*Old post* Goat kid with cloudy eye and pneumonia *Updated pictures*

[StarSpangledNubians]

Hi! Im needing help, and fast! Long story short I found a doe for sale on Craigslist and she had a broken leg and had just gave birth to triples about a 6 days ago and the one baby who survived couldn't stand and he had cloudy eye. A friend was going to text them and say she would take them and put them both down because the owner didn't want to, but I said no I need to at least try and save them. I picked them up about an hour ago. The baby has a cloud eye they said that it was in the other eye and that cleared up but then it went to the eye it is in now. He most definitely has pneumonia as they have been feeding him lying down and he is very raspy. He is sucking on a bottle though. He can't stand, and his back legs have almost no mussle. His mother has a broken leg (they said they don't know how she got it) I need to take their splint off and add a better one. She doesn't seem like she is in pain at all, she just can put pressure on that leg and it is kinda just hanging there. I can clearly feel her bones moving inside her skin. It also feels like her joint where her bone is broken has fluid around it. Mom also has a very hard udder I cannot milk it I was able to milk one side but the other is rock hard. I'll be running to D&B soon and would like to know what I should get there. I know that I shouldn't have got her but I NEEDED to try and save her! Both are pure fainting goats if that helps with anything


This is the baby's eye

this is how he has lying down. He tries to stand but can't. He also does alot of teeth grinding and he is having a hard time breathing.

Any help is appreciated!

 

[NH homesteader]

I appreciate you wanting to save them, poor things are in really rough shape!
I am not an expert, although I have had goats for several years. In my opinion, with the severity of their illnesses and the fact that at least the baby is in pain if he's grinding his teeth, they really need to be seen by a vet ASAP.

I will tag a few people who have more goat experience than me

@Southern by choice @Goat Whisperer @babsbag @frustratedearthmother

And many more who I'm sure I'm forgetting...

 

[Southern by choice]

More than likely vitamin deficiency. I believe it is Vitamin A.
Chlamydia can cause eye issues, weak joints and unthrifty kids I believe.
This kid should be seen by a vet asap, you may be able to do something for it.
More than likely there is severe deficiency in both kid and mom.

The hard udder could be mastitis, CAE etc.

The dams hooves are severely overgrown and obviously not cared for.

Just keep in mind that this goat and the kid should not be anywhere near your goats. This is how you bring in deadly diseases that affect whole herds.

Mycoplasma, CAE, Johnes...

 

[Goat Whisperer]

I agree with what has already been said.

You need to get a vet out tomorrow/ASAP.

Having a vet come to you would be best, less stress. The vet can at least evaluate and get them started on the right meds, but you will still need to x ray the leg.

 

[babsbag]

OK, I agree with the vet. BUT. I would start that baby on oxcytetracycline ASAP. I would also try to massage the udder and milk that side. Hot compresses, peppermint udder balm. She could just have a congested udder or it could be more severe but you can at least try to milk her until you can get a vet to see her. Take her temp, that will tell you if it is mastitis, they usually run a fever, but not always.

Get mama some good feed, alfalfa pellets, calf manna, a good mineral. But go slow. Also Bo-Se for mama and baby.

The cloudy eye could be mycoplasma or chlamydia, neither are good and neither are something you want in your herd. I don't know if goats get eye infections from respiratory infections or not, something to ask the vet. Eye infections are very contagious so good hygiene is crucial.

You are a good soul to try and help, but this might be a tough save.

 

[Goatgirl47]

Any updates?

 

[Eteda]

It also could be white muscle disease in the kid. it is simply a lack of vitamin E. if so the bo-se will take care of it. But there is more going on than just that internally. the eye looks like the result of an eye injury possibly also. I've had lambs injure their eyes and i put a triple antibiotic eye ointment in it twice a day for 10 days and it looked just as bad. however wait to long and it may not recover. the vet will have that. grinding teeth says pain. sounds like coccidiosis, could be pneumonia you do need a vet to help diagnose them. The sooner the better. Im glad you are giving them a chance. the broken leg will heal. if not.... goats do great on three legs and raise kids while living a full and happy life. The kid probably needs an injectable antibiotic. their are others out their besides oxytetracycline that are easier on the digestive system of small ruminants. when you get time later check up on those with your vet. your vet will have them also. however in the mean time i'm in your corner. Id a done the same thing. its just right to have unconditional love. My little joy was blind due to an eye infection at 3 weeks. now today she has full site back. it took almost a year for 100%. but she functioned in the herd just fine with separate feeding the first month even though she regained a lot of her sight within a few days. Im hoping its not something as in the previous post. Im praying for the simple things. let us know how they are getting on.

 

[Eteda]

the " today" mastitis treatment could be used after you milk her out as much as possible. until you can get a milk sample to the vet. you disinfect the bag with iodine, wipe the tip of the nipple with alcohol. squirt the first two or three squirts of milk out and then hold a sterile syringe under the stream of milk without touching anything and get it least 1 ml sample. I leave the cap on the needle of a 3ml syringe and use that to collect my samples. wear sterile gloves if you can or disinfect your hands as best you can. the sample can and will be tainted with any bacteria you introduce while taking the sample. massage massage massage and massage some more. not real hard. firm and relaxing so she will also let down what milk she can, warm compresses help. the Two Old Goats lotion has 6 natural inflammatories in it and its not toxic to the kids if they nurse. you may not get any where for an half hour or so then all of a sudden you will get a little hair size squirt of milk, then two and that is how it starts. the next time it is back to square one but the milk happens faster and their is a little more, and so on. when you use the "today" it helps to hold the end of the teat so it cant come out and gently moving it and massaging it up the teat canal toward her mammary glands in her bag.

 

[StarSpangledNubians]

Wow, this post brings back some memories. I was going through reading all my old kidding posts so I can write signs down for when we start kidding in February. I then came across this thread again and thought I might as well update it. The day after I posted this thread we had our vet out (Thank you to everyone who told me that was the best option, we would have lost him without one) we were told he had multiple things wrong with him. We were also told that mom had mastitis, it later spread to both side of her udder. Mom couldn't be splinted. Her leg had been left like that for likely over a month from what we were told and a splint would no longer work. We were given 3 options. Amputate the leg. Put her down. Or leave the leg and make her as comfortable as possible. She was not in any pain(we were given pain meds for her though) and was getting around just fine. At the time we had no money for the amputation. He guessed it would have been 400-800 which we did not have. We didn't want to put her down if she could live a good life, so we opted to leave the leg until she either showed to be in pain, or it was absolutely necessary to remove it. Well, here we are, about a year and a half later. She is doing great! She gets around fine she can run (hop) she uses it to dig holes. Moves the top half of the leg and the bottom kinda dangles but it still digs the hole she wants. She doesn't live with any of the other goats. She is our "Mascot" she runs around our backyard. She pretty much runs this place. She is slightly chunky as she has 24/7 access to all the hay, grass, plants/bushes, trees, she gets access to the sweet feed for about a half hour a day. She is living a goats dream! We have a vet out to check on her every 3-4 months. Everyone in the area loves her and she is pampered. I know it's probably not the healthiest life for her, but she has a great life! All we want if for her to be comfortable in her last years (Vet gave her maybe 3 years to live when he first looked at her) This girl is currently 7 years old now and as long as all goes well she should live to about 9 if we are lucky maybe even longer. Here is the lovely Dotty (Also know as 3-legs by the whole neighborhood)

Now we have her baby panda. He was not doing well at all! The vet did all he could. He gave him a "Cocktail of hope" as he called it. It was a bunch of different things I can't remember right off the bat. He also said start him on penicillin for as long as I could or until he is doing well and the pneumonia is gone. He said to give him 1cc, 4 times a day. I was unsure for his reasoning but we did it. We were told to start physical therapy as well. Lift him up, hold him to make him stand, massage all his muscle, legs, make them moving in walking motions, etc. Well, after the first week he was worse than when we started. He was no longer able to sit in the position of the photos posted last year. He would lay flat on his side and wouldn't drink, we were about to give up. Our vet said just keep going with everything, and to up the penicillin to 2cc. Well, we did. After a week he was much, much better! He was able to stand ON HIS OWN! I'm almost tearing up thinking about his first steps now. After about a month he was able to walk about 15-20ft on his own. By 2 months he was like a normal baby goat, he was just always a bit stiff when he walked. At 4 months old, we rehomed him as an emotional support animal for a veteran as that is what we thought he would be best for. He was so, so sweet. He loved people more than goats. He had gone to football games, schools, and just out in public in general. He would climb into your lap and sleep he was just so, so amazing! We still get to see him every couple of months and he is doing wonderful! Here are some photos of him growing up. This is him at 1 and a half months old. This is when he could walk about 20ft on his own. This was also before he went totally blind in one eye. But that sure didn't stop him!

This is him at 2 and a half months old. He was SO tiny. The goat he is next to in the picture is a 6 day old 75% Nigerian dwarf buckling.

These are when he was 3 months and 4 months old. Just weeks before he left to his new home.

I do miss him loads, but I know he is with someone who needs and loves him a lot more than me Just a quick update incase anyone ever stumbles upon this thread and wonders what happened.

 

[MiniSilkys]

@StarSpangledNubians Did the vet say what caused his eye to look like that? I have a 3 day old pygmy buckling and his eye looks just like that. He has no other problems.