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     Maggie Leman Moderator Username: maggieleman Post Number: 215 Registered: 07-2005 Posted From: 71.111.216.141 Rating: N/A |
Giving a ruminant oral antibiotics is often very bad for their rumen and intestinal microbes. And when that isn't the case those same microbes just digest the antibiotic as just another protein, so it doesn't do any good. An injection is pretty much your only option. To make giving injection safer and easier put a collar on her, secure her with a short lead to a fence and press her body against the fence with you leg (putting her butt in a corner helps even further), or put her in a head gate or milking stand. Rub the spot where you are going to give the injection briskly, this seems to somewhat desensitize the skin. Pinch up a tent of skin in the area of her front arm pit right behind the elbow and inject her there by putting the needle in at a steep angle quite shallowly but definitely all the way under the skin. Release the pinch of skin and inject, be careful to inject slowly enough to not blow the needle off the syringe. Pull the needle out and briskly rub the area again to dispurse the medication and reduce sting. Penicillin (procaine penicillin G the most common kind sold) actually has an anesthetic in it to keep it from stinging (procaine a very fast acting and short lasting type of novacaine). If you are going to keep goats this is something you are going to have to learn to do. The needle moving around doesn't really do much damage at all especially giving the injection SQ (just under the skin). The needle breaking off or moving around causing damage is a "Daytime Drama Dilemma", not much truth to it but sounds dramatic and dangerous. I use a 20 gauge needle, 1 inch in length. For the best results I use a separate needle when pulling up the medication and then put a fresh needle on the syringe to inject the goat with. The needle actually gets very dull when you push it through the stopper of the bottle and a dull needle doesn't go into the skin very well causing more pain. You can reuse the needle you used in the bottle if you recap it very carefully, but needles are pretty cheap really. Never reuse a needle that you have injected an animal with. Nearly all injections can be done SQ even if the medication says IM only. I haven't done an IM injection in years I give all supplements (Bo Se, vitamin injections), vaccines, and antibiotic injections SQ. My goats like it much better, hurts alot less for a shorter time than an injection into the muscle. If you have a large isolation stall you can pen her with a herdmate for company. Be sure she has water and plenty of hay to occupy her time. If the pasture isn't muddy she can go outside with the herd, goats naturally choose clean places to lie down. It is too late for a stitch if the wound happened yesterday and it is amazing how fast these kinds of wounds can heal especially if kept clean, dry and infection doesn't set in. Hope these hints help, doing your own doctoring gets easier with practice and gives a great sense of satisfaction that you can take care of most emergencies yourself. Look on the articles page for The Medicine Chest. It gives a very good list of things to have on hand to handle most emergencies. If you have these you can often consult with your vet or a knowledgeable goat keeper, come up with a treatment plan and you will have the supplies needed to start right away, maybe even saving a visit from the vet and speeding your goat back to good health. I look forward to you joining the Goatworld community! Maggie Leman Goat 911 Capri Medic | ||
| (Unregistered Guest) Unregistered guest Posted From: 66.45.66.78 Rating: N/A |
This wound happened sometime yesterday, and I think healing has already "begun". I imagine a well placed stich wouldn't hurt, but an emergency vet visit is unlikely right now. I've also got some spray bandage here for people, a decent coagulant possibly. I will prepare her a bedded area and isolate her. Hope she doesn't get too bored/lonely.  Is there an alternative to SQ injection? I am simply very very terribly inept at injections. Last time I had a goat try and take off on me, and I could feel injury occur as they did. I would prefer an oral dose, or at the least, advice on SQ injections and needle sizes. HanPen-G available at the neighbor's house I believe, checking later. Thank you very much for your prompt assistance, I will be joining your membership ranks very very soon. taylorb@cornbread.com | ||
| Maggie Leman Moderator Username: maggieleman Post Number: 214 Registered: 07-2005 Posted From: 71.111.216.141 Rating: N/A |
A doe can easily feed two or more kids from one side. Do you have any colostrum banked? If you don't you might want to milk out some colostrum from the uninjured side when she kids and tube feed it to the kids to be sure all of them get some. A a feeding tube and syringe should be in the OB kit of very goat owner. Tube feeding done correctly (and really its pretty hard to do it wrong!) is a real life saver. You can get a tube and big syringe from nearly any vet and very good instructions are on the articles page under Kids and Kidding. You can even milk nearly all of it out and divide it between the kids, giving an ounce or so by tube every hour or so for the first 8 hours. Then wait and see if she will nurse them or be ready to help her out by giving supplemental bottles to all of the kids (both you and the doe raise the kids together, they get the best of both worlds). Even if she is too sore to nurse them she may well mother them in every other way, letting you do the feeding chores. I have had a couple of does like this, one lost her entire udder to gangrenous mastitis but she mothered many babies while I fed them and a couple of others just had too many kids to be able to feed all of them everything they deserved. The articles page has a very good homemade milk replacer recipe. I would stick with the neosporin, it si a very good broad spectrum salve. Keep the wound as clean as possible. Maybe put her in a very well bedded stall so that she can always lay down where its clean and dry. Start her on penicillin 1 cc per 20 pounds by SQ injection twice a day for 5 days. You might get a vet to look at the wound ASAP. Perhaps a well placed stitch or two would help but this has to be done today to do any good. Feel free to call me if you need me to talk you through tube feeding.... Maggie Leman Goat 911 Capri Medic | ||
| (Unregistered Guest) Unregistered guest Posted From: 66.45.66.78 Rating: N/A |
One of my does has apparently somehow wounded one of her teats and it is leaking milk from the side. The other teat is uninjured, but a little scratched up it would appear. I have slathered some Neosporin into the wound, but it is a rather nasty wound. Since she's about to kid, and I don't know how many kids there will be, a pair would be VERY bad right now. What can I do to keep her healthy and save these kid(s)? I might have some sulfa-based salve available later today, and some penicillin coming. However, with her about to give birth, I'm kinda nervous as to what to give. Ideas? Suggestions? I'm heading to the feed store shortly. Thanks, taylorb@cornbread.com |