Our baby goat about 2 months old has puffy jaws and sounds a little different than usual. He also seems a little lethargic, although it is hot out. His breathing I need to check again seemed a little rough sounding, kind of like someone with a cold. I do not know if this is related but the female he was nursing from has had mastitis for about 2 weeks. When I thought she was over it I started letting him and his brother start nursing again. The next day our female showed signs of mastitis again, so I stopped nursing them. Right after that about 3 days ago, the baby goat started showing all these symptoms.

-- Lynn (johnnypfc@yahoo.com), July 21, 2001

Answers

Can you tell I was in a hurry? I am wondering if these are symptoms of a cold or could be something worse.

-- Lynn (johnnypfc@yahoo.com), July 21, 2001.

Lynn the kid is to young for bottle jaw. It could be an enlarged thyroid or thymus or wattle cysts or a salivary gland cyst.

Even having said all that with him being lathargic, does he also have a fever? Rectally take his temp is it over 102. At this age I would guess naval/joint ill, which settles in the lymph glands, making for hot swollen joints, high fever and eventually death if not treated. The infection is going systemic so he is felling bad and his glands under his neck are starting to swell. High dosages of Tylan..........might want to visit saanendoah.com as Joyce just helped another goat friend with this same exact thing. If his joints are also swollen and with a fever, if you really want to save him this is really a job for a vet since he needs IV fluids, banamine for pain and fever reduction, just don't let him pick Naxcel or Nuflour for the Tylan which is indicated for naval and joint ill in goats. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), July 21, 2001.

Once in a while, we have had baby calves devevope a condition called "tooth-shear", when the teeth become shaprened on the outside edge. The sucking motion of the calf pulls the cheeks into the sharp teeth and the inside of the cheecks become infected. Easily diagnosed by feeling (carefully) the teeth to see if the top-outside edges are sharp. Usually floating the teeth are all that required, although a couple times on the range with calves we didn't catch in time we had to lance the abscess from the outside of the jaw.

-- dave (davekirsh10@yahoo.com), July 22, 2001.

Providing this is what is wrong how in the world did they get one of the above things mentioned by Vickie? The funny thing is that these are whethers that were given to us instead of being killed. Could our adult goat have it or catch it?

-- Lynn (johnnypfc@yahoo.com), July 22, 2001.

Lack of iodine, really minerals in general will cause an enlargement of the thyroid. Excessive worm burdens will cause bottle jaw. If your doe has had mastitis and the kids nursed her than they will "catch" it from her, which really mostly causes digestive distrubance. If you are feeding a poor quality milk replacer made with soy, this can also cause problems in the kids guts. If the kid didn't have his navel dipped at birth he could have had bacteria enter and this goes systemic causing joint ill, and infection of the joints. Especially if he was born and living in less than clean facilities. Take his temp it will tell you the quickest if you are dealing with just scours and nutritional cuases or if you have temps ...than it is bacterial. Are you treating the mastitis in the dam? With him sounding wheezy you could have a bacterial pnemonia going on. You may want to go to goatworld.com to the 911 site and find somebody in your area to come and see him, if you don't have access to a vet. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), July 22, 2001.

Vicki, if you are still around we went out and took temperatures. To begin with we have a total 4 goats. One is a year old milker, the one with the mastitis, I teated her with 3 doses of Today. The next goat is a male 4 months old and then the 2 whethers. Anyway the temps for the whetheres are 104 and 105.5. The 4 month old male 105.5. Now all 3 younger goats have swollen jaws, just since this afternoon. They are all eating, but do seem slower than usual. One of the whethers has been bloated looking and we thought maybe it was not feeding him milk. I did not take the milker temp yet though.

I am going to go over to goat world. I have a possible vet, but have not been crazy about him so far (but maybe it is a staff problem).

-- Lynn (johnnypfc@yahoo.com), July 22, 2001.

I am going to post to you privately. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), July 22, 2001.