Pathology Results

[Lill Roberts]

G’Day Everyone,

 

I just wanted to let those of you who were interested, that the pathology report resulting from my dead doe was not very helpful in determining her cause of death.

 

There were no clear signs of any well known toxins.  Again, it was her lungs which seemed to be only area where she wasn’t healthy.

 

As disappointing as this is, it has provided us with a clue to helping us manage our flock.  On the night before she died our doe was very reluctant to move.  We put it down to her sore feet.  We cleaned out her hooves and sprayed her feet with purple spray. (Sorry forgotten the name). Yesterday two more does (one coincidentally or not was the sister of our dead doe) were reluctant to move, but otherwise seemed OK.  We called the vet, and the diagnosis was that they had a lung infection.  This was treated with a long acting antibiotic.  Today both does seemed to be more prepared to move about.  So it seems that our poor doe may have been seriously weakened by a lung infection and this may have contributed to her demise.  We are planning to buy a stethoscope and learn how to use it. 

 

So if you are in a wet area and have goats reluctant to move, it may pay you to check out their lungs, rather than do what we did and assume it’s due to sore feet. This may be difficult as none of the three goats mentioned in this email appear to have breathing difficulties. I suppose the question has to be asked why they had lung infections. We are working on that, and our prime suspect is our hay.

 

Anyhow, I hope the info in the email is useful to someone.

 

All the best

 

Lill