Very weird symptoms, what's going on???

[dianneS]

I have an older doe Sandy, who bagged up this summer and is absolutely not pregnant, we have no bucks. I've had her about ten years and this has never happened before. It isn't mastitis, just milk and only on one side! She still hasn't dried up!

A couple of months ago she started to act like she had either listeriosis or goat polio. I treated for both and she responded to the thiamine, so I assumed polio and discontinued the antibiotics until she was better and returned her to the herd.

About two weeks ago, she starts showing symptoms of polio again (head tilted, neck twisted) so I brought her in the barn and repeated the process, including high doses of antibiotics just to be safe.
She's much better but still has a head tilt. She's absolutely fine otherwise. Her poos are normal, eating, drinking, walking just fine. Could the head tilt be permanent nerve damage, or should I continue to treat with Thaimine until her head returns to normal?

(I don't feed any grain, and my hay is nice and fresh, never moldy. We did have a lot of Pennsylvania Smartweed take over our pasture this year and the goats went crazy for it when it went to seed. However the Smartweed died back in September and is completely gone.)

My other question is, could this have anything to do with her bagging up? Since returning her to the herd today, one of my other does, Dancer is all over Sandy and Dancer is acting like a buck!! She's flapping her tongue at Sandy and mounting her, sniffing her back end too, she won't leave poor Sandy alone! I thought I saw some discharge coming from Sandy's lady parts, but not much, it could have been pee. Could all of these weird symptoms be somehow related to hormones or hysterical pregnancy or something of that sort? I'm so confused, and vets in my area are clueless about goats!

 

[BlessedWithGoats]

@Southern by choice @Goat Whisperer @goatgurl @babsbag among others...

 

[Goat Whisperer]

An open doe coming into milk isn't uncommon, most of ours do this every year. I don't think this has anything to do with the other issues you are dealing with.

It takes time to recover from listeria, and I imagine polio also. I would be asking my vet for some dexamethasone and see if it has any improvement. The thiamine wont hurt her, so you could continue that.

I don't have time to type out a long post, but over the years we have had two cases of listeria (both from bad hay we believe- long story).
Dex makes a big difference.

 

[dianneS]

She's been bagged up since early summer. When is she going to dry up? Should I milk her and try to empty her udder or leave it be?

I'll keep treating for both listeriosis and polio just to be safe. I'll get some dex from the vet too.
Thank you!

 

[Goat Whisperer]

Some of our does devolved precocious udders this spring as well, I just leave them alone unless something looks off. So far we haven't had any issues, it's pretty normal though. I know a breeder who was able to have her yearling with a precocious udder appraised earlier this year. She had a lot milk!