Lost a baby goat yesterday

It happened fast, and nothing I could find online at the time really fit his symptoms so I'm hoping you guys will have some suggestions.

He was 6 weeks old. Found him about 1 in the afternoon, lying down, when he went to get up he couldn't really stand and fell over on his back, very uncoordinated. I picked him up and realized he was also foaming at the mouth. I tried to set him back down again and he still couldn't stand or really use his legs. We are new to goats, so we called the lady we got them from (we got mom and 2 babies right after they were born), and she thought it might be frothy bloat so we treated as such. Syringe fed him oil and baking soda and massaged his rumen. It did what it was suppose to, he burped and puked A LOT. Did this for hours until it seemed like he had nothing left. His tongue lost color. Kept him warm and kept gently massaging his rumen, but he never really improved. He was content to sit in our laps. I again tried to see if he could stand, and he fell over. He died around 5.

Was it really frothy bloat? I couldn't find anything that implied that would cause loss of coordination.

Is it more likely he ate something poisonous? Or a snake bite? All of our other goats are fine and they were grazing in the same area.

that stinks.

We had similar symptoms in a calf this year, it turned out it had swallowed a hedge ball and got it lodged. I suppose something similar could happen to a goat.

mud bailey wrote:It happened fast, and nothing I could find online at the time really fit his symptoms so I'm hoping you guys will have some suggestions.

He was 6 weeks old. Found him about 1 in the afternoon, lying down, when he went to get up he couldn't really stand and fell over on his back, very uncoordinated. I picked him up and realized he was also foaming at the mouth. I tried to set him back down again and he still couldn't stand or really use his legs. We are new to goats, so we called the lady we got them from (we got mom and 2 babies right after they were born), and she thought it might be frothy bloat so we treated as such. Syringe fed him oil and baking soda and massaged his rumen. It did what it was suppose to, he burped and puked A LOT. Did this for hours until it seemed like he had nothing left. His tongue lost color. Kept him warm and kept gently massaging his rumen, but he never really improved. He was content to sit in our laps. I again tried to see if he could stand, and he fell over. He died around 5.

Was it really frothy bloat? I couldn't find anything that implied that would cause loss of coordination.

Is it more likely he ate something poisonous? Or a snake bite? All of our other goats are fine and they were grazing in the same area.

Mud: You are not to far from me, and what you are describing sounds like the kid ate some Jimson weed, but it should all be dried and gone by now. We lost a kid several years ago to Jimson and it was not an experience I ever want to have again. If your kid got real anemic from Barber Pole worms you could see this same effect, but you would normally see bottle jaw first.

Sounds like he ate something poisonous to me. Lots of plants can cause frothing at the mouth. If he had bloat, he would have had a very distended belly. Did he?
Did he have fever? Vomiting usually follows after a poisonous plant. When I've had animals with frothy bloat, it was usually because some unauthorized person opened a pasture gate and let them into a lush pasture after a heavy rain and they just ate too much of it. Then, when I administered the remedy, and the oil, they didn't vomit, they just passed gas and had diarrhea for a while. Can you give us more details?

If he did eat a poisonous plant, the best remedy is to give them charcoal or something to absorb the poison, and baking soda to neutralize the acid. I usually follow that about 20 or 30 minutes later, with something laxative to sweep the poison out of the system, like a dose of Epsom salt, followed a few hours later by slippery elm to heal the irritation to the gut. You have to keep the nose below the eyes when administering a drench by mouth and do it very slowly so it doesn't go into the lungs. When an animal is thrashing, have someone help you, that is dangerous for them. Inhalation pneumonia is very bad. We have Mountain Laurel here and sometimes they get out of the pasture due to a tree falling on the fence, and get into it. Hasn't happened in a few years though.

I had one goat get snake bit a few years ago and she only had neurological symptoms and was lying down and could not get up. Her head was spinning and she could not track her eyes. Then they start to swell up near the bite site. Giving 5000 units of Vit C, waiting 30 minutes and following with another 5000 units, worked pretty fast on my dog when he was bitten by a copperhead. Gave him ruta graveolens, crushed up in a little water and squirted that into his mouth. Also crushed up plantain and put it all over the bite, which was on his lower lip. It worked fast, within a few hours, he was up and walking and quickly running around. You could watch the swelling go down. Pretty lucky dog. Neither animal vomited with snake bite. This remedy is in the Juliet de Bairacli book, [u]Herbal Handbook for Barn and Stable[/u].