Tag: illness

Scary moment-Goat choked on feed!

On August 19, 2022

I’m not sure which one of us was more scared at the end me or her… It was just a normal feeding time. They get a small handful of pellets at night only because the smallest one needs the extra nutrition and there’s no way to feed her without giving the other two a little something.

I stay pretty close to them while they’re eating to keep the big two from pushing the little one out of her bucket. I was feeding the other animals and watching them and noticed Lizzie dad started shaking her head. As I watched her she started flinging it more frantically but was not crying. She is a very vocal goat so this made me realize something was wrong.

I ran over and scooped her up into my arm-luckily she only weighs 20 pounds at this point. I put her head along my left arm and thumped her sides with my right hand while tipping her facing downwards. I then slung my arm toward the ground hoping to dislodge whatever she was choking on. The 2nd time I did it a huge wad of powdered powdered pellets and slime flew out of her mouth.

She started yelling bloody murder and freaking out despite my attempts to calm her down so I ended up setting her on the ground. She staggered a distance away and stood there pitifully yelling sounding like she had a very hoarse throat. From the way she was swaying on her feet it was clear that she was close to having passed out.

About 5 minutes later later she decided that she wanted the rest of her dinner and slowly approached me approached me to get more pellets. I only gave her a little bit because I figured her throat would be sore after all that.

But 20 minutes later she was more active and ran for the hay feeder although she was not still her normal hyper self. I’m hoping everything’s OK but I’ll feel better after some time has passed. Managed to scare the heck out of both of us. I’ve had to do the sling method to clear the throat of a choking duck before but this is the 1st time I’ve ever had to do it on something that big. I’m thankful she’s small enough I could pick her up.

Update: I watched her closely the next few days and she appeared to have no ill effects. I asked my vet about it and he said if she’s not coughing or running a fever, she’s good. Next up, finding a way to slow her down from eating huge mouthfuls.

Sick cat part 2, even worse!

By nsmar4211

On August 10, 2022

In Animal Health, Cats and Dogs, Stress

Day 2. I woke up and Rudy was sleeping on the floor-odd for him as he preferred soft surfaces and was usually either in my bed, my chair, or my laundry basked. I took care of the dogs as usual and checked his litter box…nothing. Not even much pee. Usually he drank water like a camel and peed twice as much. He got his third dose at 8am and was really not happy with it.

He still had not asked for food…and that was always my tipping point. I always told myself if he stopped eating that would be when I would know it was time to let go.

I offered him some beef broth, he turned and walked away. I tried heating it up, same thing. I finally opened a can of canned chicken meat and offered him the juice. He did drink all of that but stopped and didn’t want anything else…even more juice or chicken broth. This is the cat I fondly called “a stomach on four legs” or “self propelled eating machine”…refusing food.

This is when I realized we were in trouble. His stomach was now tight and when he laid on his side looked like a small basketball. He was walking a weird high step walk, I’m thinking from the pain/bloating. He would not jump up onto his favorite window spot and barely made it up onto the couch. He had only groomed a small part of his side. I got the brush out and brushed him shiny while listening to him purr. I decided to spend the day hanging out with him and everything else would have to wait.

What did we do? We took a long nap on the couch…him sleeping more than me. Watched a movie (I can’t remember what). I petted and cuddled him until he had enough and put his paw on my face and then we went back to just being on the couch. His breathing was getting harder and the suspected nasal polyp was making him “snore” even when awake. He was obviously uncomfortable and not happy.

At my lunch time he finally expressed a real interest in something….my steak. It was delicious and smelled great and he kept putting his paw on my arm and staring at me…I was happy to see his old self shine through for a little while. Heading the vet’s advice but having a bad feeling about how the day was going to go, I gave him a tiny sliver of the fat and let him have the juice of the plate. He only wanted one of the two slivers I offered him, when normally we’d be sharing it a lot more.

Then I got out an ice cream bar…strawberry shortcake type. He sat next to me looking at it…when I realized it was technically not a solid food I let him have some. And he took full advantage and licked half away! I said well, what the heck…and got another one to share.

By the time half of that had been licked clean, it was time for the vet visit. I put him in the carrier and headed back into town.

This time I only had a wait a couple of minutes before they came in and took him back for a follow up x-ray. Upon hearing the news that nothing had come out, and he wasn’t asking for his food, the vet tried to hide his wince but I noted it.

A couple of minutes later he came back in without my kitty and asked me to come look at the x-ray. With a sinking feeling I followed him. Rudy was still on the table looking at me with huge eyes while the vet assistant was petting him. I took one look at the x-ray and my heart fell… It showed oversized air filled intestines and even looked like it was pushing into the lung area. The vet pointed to one area and said “he’s developed mega colon”.

I’ll admit it…I started crying right there. I knew there was no easy coming back once this had developed. I had a good idea of the seriousness of it from my research into it in rabbits. Rudy was looking at me with even bigger eyes so I picked him up over my shoulder like he liked to be carried and tried to talk to the vet through tears. I asked again, just in case, if there was anything other than surgery…vet said the lack of fecal matter after that much laxative meant the medicine path wasn’t going to work. By then I was having a lot of trouble talking due to being upset so we went back into the examination room.

Once there, I was able to calm myself down enough to talk. Once again we discussed surgery and the risks and unlikely positive outcome at his age and condition. I looked at the vet and said OK, then it’s time. He asked me if I wanted to take him home and let anyone say goodbye and bring him back tomorrow. The look on my face must’ve been like shock and I blurted out the first thing in my mind-“he’s in pain, how can I knowingly let him suffer like this longer????? Who would do that?!?!?! “The vet looked at the assistant and said ok, we’ll be back.

I have to stop here. The next part is not for the faint of heart and breaks mine just trying to write it. But the decision had been made.

Sick cat vet visit number 1, tests and results

By nsmar4211

On August 9, 2022

In Animal Health, Cats and Dogs

(Part 1 here, when it started)

At 215pm, I was in the vet’s office with my cat worried and dreading what they would find. I suspected he was blocked, and since it had never happened before (not with bowel movements) I knew it was not good.

His regular vet was not available but the other vets that are there have been good so finally it was our turn to go in. I explained what happened to the vet assistant and had brought along the baggie of plastic pieces. She thought they looked like a twist tie too, but I told her no metal found and I haven’t had anything with that kind of tie in the house in weeks. At first she thought I had found them in the litter box so I had to re explain it was in his throw up. I also emphasized that he had never eaten non food objects before except grass and straw!

A few minutes later the vet came in and felt around his stomach. I explained the symptoms again and how he was uncomfortable looking to me, even though if you didn’t know him he looked OK. Since he did not feel anything outwardly wrong, he asked if I wanted an X-Ray and blood work, which I agreed to. One thing I like about this vet office is they do not push services on you and always ask what you want done.

They took him back and did the x-ray and blood draw and then brought him back to me. As typical of most animals, he was not a fan of the vet office and liked to retreat into his carrier, so I let him hang out in there while we waited.

A few minutes later, the vet came and asked me to come look at the X-Ray with him as he wanted to show me something. This is usually not a good sign in my experience! Upon looking at the X Ray, I saw large sections of air in his intestines in several places. There was nothing visible as a blockage, but only metal or bone would show up on an xray and not plastic. His stomach was also still full of food, despite having thrown up so much and not eating enough for me to be able to tell.

The bloodwork was ready and there was nothing “off” indicated in it at this point. The vet said he wanted to try a strong laxative and give him 24 hours and redo the x-ray to see if anything had moved along in his system. I asked what options we had at this point…he winced and said basically just the laxative. I already knew a 16 year old asthmatic cat was not a good candidate for invasive surgery and he confirmed it. I asked about massages etc and he said to try it…but no solid food, only liquids as he needed to see if the food progressed along the track.

The vet asked about his litter box as I had mentioned it was the auto type and asked how I would keep an eye on what he did. I explained I had already unplugged the box and put down a puppy pad, and Rudy was good at using the litter box even like that. This satisfied the vet.

So we went home with 3 doses of Lactulose (laxative) and a strict “no solid food” order. Upon arriving home, instead of running around like he normally did, Rudy just went up on the couch and went to sleep. I woke him up for the first dose of medicine which did NOT go over well-apparently it tasted bad. He did not once ask me for food, which was not like him-usually 2 hours and he’s begging.

Later that night when it was almost time for bed and I was reading in bed, he came up and laid down next to my leg. I started petting him and realized his stomach was getting harder and he was breathing a bit harder than normal, even taking into account his asthma. I petted him as long as he would let me and fell asleep with him against my head.

Sick cat…and threw up plastic

By nsmar4211

On August 4, 2022

In Animal Health, Cats and Dogs

Late Sunday night stsrted normally. I did my chores including feeding my cat Rudy…but he didn’t want his dinner. He drank all the liquid around it (wet food and I would add water since he liked the gravy it made) but none of the solid. Usually he cleans the plate so I thought that odd. I offered him some dry food and he grabbed some in his mouth so I thought he was eating it. A few hours later, he made the dreaded noise-glurp glurp glurp-and started throwing up. First it was a tiny bit of food, then a hairball, then varying amounts of liquid and stomach fluid.

The 7th time (!!!) he threw up I noticed something that looked odd in the fluid. Turned out to be several small pieces of a rubbery plastic!

It almost looked like a twist tie…but there was no wire. I haven’t had any plastic coated twist ties in the house in a long time and I always keep small items off the floor because of the animals.

My next thought was a cord, phone charger or something. I took a flashlight and inspected every cord in the house…nothing was missing a part. I even looked on the porch since he did sneak out there last week for a few minutes but found nothing. I then looked everywhere, even under beds for anything that looked like that…or missing pieces…and nothing.

He proceeded to throw up one more time and it was nothing but mucous and another teeny piece of the plastic. By now I was worried as he’s never been sick that many times, and he never before actually ate anything that wasn’t some sort of food. I decided that if he wasn’t OK by mid morning I would call the vet and make an appointment.

I stayed up a couple more hours with him to keep an eye on him. The vomiting stopped and he drank some water, so we went to bed.

Monday morning he outwardly seemed like he was OK at first. Then I noticed that he hadn’t touched the pile of dry food. I realized there was quite a bit of it pulled out of the dish and across the floor, like he tried to eat and couldn’t.

His litter box needed changing so I did that around 8am. I noticed there was not any normal sized fresh poop, only older stuff and a inch plop of newer…usually he goes 2x or more a day as a rule and always by 9 am. Plus his movements were dark and solid and the small one was bright and soft.

Around 10am he started going in…and out…and in…and out…and in…and out of his box. Last time he did that he had a UTI so back in the box I went to look for any evidence he might have “left”. I realized he had not peed nor pooped yet. Since his box was the auto kind, it makes it harder to keep any eye when you’re watching for “movements”.

I unplugged the box and put half a puppy pad on top of the litter so I could watch what he was doing. Turned on the computer (which is next to his box) and started working online.

Another couple trips to the box and he finally pooped…except it wasn’t normal. It was only a tiny tiny bit and upon inspection it was mostly mucous. I watched him walk and noticed he was walking peg legged and stiff like a person does when they’re bloated. Picked him up and realized his stomach was harder than normal and slightly bloated.

Now I’m worried that there was more plastic and he’s got a blockage. The vomiting, lack of eating solid food , and bloating added up to worry for me. I called the vet and explained the situation.

His regular vet was booked up but one of the other vets that fills in was available at 215…so 215 it was.

Pest Control and Rabbits

By nsmar4211

On June 14, 2022

In Animal Health, Rabbits

A post on Facebook reminded me of something that happened to a friend of mine. She sold a rabbit and a couple days later the buyer sent her this video asking what’s wrong.

This is a neurological twitch! Since the rabbit didn’t have it when sold, it had to happen after the sale. After some questioning and eliminating mishandling as a cause, it turned out the buyer just had the house sprayed for pests. This rabbit is a house rabbit. Despite the company not spraying near the rabbit, this happened. The residue is still in the house (that’s how the sprays work!) and the rabbit was exposed.

An old neighbor of mine owned his own pest control company and he’s the one who explained that the “safe for pets” only meant dogs and cats…they don’t test on rabbits, rodents, etc. He refused to spray inside a house if someone had any pets like that because of it.So if you’re selling, warn your buyers not to use bug sprays of any kind in the house!

BTW, cleaners kill bugs too…I dispatched a wasp with 409 yesterday. I’ve used Windex, dawn +water, and disinfectant spray as well (whatever was in my hand). Makes cleanup easier too!

This rabbit did recover after some time as the exposure was mild. The owner was instructed to not allow spraying in any room the rabbit has access to or put it outside in a shaded cool area for a week after spraying was done.

Lice in goats!! Eeek! Quick post of pictures of nits in fur.

By nsmar4211

On May 29, 2022

In Animal Health, Goat

My goats ended up having lice. Ugh. I thought the black goat had dandruff (the blurry picture below), but a vet told me nope. Those are nits. I looked closely at the white goat’s fur and was able to see them as well, pictured below. So if your goat has “dandruff”, check closer-it could be lice!

Vet showed me to try and pull it off-the lice nits stick to the fur and don’t pull off like dandruff would. Also showed me how they were in layers on the hair, hair keeps growing so the ones close to skin were new and the ones further away were the ones that hatched before that.

When asked about mites, he said mites you aren’t going to see easily with naked eye, but you’ll see them rubbing excessively on everything they can.

Good news is humans and goats do not share the same lice and mite species. Whew!

Sick goats-treating for lice and coccidiosis ( and some awesomely cute pictures )

By nsmar4211

On May 21, 2022

In Animal Health, Goat

Well, I managed to get everything together needed (recommended by vet and things I’ve read online) to treat my trio.

Kaolin Pectin is for treating the diarrhea in the two with it. They weigh 6 and 9 pounds each so I’m giving them 3cc each.

Micro B-12 to boost their nutritional amount of B12, given per label instructions.

Adams Flea and Tick Shampoo…which ended up being almost empty so I used a new bottle. Pyrethrin was the important ingredient the vet wanted me to use and Adams has worked well for me in the past on other animals. I wish they’d put better labels on! As you see, handling and them getting wet wears them off.

Dectomax is a doramectin sold as an injection. Everything I’ve read and heard, and the vet confirmed, says do orally. Apparently goats “process” their feed quicker than other animals so the doseage has to be adjusted higher. I settled on 1ml/35 lbs, ORALLY for their doses. I still had to have a needle (bag behind the bottles) to draw it out of the bottle though, and gave it using a 3cc syringe (not pictured).

Probios was to restore some of the gut flora from being sick, given at label dose. They LOVE the taste! I could only find cattle version so turning the dial was veryyy slow :).

The yellow packet is electrolytes, I mixed up half a cup worth (using package directions) and gave everyone 6 ccs orally. Usually you put it in their water, which I have been doing, but I wanted to make sure they all got some.

Last up is a generic for Baycox-Toltrazuril- which per the vet local breeders have said works the best. I had to get the generic as the name brand was out of stock everywhere, I got it online from a racehorse supply site. He said Corid would be next up to try if I didn’t have that, but you have to do it for 5 days in a row and supplement thiamine. The Toltrazuiril is a one day dose given orally, rate is 1cc/5lb.

Fun part is , all of this will be repeated in 10 days again :).

So after wrestling three little goats, singly, in a nice warm shower I got to have a little fun…This is a towel. Oh, no, my shower is not pink…that’s weird…but anyway this is a very cute towel isn’t it?

Tada! See? Cute! Bambi was not much of a fan of a bath, although she was quiet until I stepped out to grab all the supplements….then the whole neighborhood could hear her!

Back out in the pen after their baths, three goats all lined up getting an apology handful of pellets :). You can see that Molly (far left) is feeling good with her tail nice and perky. Bambi does have abdomen now so she’s filling out slowly. Lizzy (far right) never showed signs of feeling bad, but her eyelid color is improving so the lice treatment seems to be helping.

Here Molly is checking out the minerals…vet said it was ok to start them on em. Left is plain baking soda, and right is Manna Pro brand Goat Minerals. I had gotten them since it was a smaller bag and I figured 3 goats are not going through 25lb of minerals that quick. The vet confirmed my choice as well and said he recommends that type over the generic bagged minerals anyway.

Face picture of Lizzy…who still is very shy of being petted although she is realizing I come with food. And she likes food!

Sick baby goat now feeling a little better but still depressed

By nsmar4211

On May 19, 2022

In Animal Health, Goat

Ew!! Not that! Aka Sick baby Goat Vet Results

By nsmar4211

On May 17, 2022

In Animal Health, Goat

Well, she’s still not feeling good. Another picture of the attitude of a sick goat:

Through the breeder I got the number of the vet she has used before and set up an appointment. He came out that evening (luckily he had a meeting not far from me) to see the goats. He agreed that the smallest did not look like she was feeling well and took fecal samples from all three. I was used to fecals being off found pellets, but apparently now you take the manure right out of the animals’ butts! I’ve seen them do it for the cat and dogs, but they use a plastic loop thing. For goats you apparently get to go right to the source with a finger…but in these little guys even a finger is huge and I had 3 very unhappy goats when it was done!

While he was there we discussed possible outcomes and treatments and I showed him the list of medications I had recently gotten. Turns out I’ve gotten a large majority of what I may need already.

I showed him the dandruff on the back of the black goats’ head…andddd it turns out it was lice nits!

Lice! On MY goats!!! *shudder*. He saw the look on my face and laughed, let me know that goat lice are not transmittable to humans. Whew.

Add that to the list of things to treat for! He showed me how you could tell when the nits attached-basically the further away from the body the nits were, the longer ago they attached themselves. He told me to go ahead and treat everyone for it using the Dectomax I had on hand as well as a bath in any Pemetherin containing shampoo. I asked if the Adam’s brand was good, he said yes. He also told me repeat the bath in 12-14 days to get the next batch of lice, and if still some do it again after that. Below is a blurry picture of the nits on the girls’ head, and one of it in the fur of the white one which I discovered after the vet left….

Well. That’s fun. NOT.

We spend a few more minutes discussing goats and discussing my plans to get the supplies to do my own fecals in the future (already ordered). He left with a promise to let me know in the morning the results.

The next morning bright and early he sends me a text and tells me all three have coccidiosis, and the smallest one was heavily infected! I suspected it in the smallest one based on the dirrhea and attitude but now it was confirmed. He said to get them treated NOW, especially the smallest one. Based on what I had on hand, he suggested Corrid or Baycox as the treatment. He also told me snag a sample of feces from the smallest and keep it in the fridge until my supplies come in. Said it would be great to learn on as there were a lot of coccidia visible in her sample, and it would keep for up to a week in the fridge.

Next up…bath and treatment time for everyone! This is not going to go over well!

What does a sick baby goat look like and the start of the treatment saga.

By nsmar4211

On May 5, 2022

In Animal Health, Goat

After bringing home 3 baby goats to start my herd, I noticed that the smallest didn’t seem to be feeling good. When I had picked them up , the white one had diarrhea suddenly but I was hoping it was just stress. I gave everyone a dose of Selenium and Vit E as they had not had anything yet (7 weeks old). Two days later, the smallest still wasn’t feeling good. This is how she was standing. Note the head carried down, the ears flat and facing backwards, the hunched up back, and the wet tail being held behind her instead of up or relaxed.

Top view showing the ear carriage as well as the sunken in area in front of the hips.

And this is how she was in the pen-note the backwards low ears and how she’s propping her head up against the fence.

At this point I checked her for dehydration and found that she was (by gently lifting a piece of skin away from body and seeing how fast it went back flat…hers “tented”). I then spent the rest of the day giving her Kaolin liquid, electrolyes, probios, and as much fluid as I could syringe into her mouth.

After 10 hours of treatment, and a dose of ScourGard (a pig medicine useable in goats at 3x the label dose), she was no longer dehydrated and she started struggling when I picked her up (much better sign than the limp body). At one point I noticed the little pieces of hay in the bottom of their hay bowl and put a pinch in her mouth. She immediatly started chewing it up and nosed my hand, so I ended up giving her a good sized handful of the little pieces that she ate.

At this point I started looking for a vet I could either take them to to have their feces checked or one that would come to the farm. I knew it wouldn’t be cheap to do but it needed to be done!