. Here's the link as my
vet didn't prescribe a big enough dose ( she had me giving .3 cc per 10 lbs and just a single shot) and after a
week of doing what the vet prescribed I had goats sick again so I asked for a full bottle of Nuflor and followed this
site http://www.tennesseemeatgoats.com/articles2/pneumonia06.html
And lastly what I've been dealing with since Gustav has passed thru . As some of you know our summer has been
pretty hot, humid and dry in Central La. Then all of a sudden Gustav brings all this rain. Not good since it brought
all the worms to the surface. I had just wormed my goats July 6th with Valbazen ( DO NOT GIVE TO DOES THAT
ARE EXPECTING OR HAVE BEEN BRED NO WHITE WORMERS USE ONLY IVOMEC) So I felt I was OK, wrong
the day after Ike passed we had a cool front that brought more rain YUK! I went out that morning to tend to my
animals to find my precious Doowop Having seizures with bubbles coming out of her mouth. She also had what is
called Bottle Jaw in goats a wormed load so heavy that she was anemic and had edema building up. Well I lost
her. Then two other ones started with bottle jaw search that too on Internet Found that if you double the dose of
Valbazen( normal dose is 1cc per 25lbs) and administer it for 3 days straight will kill the worms but it also make the
goats more anemic which they already are from the worms but that is where RED CELL comes in (you can find it
at the feed store or Tractor Supply) I didn't know of Red Cell so I lost another one but I was giving her the
Valbazen and the bottle jaw did go away but she was so weak she didn't make it. I called her breeder in tears to
tell her I lost her she said she was having the same problem and I was not alone as she had been having lots of
calls with the same thing She had lost two bucks in a weeks time from it. She's the one that told me of Red Cell
what it does is replenishes the iron and other vitamins and minerals short term it helps with the anemia. Had I
been giving this along with the valbazen the other one might have survived. HAD I known this ALL before hand I
probably wouldn't have lost my other baby girl either. Needless to say the last surviver Brandy is still here Thank
The Lord. She's still not a 100% but she's getting better as she runs from me now when I walk too her afraid I'll
stick more meds down her throat. Red Cell is giving orally 2 1/2 cc's for small kids med size I give them 3 cc's and
the adults 5 cc's for two weeks straight.
I hope my experience with these unexpected surprises can help someone else and hopefully ya'll goats will have
a better chance of survival with this knowledge.