My nanny is sick. She won't eat or drink or stand up. She is breathing not hard, but fast. I can't lift her because she is too heavy for me...she's an alpine mix.

I don't know what to even look for first.

Cher

-- Cher Rovang (fullcircle@nidlink.com), January 30, 2001

Answers

Cher,take a deep breath, 1st take her temp. how close is her due date? check to see if anything is comeing out of her{mucus,blood,or dischage or body parts}. If she is close to her due date I would call a vet and have them come out,could the kid be turned odd? I once turned a kidd but she must be in labor to do the move i did.I think I would call a vet any way.

-- renee oneill{md.} (oneillsr@home.com), January 30, 2001.

I called the vet and he said to give her a half cup of karo syrup today...and tomorrow and see how she does. Said it sounded like ketosis.

I also gave her some b vitamins in liquid form.

She is not happy with me right now. she has diahrera so..I guess we give her more karo a little later and then see how she is tomorrow.

thanks for your reply!

-- Cher Rovang (fullcircle@nidlink.com), January 30, 2001.

Good move to call the vet Cher.Next thing to do is stop the diahrea. There are a couple of good medicines on the market for animals but we use plain old drugstore Kaopectate.Give her a couple of heavy doses of that about 12 hours apart. If she were mine,I would get some help and try to get her on her feet. Please keep us posted.This one is going to be interesting. Did she have diahrea before giving her the Karo.

-- JT in Florida (gone2seed@hotmail.com), January 30, 2001.

Make sure she is not on her side .Place in a up right position and use bales of hay to keep her that way .I would also put a blanket on her .Swith her from side to side also , this is to keep the lungs clear.

-- Patty {NY State} (fodfarms@slic.com), January 30, 2001.

Cher Diahrea and not drinking will quickly lead to dehydration. You need to get some liquids in her now. With the kids we use pedialyte and administer orally with a large syringe (no needle, obviously). If this gets severe you may need to have the vet do an IV. The diahrea may be an indication of cocci (scours). If the diarhea has an exceptionally foul odor, this may be the problem. Cocci is not limited to kids: adults can come down with it too. If this is the problem, you need to get come Corrid or other cocci treatment into her fast. If she is down and not eating or drinking you need to really act fast. Your vet's advice to try one thing and check back tomorrow isn't real good. With these symptoms she may be gone by tomorrow.

Have you just opened a new bale of hay or a new sack of grain? Is there any possibility she got into a toxic plant in the pasture? Poisoning is a possibility. There are toxic weeds that can be harvested with hay and are very potent in small amounts.

Another possibility is enterotoxemia. If this is the problem you need to act really fast as it will kill rapidly: within 24 hours. The only cure is the Claustridium perfringens type C & D ANTITOXIN - this is NOT the same as the C & D toxoid which is given as a vaccination. The antitoxin acts immediately when the bacteria is poisoning the system. You can only get the antitoxin from a vet. I hope yours has some on hand. There is no risk in giving the antitoxin if the goat is not sick, it may save her, but it won't harm her. This is our protocol when a goat is down or off feed: Vitamin B complex injected IM; C & D antitoxin injected SQ; mylanta orally; electrolytes orally; pro-bios orally; nutri-drench orally (contains molases, propylene glycol, vitamins). We hit 'em with everything. They usually get better just so we will stop giving them stuff! You need to have some epinephrine on hand in case of anaphylactic shock, which can be caused by the antitoxin. If you haven't given shots before, now is good time to learn.

Here's an excellent link where you can gets lots of diagnostic help: http://www.goatworld.com/911/

If you need more help, please feel free to email me privately as I will not be checking the forum for awhile.

-- Skip Walton (sundaycreek@gnrac.net), January 30, 2001.

Cher, how is your goat doing now? How far along is she in her pregnancy?

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), February 01, 2001.