Another Lesson

[Taffy]

Morgan has had me buffaloed.  I don’t like being buffaloed!

It started with a weepy right eye a couple of weeks ago.  Not like it was infected – just weepy.  No fever, eating fine, acting normal.  He ended up losing the hair about ½” below and forward of the eye. The skin looked like normal skin just a little redder than normal.  I thought it was because of the weeping accumulating there and irritating the skin.  The hair began growing back right away.

Then his face swelled below his eye.  Same thing – no fever, eating fine, acting normal.  I texted my vet, Matt.  When he got back to me he said he was in the mountains elk hunting and would get back to me ASAP.

   

The next day the bridge of his nose had swollen making him have a Nubian looking Roman nose.  Now I was really getting concerned!  Still no fever, eating fine, acting normal.

Since the Matt wasn’t available I had been talking with Debbi, a goat friend who is also a licensed vet tech and owns an in-home pet car business.  We decided to try Benadryl.  It didn’t have any effect.  Next I gave him a dose of banamine since it is an anti-inflammatory along with being a pain killer.  Still no change 12 hours later.  I checked his eye color using the FAMACHA scale.  He was right in the middle so I decided to de-worm him with Cydectin.  None of these things would have an adverse effect on him and could possibly help.

Matt got back to me this past Saturday and said he’d come out Monday.

Yesterday the eye wasn’t weeping and the swelling was gone but he had developed a quarter sized lump about 1” below his eye and another one on the bridge of his nose about 1” below the eye set.  Still the same thing – no fever, eating fine, acting normal.

Matt came this afternoon.  After taking Morgan’s temp (normal) he examined Morgan’s entire head and inside his mouth.  Then he examined each of the lumps in detail.  When he shaved the lumps and manipulated them it was obvious that even though they felt hard they had pus and were infected.  He was in the process of losing the hair in those areas.  Matt said if it was a different time of year he would think he had been bitten by a snake.  But with that ruled out he felt it was spider bites.  He felt the reason the eye was weeping is because the swelling had closed the eye's drain tube (I can't remember the proper name).

He lightly debrided the lumps and treated them with iodine.  For the next 2 days I’m supposed to wash the lumps areas with warm water, lightly debride them and reapply iodine twice a day.  On Wednesday night I give him an injection of Excede.  I fly to Colorado on Thursday (goats ALWAYS have bad timing for these things!) so Debbi will do the treatments each evening when she feeds my goats and give him a 2nd injection of Excede on Saturday.

I’m always learning something new!  Not that I WANT to – it’s just – goats will be goats!

[Sanhestar]

I had a similar thing happen to one of my goats last spring although located on the underside of the jaw. Turned out to be an abscess from a piece of thorn or prickly scrub that had imbedded itself into the mucous membrane of the mouth and then worked its way out through the skin.

[Charlie Horse]

Woodstock had a horrid abscess this summer in his sinus area in front of his eye. The vet thought it could even be a tumor based on the lack of air bubbles in the xray. 2 weeks of good antibiotics didn't do much for him. In the end it burst into his sinus. I know because I spotted some snot that smelled about as bad as a case of thrush in a horse's hoof. He's ok now but the bone was distorted a bit and it may never totally flatten out. Poor guy was in a lot of pain but the vet was wary about poking holes in a goat's nose. He said its a complicated bone structure compared to a horse (I suggested he just stab it and see if it was puss for an abscess or blood from a tumor). His teeth looked perfect though, so the vet didn't think it was caused by something in his mouth. For sure it was based too high for that, and thus we thought it was more likely a tumor. I really thought I was going to lose him for a bit there... Worst case is it causes tooth trouble down the road because it was moving in on the tooth base. We'll see in a few years.

It sounds like your goat has a much less worrying type of lump under the skin. I say it could be a snake-- I have to say I got a bit warm today working in the driveway. Some years it has frozen on November 1 and stayed frozen till March.

[Nanno]

Aw, poor Morgan! I hope he heals up quickly!

[Taffy]

Here's a photo of Morgan's head today.  It doesn't seem to phase him.  When I was rubbing the spots with warm water and lightly debriding them he actually leaned into my fingers!  The spots must be itchy.  He's being such a good boy when I treat them.  He loves the peanut treats!
   

[DownUnder Gal]

Thanks for sharing this story Taffy. I always find it useful to learn from other people's medical challenges with their goats, even though we obviously don't want them to get sick. How is Morgan now?

[Taffy]

Morgan is doing great. The two spider bite sites are almost fully healed. He lost the skin and hair but it growing back.