Our does were at the breeders about a month ago and I've noticed that most of them at various times since then have had goopy eyes with yellow pus. They didn't seem sick but the doe that has goopy eyes today is lying down a lot with her eyes closed. She did get up to eat though so that's good news. Does anyone have a clue as to what this might be? Does it sound like something that will go away?

-- gita (gita@directcon.net), December 08, 2001

Answers

Sounds like a form of pinkeye to me. yes, they will be acting depressed with pinkeye.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), December 08, 2001.

The real problem with diagnosing "eye goop" for someone is that yes it could be something as simple as your hay rack is up in the air, the hay dirt and trash is falling into their eyes and making them irritated, or you have blowing wind and sandy soil (like in the back of a pickup coming home, or in the case of my buck, in the back of a sawdust filled stock trailer (I was none to happy with the folks). So this could be just an irritation or the end of some mild form of pinkeye. But alas this can also be part of the symptoms of pasturella pnemonia in goats, called eronously shipping fever. I would clean the eyes with a wash cloth every day, apply terremycin eye ointment to them and listen to their breathing, looking for raspy sounds, snotty noses and an elevated temp. I would buy some Tylan 200 or any 200 mg tetracycline, (not LA200, get your dosages off of saanendoah.com ((notice that she also gives info that these can be used subq) to start them on if you start to see more symptoms) if you don't already have it on hand, valuable animals deserve a trip to the vet and Naxcel. I would start the whole herd on a immune boosting product like ID-1 or Immune G (the one Bernice uses) and also B shots. It is very stressing to leave home, and of course stress in goats causes worm levels to rise, something you don't want to be doing is having to majorly worm goats after coming home from breeding, when you have just bred them before they were bred. This is where either leasing a buck, or buying a young buck in the winter and using him the following year comes in handy. I actaully don't agree with the info about new folks not keeping bucks. I think you should have your own buck, just don't be thinking you are keeping him permanently.

Keep your ears open for info for the person who bred for you. Especially abortions, and especially abortions on does who were bred before your does, to the same buck. Chlamydia can have very benign first symptoms of "eye goop". The buck passed this from one gal to the next, she may not be seeing the same symptoms at her house if her girls are carriers of this.

Hope this is just something simple like your hay or blowing wind, and once the other gals on the list come on you will have lots more ideas. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), December 08, 2001.

Vicki- No it's not sandy soil, sawdust or elevated hay rack. Nothing like that at all. I feel fairly confident that whatever it is was picked up at the breeder's place. This is the last time I will shlepp goats to breeders anyway, even if they hadn't of gotten sick. Next time I will have a resident buck, use him, then sell him. When the other does had the goopy eye it stuck around for a few days and then went away. I'm hoping it's as simple as that. They have NEVER been sick before this!

-- gita (gita@directcon.net), December 08, 2001.