goat barely eats, please help

Hello,

I'm new to this forum. I've come on to seek help for my injured goat. Here is a bit of the history:

About 3 weeks ago he showed lameness on right hind leg, slight toe drag. I didn't think much of it because he lives out with horses and other goats. I thought slight injury. A couple days went pass and he got worse on it to the point where he wouldn't get up one morning. At that point I called in vet, vet wasn't sure what was going on. He didn't really show symptoms for listeriosis, polio, or meningeal worm but we treated him for these illnesses regardless. His appetite was still good at this point. No fever. The vet gave him shot of Baytril, and gave me some Banamine and Thiamine to give him over next 5 days. He prescribed him 3ccs of Banamine every 12 hours. I didn't find out till recently this is wayyyyy too much Banamine to give a goat! Anyways, at the same time I was also treating him for meningeal worm by injectable ivermectin and safeguard. Even had the chiro out to adjust him. I was covering all grounds to be on the safe side. He was down for 3 days straight, finally he started getting up with much help. Well, after about 1 1/2 weeks he was doing pretty well. Still needed a little bit of help getting up but would stay up most of the day, still had a limp to that right hind but was much stronger on it. His appetite had dropped a bit over those 3 days of laying down but he was slowly getting it back. Well, shortly after this we had a cold snap and it may just be coincidence but he seemed to begin lose his appetite again, around this time. This was about a week ago. His appetite has continued to deteriorate. I have him on daily probiotics, I offer him as much greenery as I can find in the winter, he gets 2cc of Bcomplex (orally) daily, and just in the last couple days out of pure desperation I've started feeding him raw goats milk. Which he absolutely loved until today, now he has lost his appetite for this too Oh and did have chiro out again and she did confirm he had a sprained hock, and I do feel swelling in it now that she pointed it out. So the start of his lameness was a sprained hock but now what is his deal? All I can figure is that he developed ulcers from the high dosage of banamine and the cold weather has wreaked havoc on the ulcers?? The reason I had started him on the goats milk was to help with ulcers, if this was the case. At this point, he will pick at this I offer him here and there. If he does eat, it's only a little at time. I feel like he wants to eat but then he turns his head away as to say "no, it will hurt". I'm at a loss, I feel I've done everything I can for him. Please let me know if you have any suggestions.

jenvell, it seem your have been doing everything you can for this little guy, if he was mine I would keep on giving him probiotics 2 or 3 times a day, inject the b complex, and drench him with nutro-drench and electrolyte 2 to 3 time a day and maybe give him some bose. your doing great and I hope he pulls throw

Thank you daisy jack! I did forget to mention I had given him shot of Bose . I will start injecting the bcomplex from now on, I had wondered about that. I will pick up some nutridrench too and up his probiotics. I tried doing electrolytes in his water but he refused to drink it. I guess I'll just mix that in syringe and force feed.

daisyjack said:

jenvell, it seem your have been doing everything you can for this little guy, if he was mine I would keep on giving him probiotics 2 or 3 times a day, inject the b complex, and drench him with nutro-drench and electrolyte 2 to 3 time a day and maybe give him some bose. your doing great and I hope he pulls throw

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ank

Get Sulcrafate (Karafate) from the vet. It is for ulcers. I always ended up with tablets so give 1 tablet per 50 lbs twice a day. You could also give him C&D Antitoxin. Follow instructions on bottle. That will help with any toxins in his stomach.

How old is the goat and approximate size?

You think the banamine may have caused ulcers? Why do you think that?

That dose of Banamine for a short of time most likely didn't give him ulcers. You can use 2cc/100lb for a short duration without much risk. I am assuming your goat is not a mini.

He is approximately 4 year old Saneen (not sure if I spelled that right). For the runt of the bunch he seemed to out grow everyone, he is a very large goat. The vet had me giving 6ccs a day (3cc every 12 hours) for about 5 days. What I had recently read was that the dosage for a goat should be 1cc every 36 hours. So that's why I assumed the banamine had torn up his stomach.

I had to work today so couldn't make it to vet to get Sulcrafate but did give him his Bcomplex via injection, instead of orally, and it did seem to give him quite a boost. His appetite tonight is really good, not great but much better than it's been in last week. I'll see how he does tomorrow before I pick up any Sulcrafate. Maybe it wasn't ulcers after all, maybe with the stress of his injury and the recent weather changes his stomach just didn't feel right. So hard to say. I've learned so much about goats these last couple weeks. I've had them as pets for 10 years but never had any problems till now. I'll let you know how tomorrow goes...

Hoping for good news!

and Welcome to BYH!

Welcome to BYH @JenVall !

I have to ask....how in the world did you get a chiropractor to come out to adjust your goat?

I would suspect that the original injury was caused by one of your horses, at least that was my first thought. Pain would have set in and caused the goat not to want to eat. Weather changes would exacerbate the pain creating a cycle of pain and not wanting to eat. JMHO. If he were here I would likely continue the banamine along with vitamin B and probiotics. Giving the probiotics at 3x the usual dosage for several days to boost up gut flora.

Please keep us posted.

Hi guys, sorry for the long delay in getting back to you. The good news is that his appetite has improved He eats small meals throughout day and will eat some at night when he is laying down. So overall I feel much more relieved about that. The other day I was really feeling his leg and moving it to see if it really was just all in the hock. The more I spent time on it the more I realized it's not his hock that is stiff but rather his stifle which is causing the hock to be stiff. I feel that he may have a locked stifle, have any of you guys heard of this happening on a goat? I know it can happen on horses but not finding much info on goats and how to treat such a thing. The symptoms he his showing are very similar to the symptoms of a horse with locked stifle. I will get to chiro to come out later in week to see if she can do anything for it but in meantime if you have any suggestions please let me know. I read for horses that exercise is very important and that stall rest makes it worse. Which makes sense because in the very beginning when he first started having troubles we did "physical therapy" sessions with him and made him walk using the barn wall for support, we did this several times a day over a 2 week period. He then was doing so well we stopped doing it but after a week of stopping the therapy he started to progressively get worse and that's about the time I got on this forum. I realize now that he wasn't moving enough on his own. I didn't put together the pieces until just recently about how much good the PT sessions did for him. I've started them back up and we are taking walks down the driveway and back but I wonder if there is more I can do for him. I hate to see him still so unsteady on that leg, he falls over at the slightest moment of inbalance and I know that his so hard on him mentally.