Childrens pet goat (help)

[ridgerunnerinwv]

We have a goat that is about 5 years old,she was orphaned and we bottle fed her and raised her needless to say she is very tame.The last 2 weeks she has been falling down a lot and having trouble getting up and she does not stand very long and then she falls down. I think her hips are going bad but I am not sure, anyone here have any idea what they think might be wrong ? She eats fine but she just cannot hardly get around any. Maybe she is just a victim of old age ??

 

[dougj7]

bring her to the vet and have her checked for lyme disease.

 

[ridgerunnerinwv]

bring her to the vet and have her checked for lyme disease.

Thanks Doug,
Nature took its course, she passed away overnight. I went to the barn and found here after I made the original post,took the old JD 4400 and 4 in 1 bucket and dug a nice big hole in the ground and got her covered up nicely. I am glad it happened that way.

 

[DAP]

Thanks Doug,
Nature took its course, she passed away overnight. I went to the barn and found here after I made the original post,took the old JD 4400 and 4 in 1 bucket and dug a nice big hole in the ground and got her covered up nicely. I am glad it happened that way.

5 years old is 'bout halfway through most goat's life span. What type of goat was it? I would definetly want to know what killed her.

 

[Egon]

One site to check.

BBC NEWS | Health | UK experts test for BSE in goats

 

[N80]

BSE is bovine spungiform encephalopathy, aka mad cow disease. BSE type illnesses have been documented in deer in the western US so it is not a long stretch for goats. However, there are dozens of other more probable causes.

An autopsy by a state agency would give you the answer, but you may not want an answer.

Do you have cows?

 

[roxynoodle]

There is some disease that affects goat's knees and seems to shorten their life span. I can't remember what it's called but have a friend who raises goats and I will ask her. Her first goat had it and only lived to be about 7. I believe it is an inherited disorder. Goats can apparently live a long time because mine is almost 13 (though I think he has probably been living on borrowed time for awhile now).

 

[dubba]

There is some disease that affects goat's knees and seems to shorten their life span.

It is called CAE..

Caprine arthritis encephalitis (CAE) is a lentiviral infection of goats which may lead to chronic disease of the joints

It does cause them to live shorter lives & have joint problems, IMHO it is usually passed on to the offspring which is nursed (even once) by the mother (or another). There is no cure that I am aware of

 

[deereguy]

I used to show sheep in FFA and 4H, we picked up a bug on the show circuit called "wasting diease", brought it back to our flock and many of the sheep died of it. We could have culled the flock, but didn't have the heart to put them down, they were babies. The disease effects the animal by not allowing it to get up/or walk, they will eat fine and poop just fine, but they don't have the strength to get up and walk (had an autopsy performed after we lost a Grand Champion ewe). We had a llama die (in the past few years) that basically did the same thing, he would try to get up but couldn't. We found out from a vet that its a disease that deer carry in their fesus that if digested thru llamas it can be fatal. The deer graze where ever they want, therefore also poop where they want.

I'm not sure if what I mentioned above matters or not, but 5 years seems like a short life for a goat, sounds like it had a happy life full of love.