Author Topic: Help, Goat with swollen face. (Read 15119 times)

Antz · « **on:** August 21, 2011, 09:55:37 pm »

Need some advice on what to do after reading some scary stuff on the interweb.
This morning Angus our 4yo pygmy cashmere cross had a swollen face, from his throat his cheeks and to under his eyelids on both sides. He is fine otherwise, drinking and eating normal (he's the boss so always gets first dibs of anything going), everything he passes is normal.
Spoke to the vet who seems to think its a reaction to something he's eaten or a sting of some sort because it came on so quick and is fine otherwise (I thought he looked normal yesterday evening). The coarse of action is to make sure he doesn't get any worse, give it time and hope it starts to go down tomorrow.
Now I've been reading about bottle jaw, anemia, copper deficiency etc and its got me a bit worried. Is there anything else I should be looking for.
Thanks. Ant.

Beewyched · « **Reply #1 on:** August 21, 2011, 10:04:12 pm »

Hiya Antz,

I'm guessing pretty much the same as your vet - as long as he (the goat

) is doing his usual "thing" & hasn't got a temp, hopefully he'll be back to his usual self soon. Although the web is a great source of info, sometimes it's a case of too much info - I should know, I "research" almost anything & drive my OH up the wall

Hopewell · « **Reply #2 on:** August 21, 2011, 10:45:21 pm »

Sounds like a sting to me and will probably go down over the next 48 hours.
Bottle jaw would just be a swelling under the jaw and not the whole head. (Often due to liver disease so would expect other symptoms)
Anaemia wouldn't usually cause a swollen face and if you look at the gums they would be pale. Also if severe enough will result in breathing difficulties.
Copper deficiency again is unlikely to cause a swollen face and more likely to cause other symptoms first, eg coat colour changes (black hair looks rusty) and can also cause anaemia.

Hatty · « **Reply #3 on:** August 21, 2011, 11:27:35 pm »

I have had a bit of a incident with one of my goats yesterday, while browsing on some hawthorn, all of a sudden she bolted to the gate post and started banging her bottom jaw against it, she then ran into the shed, and dug up all her bedding burying her head under it she would not let me near her to have a look and was butting me.
This morning her bottom jaw was slightly swollen not as bad as you describe but quite noticeable. now every time something buzzy

i.e. wasp, bee comes any where near she does the goaty version of the wasp dance jumps about shaking her ears and head.

When I put them to bed tonight I found a dead bumble bee where she was burying her head, so I think she had bit of more than she could chew so to speak.

Hope Augus is ok

wytsend · « **Reply #4 on:** August 22, 2011, 06:19:08 am »

There is another possibility.

Swollen under the jaw can also be oedema caused by a worm overload.!!!!!

The oedema results from damage to the gut by the worms but can be cured by a course of worming with an Ivermectin based wormer. I would worm in any case at this point if only to eliminate this as the cause. We all tend to think of stings at this time of year but goats are very resistant to insects.

All animals carry a worm burden... in actual fact they need a few on board but there is balance and when that is overloaded, it can cause all sorts of reactions.
I have a female whose gut was overloaded before I had her and as soon as I see the slightest oedema she gets some Ivermectin. Do not underdose... this can cause as many problems as it cures.

jaykay · « **Reply #5 on:** August 22, 2011, 02:09:33 pm »

The worm oedema is what's called bottle jaw isn't it? If so, the pics I've seen of it the swelling is more under the jaw than the whole face but it's fair to say I haven't seen it in my goats in real life.

It sounds to me like an allergic reaction too, given that it's up under his eyelids even. Poor fella, hopefully it'll go down and he'll be feeling better soon. One of my goat kids had a lump on the side of his mouth that appeared suddenly and went down over a couple of days and I think that was a sting.

Anke · « **Reply #6 on:** August 22, 2011, 02:24:03 pm »

Given the fondness (almost madness) my goats have for (currently flowering) willowherb, I am surprised that (so far) no-one has been stung... I have had to watch my fingers when cutting it too...

A worm overload would almost certainly be accompanied by loose droppings and a rough looking coat (the coat would be very obvious at this time of year). So I think on balance your vet is right.

Has anyone in this situation crunched an antihistamine into their favourite food? Just wondering...

Antz · « **Reply #7 on:** August 22, 2011, 09:34:02 pm »

Thank you for your replies and advice. Panic over, the swelling has reduced and he now just looks like he has a double chin. It was just me preparing for the worst case scenario again.
Quick question about worming, I have just been using panacur as supplied by the vet for two and a half years. After doing research I have found we should be periodically changing the type. Having wormed recently is it safe to give a new one so soon.

jaykay · « **Reply #8 on:** August 22, 2011, 10:01:54 pm »

Good to hear he's improving

Re worming, I'd wait until you're due to worm again and swap then.

Hopewell · « **Reply #9 on:** August 22, 2011, 10:54:24 pm »

Quote from: Antz on August 22, 2011, 09:34:02 pm

Thank you for your replies and advice. Panic over, the swelling has reduced and he now just looks like he has a double chin. It was just me preparing for the worst case scenario again.
Quick question about worming, I have just been using panacur as supplied by the vet for two and a half years. After doing research I have found we should be periodically changing the type. Having wormed recently is it safe to give a new one so soon.

Glad to hear he's improving - probably was a sting if it is going down that soon.

The advice you found on periodically changing wormers was probably not the most up to date. At one time it was thought if you change your wormer every year then it would stop the worms developing resistance to the drugs that are used. Resistance still developed and it has since been realised that this was a fallacy. There were 3 main groups of wormers and the original advice was to rotate between each group, so what happened is it took, say, 15 years to develop resistance to all 3, whereas if you just used one wormer you probably had resistance in 5 years, then you change the wormer and if 5 years time .... so you still end up with resistance to all 3 in 15 years time. (You can argue over the time frames but the principle is still the same.) Current advice is threefold: use worm egg counts to ensure worming is required; rotate grazing to reduce the challenge of worm build up from permanently grazed pasture eg graze the hayfield after it is cut and allow the original field to rest; and thirdly to use refugia. Refugia is the idea that you don't attempt to kill all the worms, either by not treating all the animals at once or by putting the animals back onto the pasture they have just been on and presumably has worm larvae on it. Each time you use a wormer you are selecting those worms with resistance, so if you don't subject all the worms to that selection pressure then the next generation of worms will have genes for non-resistance as well as genes for resistance. By reducing this selection pressure the build up of resistance is slowed down. If you research the subject you may find this idea of refugia in reference to sheep, but the principles apply equally to goats. So often with our goats we have to extrapolate from sheep or cattle.