Bottle Jaw, in the words
of Dr. Ralph Noble of Tuskegee University, is a
result of ‘worm overload.’
Bottle Jaw is actually edema, fluid that collects,
in this case, underneath the chin of the goat.
When we bought Julie, a
well-marked, overly friendly percentage doe, in
Aug 2001, we immediately wormed her before getting
her off the truck and into our quarantine pen. About
2 weeks later we determined she still had parasites,
so we wormed her again, using a different ‘family’
of wormer. Two weeks later we noticed the beginning
of a bulge underneath her jaw – checked her
again for worms – and wormed her again. This
regime went on for almost 3 months. The edema continued
to enlarge, and her gums continued to get more and
more pale. But, she never came off feed and never
appeared to be losing weight. Unfortunately, she
was of an age where she should have been in a growth
spurt.
After almost 4 months of
our treatment, this sweet doe she started to go
down hill. Her coat lost its luster, and her appetite
started to wane. When she became lethargic and started
to lose weight, we realized we were out of our league
and took her to the vet. Our instruction to Dr Galbraith:
either cure her or put her down. We did not want
her to suffer.
He did a fecal analysis
and announced she had coccidiosis, a higher than
preferred parasite load, and anemia. In addition,
she was severely dehydrated.
For the next 10 days,
Julie was on an IV at the vet’s office. We
got progress reports daily. At first the reports
were guarded; she was not responding to treatment.
Then we noticed a tone of optimism. Finally he called
and told us to come get her – but medication
would need to be administrated for the next three
weeks.
When we picked her up,
the swelling had decreased, her coat texture was
improving, and we thought we detected a twinkle
in her eyes. At any rate, she was happy to be going
home.
For the first five days
she was home, still in the quarantine pen, she was
given an antibiotic, IM. In addition, she was given
vitamins (Fortified Vitamin B Complex) every other
day for three weeks and given Red Cell orally twice
a week for three weeks. The Red Cell must taste
absolutely horrible because Julie would sling her
head for several minutes trying to get it out of
her mouth.
By the end of her first
month at home, the bottle jaw (edema) had gone away,
her coat was nice and shiny/slick, and she had dark
pink gums. She was gaining weight and the vet pronounced
her healthy. Finally she got to join the herd.
She has since kidded twice
- 3 girls and a boy, all correctly marked, healthy
kids. We plan to use her this fall in a receipt.
After all she’s just a percentage does, but
she has excellent mothering ability.
We have found that Julie
is more proned to parasites than most of our other
does. Whenever we do a spot check for parasites,
we include Julie more than any other.
Since our experience with
Julie, we’ve made a effort to learn not only
how to prevent bottlejaw, but also how to ‘cure’
it.
To prevent Bottle Jaw,
always check fecals to determine if you wormer is
working.
Should one of our goats
become anemic due to an overload of parasites, we
immediately start them on Geritol – we give
an adult does (5cc) once a day for three days, then
every other day for a week. We also give 3cc to
5cc (depending on size of goat) doses of Fortified
Vitamin B Complex, 2cc Vitamin A, D, E and 2cc BoSe.
We have heard of people giving human Vitamin E caplets
once a day for two weeks, but have not tried this
yet.
Another ‘remedy’
for anemia is ‘Magic.’ We do not know
the origin of the ‘Magic’ recipe because
many people on the Internet goat – chat lists
claim it, publish it, and use it. To mix up a batch
of ‘Magic,’ use one part corn oil (DO
NOT substitute with vegetable oil, olive oil or
canola), one part molasses and two parts Karo Syrup.
Give 2 oz. 4 times a day.
