Sadly, I had to have Lunchbox euthanized yesterday. He contracted tetanus from having him disbudded. In the future we will live with horns rather than make another baby go through that. Major suckage. Poor little goat baby.
Melissa Thom Webboard User Reg: 12-04-2007
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Can I ask how he was disbudded? I've prob disbudded a few hundred goats at this point in my life. I don't ever recall one getting tetanus or even giving a tetanus shot with disbudding.
We took him to a supposed "goat vet" who used a tool that was probably sized more for calves. He gave him a CDT at the same time, but since immunity takes 10-14 days and infection only takes 3-5, kinda a moot point. Having never seen it done, I was clueless, but from pictures I have seen, it looked to me like he burned waaay more than was necessary. It could have been meningitis or encephalitis as well, but from the hypersensitivity to sound and the rigidity, the ER doc felt pretty sure it was tetanus.
Melissa Thom Webboard User Reg: 12-04-2007
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Well it always looks pretty bad. It should have a copper penny color to it but there should be flesh still there. It is unpleasant business. I never disbudded a cow, I'm not sure how similar the process is since our calves were always veal and never allowed to grow up to steer size so we just left the horns on them.
Now that I look it up they do suggest a tetanus booster prior to disbudding but honestly I don't recall us ever doing that (a decade ago).
It's all so contradictory. "They" recommend vaccination prior to disbudding, but then "they" recommend disbudding at less than a week of age, while vacc. isn't recommended til 3 weeks of age. I'm confused. Still.
Melissa Thom Webboard User Reg: 12-04-2007
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As with many things an experienced mentor makes a big difference. Preferably someone with a long time goat habit. At the farm there was a friend of the family who was a 25 year dairy goat farmer who was always out for Sunday meals in spring to talk about the herd and buck swaps for the fall, swapping good new sources of cheap filler hay for goats, and comparing pictures of kids that might make the cut to be our next great herdsire or show goat. I'm not sure we could have done it without her.
I know - he was fine Friday, then Sat. morning I noticed he was moving a little stiffly. I suspected then what might be happening, so I brought him inside and started him on penicillin on the recommendation of the large animal clinic at Oklahoma State University. He went straight downhill fast after that. By Sun. afternoon he was no longer able to even nurse from the bottle, just barely move his lips to suck at a syringe. So first thing yesterday I took him in to be put down.
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