Young Goat, swollen jaw and lethargic

Larsen Poultry Ranch

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Hey all, I don't have a ton of details yet but my boyfriend called me about one of the young goats in our herd (born April/May) having a swollen jaw and acting lethargic. My immediate thought was parasites as I wasn't finding much else it could be in searching this site.

We treated for parasites using a pour-on within the last two months. I am trying to get specific info as to what we used and the actual date. I believe it's one of the wethers.

I want to take the goat to a vet to get a fecal test and meds, but am worried about cost, is that the best plan? Any suggestions?
 

Larsen Poultry Ranch

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Update: it's actually one of the doelings. There's a wether that looks like it might be starting to have same jaw swelling so we isolated those two from the others. I think this might be the doeling that had swollen jaw last time. It had gone away after we treated with the pour on stuff. She didn't struggle that much when we caught her. She still has good appetite though.

This is my first year with goats and I'm not the primary caretaker, the goats are mainly for trimming the brush and possibly going to sell the wethers for meat.

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Larsen Poultry Ranch

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Found the texts about what was used last time, looks like it was Ivomec pour on, and it was right around 9/10/19. Should we just do another dose of that?
 

frustratedearthmother

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Looks like a classic case of bottle jaw. Pour-on wormers are not very effective for goats. Goats do better with oral administration of de-worming medications. You can give pour-on medications orally to goats. If you Google it you can find some good recommendations.
 

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We weighed the goat, she was 13.3 kg, which is about 30 pounds according to my phone. We gave a bit over 1 cc of safe guard, and about 8 cc of sheep and goat nutri-drench.

Do we give the safe guard again the next 2 days? And then wait 10 days and do it again 3 days in a row? Little confused by the different instructions on the thread vs what I thought was on the bottle. I need to go read it again.
 

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Doeling still looks the same today, we will give second dose tonight.

We are going to get some ear tags to be able to tell the goats apart and track their medical history better. Since this doeling is having issues but the other ones aren't, the others would be better for breeding and this one should probably be culled from breeding program, right? That way only using more resistant goats to increase the herd.
 

frustratedearthmother

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Rip the directions off the Safegaurd bottle and throw them away, lol.

For a 30 lb goat I'd be giving 3ml's of Safeguard and give it at least 3 days in a row. I'd also use another class of wormer at the same time. For ease of administration and also best for the pocket book - I'd get a tube of Zimectrin Gold horse wormer. The "gold" part will target liver flukes. Stomach worms and liver flukes will both cause bottle jaw in goats.

To start: Give her 3ml of Safeguard and the Zimectrin Gold dosage for a 100 lb horse the same day. The next two days repeat the safeguard.

Ten days later (from the first day) give her a dose of Safeguard and a dose of Zimectrin Gold

Ten days later give her a dose of Safeguard and a dose of Zimectrin Gold

Ten days later give her a dose of Safeguard and a dose of Zimectrin Gold.

Yes, it's labor intensive - but it will help your goat.

Also, have you had a fecal run? She may need a coccidia treatment. A fecal is the only way to know for sure what you're dealing with. Call around for pricing from vets in your area. My vet does a fecal for $15. Some charge more, some less.

I've used this protocol with success. Others may do something similar with a few differences and it may work well for them. I hope your doeling gets better. Bottle jaw is nothing to be discounted - it's a sign that your goat is in seriously compromised condition and needs help. Good luck!
 
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