Saving a very anemic goat(Post 16, another goat)

20kidsonhill

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Wanted to share our recent experience and I am happy to report successful experience saving a very very anemic goat.

Background information: 5 year old doe that is nursing 5 week old twin bucklings, on pasture, but also given supplement goat grain(1 1/2 lbs) and minerals free choice. Kids also have access to a creep feed with free-choice goat grain. kids born end of June.

Doe had not been wormed all summer. However she had been wormed in the spring about 4 months earlier. She would have been wormed with cydectin, since she was pregnant.


On Friday it was noticed that she was still eating, but looking a little more distant from the herd. She was checked for anemia and she was fairly white, probably a 2 on the famancha scale. She was given
Synanthic wormer
an iron shot
and a B complex shot
And she was allowed to stay with the herd.

She continued to join the herd during grain feedings, but remained distant.

We gave her a couple more B-complex shots over the next 36 hours and continued to monitor her.

At that time we determined the anemia was getting worse and we penned her away from her kids. Kids have access to a 17% protein creepfeed and appear to be doing well on it.
Over the next 12 hours, the doe became worse, off water and all feed,
We then did the following once we penned her:
Gave her penn G shots
rewormed with cydectin, not sure if she was bleeding out or still wormy.
gave another shot of pig iron and conintued with B-complex shots
started drenching with a drench called Magic drench. a mixture of corn oil, corn syrup, and mollasses, 1 part each. I would add a couple vitmanin E gel caps cut open to this. I would give her 4 or 5 ounce plus a cople ounces of water every 4 hours.

also gave her red cell once a day, 15 cc's.

Then we did a couple eggs mixed with warm water and baking soda.

Then we got a pack of Save a Calf Electrolytes and mixed that and drenched her with all of that over a few hour period. This was noted to really help her and it was decided we needed a way to get her more hydrated. She did get up about an hour after using this product and ate a few mouth fulls of hay.(However the next day she was worse)

We purchased a bottle of 50% dextrose solution and followed the instructions and administered 75 cc sub-Q a a couple times in a 24 hour period.

This brings us from Friday when we first noticed her in bad shape to Monday afternoon.
At this time we were sure we were going to loose her, still off feed, no longer getting up unless pulled up from the ground.

Had a vet bring us an IV kit and pouches of Sodium chloride fluid and with his advice we adminstered 2,000 cc's(two pounches) under the skin in the next 8 hours. we put 200 to 300 cc's per location administering the entire 1,000 cc pouch with in first 20 min. Checked on her an hour later and she was laying in a different location than we had left her and it was noted that she had gotten up, walked around and pooped in a couple different locations. This was the first sign of poop since we had penned her up on Saturday.

Brings us to today, Wednesday. We have administered 2 pounches a day since Monday afternoon. Plus I have drenched her twice a day with the Magic mixer and additional water and a couple teaspoons baking soda per day.

She know has to be caught to treat and takes two people to treat her. She ate half a slab of hay last night, was out grazing on a small side pasture and munched on a couple mouth fulls of grain as well as drinking water again on her own.



Okay I know this was long long long, but wanted to share this with you all
 

20kidsonhill

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Please share any of your experiences with working with anemic goats.
 

poorboys

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great news, and good info on how to bring them back. good job.
 

20kidsonhill

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Continued treatment will be......... keeping her to herself for the next couple of weeks, reworming her in 2 weeks and weekly pig iron shots for 6 to 8 weeks. Also we will add prbiotics to her diet on a daily basis for a few days.

also just to mention this, our vet recommends a 50% mixof Prohibit and Synanthic for times when conditions get real wormer. We have never used prohibit, but it is considered one of the best wormers on the market.


We plan on not returning the kids to her and just keeping creepfeed out for them. We will worm them on a schedule, every 21 days with synanthic and we will also treat them with corid every 21 days for 5 days at a time. I may pen them next week when our fair animals leave and I have more available pens. right now they are with a variety of ages of goats from spring kids up to adults.
 

marlowmanor

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Glad to hear she is doing better now for y'all. :hugs
My only experience with anemic goats was with our pygmy doe Bailey. We noticed the day after we got her that she was having scours and not acting well. I called my dad over (who has raised goats my whole life) and we gave her a dose of Ivomec, a shot of Pen G, and B vitamins. The B vitamins and PenG we kept up for a week as well as adding Red Cell to the mix per the vet. After a couple days we noted that she was perking up and showing a better appetite and more energy. Bailey's case was definately not as extreme as your does but it's my one experience. Your treatment plan is definately good information. I will definately refer to it if I ever have this issue myself again.
 

ThornyRidgeII

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Glad to hear she pulled through.. I battled awhile back on one and ended up losing her despite many similar measures you discussed.. My doe just became so weak no matter what I was supplementing that she finally gave up before I had to make that terrible decision. Despite losing her it was a learning experience.. one though I hope to never have to go through again.
 

elevan

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Great job!

I highly recommend keeping sodium chloride bags and an IV kit on hand (if you can get your vet to approve). Hydration is so important to bringing any animal around no matter what the issue may be.
 

vermillionoaks

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Is Sodium chloride fluid the same as lactated ringers? Just wondering because that is what our vet had our goats on when then got azalea poisoning. It was to keep them hydrated.
 

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