Okay, I'm pretty sure they are seizures... she died today.

[dianneS]

Any news? i feel for your little girl. she sounds so cute. Wishing you the best with controlling the episodes.

Its been unseasonably warm here and even though she had a few of these fits on warm days, she's had none since then. They seem to be stress induced. When she sneaks under the fence and free ranges, she is at her best. Her rumen is fuller than its ever been and she's pretty fiesty most days. Now the temps just dropped below freezing last night so we'll just have to wait and see how it effects her. So far she's shown no signs of distress (knock on wood).

She is cute.

Here she is during one of her fits, getting warm by the fire. This was one of the less dramatic ones that she snapped out of in a matter of minutes.

This is her in her sweater last year, she was in the house for several days with this episode. The vet misdiagnosed her with pneumonia at that time.

 

[Ms. Research]

Knocking on wood! Hoping all is well and continues on a steady road.

She is a sweetie. Thanks for posting pics.

K

 

[dianneS]

Well, she had the first bad "fit" of the season. The temps dropped really low and the winds were blowing hard. She was doing her usual screaming, staggering, panting and her body temp was really low.

I'm getting frustrated. I knew I couldn't leave her out in the cold so I brought her in the house, put her in the basement on top of two flakes of hay. I left the house for a while to run some errands because I couldn't stand the screaming. I knew there was nothing I could do and nothing the vets could do. I just wanted to keep her warm.

When I got home about two hours later, she was standing and no longer screaming. A few hours after that she was walking around and pooping, not eating much but a few pellets of feed. By the next morning I returned her to the herd and she's been fine ever since. However, I did find a lot of clumpy poop in the basement in the morning?

Who knows what's going on?? Getting her calm and warm seems to be the key to bringing her back around, but who know why and what is happening in the first place. I just hope its a very long time before we have another one of these, they are so stressful for all involved.

 

[poorboys]

I have heart problems, I too when stressed my body temp will fall, It usually last about 4 hrs before I can get myself warm enough, It's not the outside temp, it's internal,? just a thought. body shivering, hard labor breathing, feels like your freezing to death, but feel warm to the touch.

 

[Beekissed]

If she were a human, I'd say cardiac insufficiency...all these symptoms can occur when someone has either poor nerve conduction to the heart(dysrhythmia) or if they have poor circulation from the heart.

As a runt it could be that she was just born with a heart defect and the symptoms become more marked under stressful situations. When she is out on pasture, she probably doesn't have to compete for food and often gets out to graze on her own~no stress. When she is in the house and being fed there, no stress.

During fall and winter I'm sure she is having to shove into a feeder of some sort and may get pushed around by the other animals when this happens, therefore elevating her stress levels and setting off her symptoms. The cold can be another stressor to her circulatory system but it just may be coincidental...it could be that this is the only time during which she has to compete for food with larger, more healthy animals.

Cardiac patients have difficulty breathing when they have an episode as the blood is not being circulated properly and the increased respirations are the body's attempt to oxygenate all the tissues. Improper circulation could also be causing the pale gums, cold extremeties and seizures which seem to be more episodic than chronic...when she isn't have a "spell" she has normal temp control, blood flow to oral mucosa, etc.

Since the vet has already isolated a murmur in her heart, I'd lay money on her having a congenital heart defect.

 

[dianneS]

Yeah, I've just come to the conclusion that she's just defective in one way or another and she'll be with us as long as she's with us. Its just that these episodes are so stressful for all of us. The screaming is just unbearable but I have no other warm place to take her besides the house. Some day we'll have heat to our garage so she can have a pen in there for times like this. Maybe even put her in there when the weather is expected to be cold and harsh and possibly avoid one of these fits altogether.

 

[ksalvagno]

Put a diaper on her and let her be a house goat!

 

[dianneS]

Put a diaper on her and let her be a house goat!

That just might happen!

 

[dianneS]

Okay the little goat only had two of her attacks so far this season. Pretty good compared to last year.

This is crazy, but I'm starting to think her problem may just be a simple case of bloat? Well, not simple, but apparently a pretty severe case of bloat.

I know in the beginning we considered bloat, I can't remember why we ruled it out anymore? Anyway, these last two attacks took place right after she had been out free ranging on her own, eating a lot of lawn grass, fescue. Her rumen was really full both times, and she would occasionally hiccup like she was trying to bring up her cud and couldn't. She also had a lot of big clumpy poops last time.

I can say she did look rounder on her left side than her right with her last attack. She did have free choice baking soda in front of her before the last one, but who knows if she ever touches it? She may not.

Could it be that with her heart murmer that if she's getting so bloated as to compromise her lung and heart function that her body temp is dropping so low and she's just screaming and writhing in pain? IDK, I'd feel pretty foolish if that is all it has been all this time. I know that for some reason the vet ruled out bloat, perhaps just because her behavior was so extreme and dramatic? I have to say that last year she was much smaller and didn't have as large a rumen as this year, so maybe she didn't appear to be bloated? She is much bigger in general and has a much healthier rumen this year. Maybe that's why the attacks are less frequent?

I'm giving her some more probios today.

 

[ksalvagno]

What is planted in your lawn grass? It would be best to stay away from Fescue. The endophites in fescue is the problem. If your lawn was planted with grass for lawns, then those grasses really aren't good for animals. Maybe there is some bloat and some type of chemical reaction if she is eating some turf type grass or the fescue is the problem. Maybe when she gets out and eats the grass, just assume she will have bloat and treat her for it immediately. So hard to say. It sounds like you just gotta try things and see what happens.