glenolam's madness - April passed away

[GOOGLE NIKOLA TESLA]

Interesting that its the pure breds. Sometimes that can mean inbreds decreasing the genetic diversity which would help with the animals immune function. Yes like in dogs , mutts are usually better temper and overall better health, it must apply to the other animals as well.

Still want to know how they do it in poor countries, is it just a higher death rate in the animals, or are the animals stronger??

 

[glenolam]

Did a search on meningeal worm.

Wow..that's April to a T.

Curved spine, limp in one leg, no obvious pain or depression, continues to eat and drink...even has started biting her sides.

Huh...

Looks like she's going to get dosed with ivomec today followed by Safeguard tomorrow and for the next 5 days. Then I'm going to retreat 10 days from today.

Wow.

ETA - left a message to have my vet call me. The office worker (who's super nice and knowledgable) said that meningeal worm is like the black plague around here this time of year. I explained that I had just put everyone through treatment for coccidia and strongyles so before I bombarded her with this round I wanted to know their opinion.

She said that the dosage is super duper high of a multitude of stuff and in addition you have to give them vitamins and supplements because the treatment depletes their immune systems...

When it rains it pours....slugs and snails...

I thought I took care of these white tail deer on Thanksgiving when we massacured 5 deer. GAH!

Looks like I'll just have to do a better job and take down a few more this year.

 

[ksalvagno]

My girl is 73 lbs and I dosed her with 1cc of Ivomec (injected). It seems like the injected dosage of Ivomec isn't totally clear so I'd rather do more than less. I definitely don't see a reason to do 1cc per 30 lbs injected though. It isn't the Ivomec so much that helps but the Safeguard. You do have to make sure you get the 1cc per 7 lbs into her. Since my girl was 73 pounds, I just made it 77 lbs and have been giving her 11cc of Safeguard.

 

[glenolam]

Wow....poor thing. I know how hard it is to get that much into them...I had to dose the DiMethox at a high amount and had to get 20ccs in her once a day for 10 days.

I agree injected ivomec shouldn't be at the oral dose but you never know. From what I've read this is a pretty nasty bug to get and it takes a lot to get rid of it.

I also read that the nerve damage will never be repaired - did yours get that far? April's spine curves up at her rump and I'm worried it'll never go back down. If it doesn't straighten out, I'm concerned she'll have problems kidding. From what I was told, she usually throws triplets!

 

[ksalvagno]

My girl wasn't bad at all. I noticed on the milk stand one time that she would occasionally drop her back end. Thought she was just being difficult. Then the next day she wasn't interested in eating her grain and when she walked, she occasionally dropped her back end (like her knee gave out or something). Always able to catch herself but as soon as I saw that, I thought of meningeal. So she got treatment right away so it never progressed beyond that. The treatment that I'm using is the alpaca treatment but I was told by my vet that it is the same for goats.

With your girl, I would give her Banamine 3 days in a row. It is safe for 3 days. Alpacas have a big problem with ulcers and a study was done on Banamine and ulcers in alpacas. They found that Banamine give 3 days in a row was safe and no alpacas got ulcers. I don't remember how many days it took before they did start seeing ulcers from Banamine since the study was done so many years ago. Dosed at the regular dosage of 1cc per 100 lbs.

Depending on how bad they get before treatment depends on how well they recover. I have taken care of alpacas with meningeal worm and they ranged from looking totally normal to having a permanent limp or back end problem, not to mention death.

 

[ksalvagno]

i gave her the Ivomec and the Safeguard the same day, along with the Banamine. Right now, I'm just doing the 5 days of Safeguard and probably won't repeat it. The Ivomec is a preventative for meningeal and not a treatment. It actually has been a very long time since I have had to take care of an animal with meningeal worm so I don't remember all that was done for the alpacas that had confirmed cases of it.

 

[glenolam]

Well, hopefully I caught it fairly early. Yes, she's had weight issues for some time, but it was only this weekend I noticed the hunching and limpness.

C'mon vet...call me back!

 

[ksalvagno]

The back end limpness is your first sign. I hope your girl recovers just fine.

 

[Shiloh Acres]

I hope she recovers. Like you said, when it rains it pours!

Thinking about mutts vs purebred goats. The one I could NEVER get rid of all the worms and stayed anemic was full Alpine, but she appeared healthy otherwise. Her kid was Alpine/Nubian, but just one generation down. He has issues with lungworms sometimes. Otherwise he's pretty strong and HUGE though his color seems like he's a bit mineral deficient (and I do give loose minerals).

The doeling that went down fast from barberpole and almost died was pure Nubian. She's still tiny and her hooves tend to overgrow and she's just not a good doer. Probably the least healthy of my remaining goats.

The doeling that almost died of infection as a tiny bottle baby was a real mutt mix. But otherwise she's been quite strong and healthy. Her doeling this year is incredibly strong and healthy so far, after a few rough first days. People can't believe she's so young -- almost as big as my yearling Nubian doe and full of energy and attitude. She's the most genetically varied goat too.

On the other hand, my Nubian buck, and a Nubian doe I had last year have had zero issues. I wormed them during barberpole season last year (they did have them) but never have done anything else for them.

Too small a sample anyways. But since they are just for me, maybe I won't worry about re-establishing more purebreds. I'm liking my little all-mixed-up doeling so far (though she is over 50% Nubian).

Interesting to think about though.

 

[glenolam]

I talked with my vet and since April was only lame in her back legs, in no apparant pain and meningeal worm isn't something you 'wait and see' about she agreed the best course of action was to treat for meningeal.

I have to give her panacure (safeguard) at a dose of 1cc / 5# for 5 days. I have banamine and she said I could give that to decrease inflamation if she went down or could no longer walk.

She said I should treat everyone else with 1cc / 75# of ivomec to prevent it in all the other goats.

From here she said I have a 50/50 shot...either it's too late or she'll bounce back but there's no way to determine how far along she is since it's such a quick progression to death.

Send happy thoughts!