I have a doe that will be two years old in February. She is very active and is high up in the herd. She is an Oberhasli. About three days ago, I noticed that her back left leg seemed to be bothering her. I got her up on the milk stand (She has not kidded nor is she bred yet)to check her hoof. I thought maybe her hooves needed trimming or she got a thorn or something in it. I could not see anything. I trimmed her hooves but they were not all that long as they were done about 3 weeks prior. Anyway, is just drags her left leg. The muscle has started in waste. And now the right leg has been working twice as hard and it is starting to weaken. The vet just came out, after being on the call list for 4 days, this morning. He said she has some type of trauma that pinched a nerve that works that muscle. He gave her Folic Acid, Vit E, Banamine and an antibiotic so the joint doesn't get infected. He said I probably wouldn't see and change for 1-2 weeks.

Has anyone every heard of this? What do you think about the treatment he gave her? Is there anything that I can do for her? She doesn't seem to be in pain, no swelling, etc. Any help or advise is greatly appreciated.

Lisa in North Central Pennsylvania

-- Lisa Banik (lisavanvliet@hotmail.com), October 02, 2001

Answers

You should have gotten immediate, albetit only temporary relief from the "pinched nerve" if it was one, from the Banamine. Banamine is a pain killer (well it is useful for other things but the vet used it for this) so if it didn't get better nearly immediatly for at least a couple of hours than your vet is wrong. I would be thinking more along the lines of menengial worm, if!!! you have white tail deer visiting on your pastures or if your hay comes from an area that has deer. The very first sign I ignored on my doe we nearly lost because of menegial worm was that she was sort of dragging the toe of her rear leg, it was actually making designs in the dirt behind her. (Now we know that this is classic first symptoms of neurological disease) Or the fist signs of Listerosis, or Polio (thiamin defficeincy). I would give her a good dose of Thiamin go to saanendoah.com read the difference between Bcomplex that you can buy at the feed store and B1 thiamin your vet can give you and make sure you give her enough. The B complex is fine, but you have to give like 15cc of it to get enough of the B1 in it, you also repeat this dosage every 6 hours, if you see improvement, and it is dramatic improvement than there is your diagnosis. If this leg dragging continues into a high fever, with other neurological problems, head tilt and circling, than you have some moldy hay or grain somewhere and the doe has Listerosis. So try the B, I know he was thinking white muscle, because there is no other reason to give E to a doe than that, so perhaps a shot, no more than 2.5cc of Bo-se, then if you don't see improvement, I would start taking an evening temperature for awhile. Hope it is just a pinched nerve, or injury, but don't let your guard down this week. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), October 02, 2001.