HELP...w/ graphic / gross pic...beware

[trestlecreek]

RIP little boy.

 

[2468herdsrgr8]

 

[bheila]

Awwww

 

[cmjust0]

Well, that sucks.. I hate to hear that.

Is the owner going to send the goat off to have any kind of diagnostics run or try to determine the cause of death? I started thinking about blackleg, or malignant edema...clostridials which aren't covered by the regular CD/T.

More questions than answers, I guess..

Anyway...I really hate to hear that he didn't make it.

 

[lilhill]

So sorry it ended this way. If it were me, I'd want to know what happened.

 

[Beekissed]

I'm wondering if he just didn't have an obstruction from something he ate. The vet could have at least done a gentle digital exam to see if it were a low obstruction that could have been removed.

 

[cmjust0]

I think I'm a little confused..

You know how an ankle looks / feels when it's sprained? The flesh feels tight and bloated? From his withers back he feels like that

cmjustO, the goat had no swelling anywhere else, and was eating /drinking and acting fine 2 weeks ago. He just started acting "funny" and going off feed, then stopped eating at all, then swelled up and died about 4 days later.

So...he did, or did not have swelling beyond what we saw of the tailweb in the picture?

If the swelling was localized to the rectal area, then some kind of an impaction or twisted gut might make some sense...but I thought he was swollen almost all over, which is why I was thinking blackleg or malignant edema -- especially given that he also had a low-grade fever.

 

[Roll farms]

I meant he wasn't swollen anywhere BUT the butt end....from the withers back FELT to the touch like how his tail LOOKED. In the pic, you couldn't see that his rump area (muscle) was swollen as well, so I was trying to get it across that from the withers back he was swollen just like his tail, but not anywhere else.
Is that clear as mud?
From his belly to the nose, he WAS NOT SWOLLEN.
Is that better?

My friend buried him the night he died b/c they didn't have the money for a necropsy, with 3 kids to sign up for school the book fees wiped them out.

They have a doeling of the same age, from the same breeder, who is fine...also cows, pigs, dogs, cats, and chickens living nearby.
Nothing else is sick.
They've been vaccinated w/ CDT and 7 way (that covers blackleg).

I spoke to my vet (a great goat vet) at length about it today, she's fairly sure a blockage in his lower intestines could have caused the edema in his back end, pressure from the intestines pushing out / infection setting in, etc. Also, the temp could have been from the resulting infection.
Without having a post done, there just isn't a way to know for sure, but she said she's never heard of anything 'organic' (disease) causing those types of symptoms.

I wish I'd have went and seen him sooner, and really pushed her to use my vet instead of just going along when she said on the phone that she'd use one near her.
(We live about 40 mi. apart...)

I realllllly wish I hadn't been the one to talk her into getting goats in the first place. She's heartbroken and blaming herself...

 

[trestlecreek]

Well, unfortunately these things happen. In her case, it sounds like a strange fluke. Is it possible that they goat may have ate some hardware?
Maybe she will take a better look around for a better vet? Or one that will take payments?