Our first five goats included
3 three-month old unregistered percentage Boers
(brush goats), 1 adult ½ Boer and 1 adult
Nubian. The two adults had just kidded when we purchased
them, so we asked the seller to keep them until
they were bred back. When we picked them up on 5
Jul 99, we anxiously started our 5-month long wait
for kids.
When December rolled around and no kids,
we determined maybe the does weren't bred after
all. By this time we had purchased a few additional
does, so we went to a friend and asked to rent a
buck.
Thus the arrival of Topper. Now, no one
had bothered to tell us, at this point, about quarantining
newly arrived animals (among other things we weren't
told when we first got into the goat business).
So Topper arrived on the scene, jumped off the truck,
and immediately went to work – breeding two
does within minutes of his arrival and the rest
within the next two days. We kept Topper about 45
days – just to be sure everyone was bred.
About the time Topper was leaving us, we
determined that Dora, our then-11-month old just-bred
doeling, was blind. We came to the conclusion she
was blind when she started walking into the walls
of the barn. Bertie and Paul Hillhouse arrived to
announce, "pinkeye." Their suggested "cure":
throw salt in the eye.
Now, salt sounded rather painful –
not to mention cruel. We called the vet. He confirmed
the diagnosis of pinkeye. Dr. Galbraith said she
probably caught pinkeye from Topper; Topper was
a carrier even though he had no evidence of the
problem himself.
Pinkeye, also known as conjunctivitis,
is extremely contagious, spreading from goat to
goat. Our first recommendation is to isolate any
goat with pinkeye immediately! Pinkeye is caused
by several organisms and can be transmitted by flies
or dust. A goat with pinkeye will have a cloudy
area in the center of the eye or will appear to
have an ulcer on the cornea.
Instead of salt, Dr. Galbraith gave us
an ointment, Neosporin, to put in the eye twice
a day; he also told us to keep her in a dark place
with easy access to food and water.
I probably forgot to mention that Dora
was the most wild of all our goats, and she didn't
care for Dr. Galbraith's treatment. She probably
wouldn't have minded if we had a way to put the
cream in the eye without getting near her. We were
persistent, though, and treated Dora twice a day
– when we could catch her – for 10 days.
It took months before she totally regained her vision….if,
in fact, she ever totally regained her vision. She
kidded 4 months later – twins born in a briar
thicket.
Two years passed before our second case
of pinkeye. Since we hadn't brought in any new animals
for quite some time, our vet determined this time
the cause was bacteria spread by flies. He recommended
we squirt Oxytetracycline (Oxy-Tet 200, Biomycin
200, Liquamycin LA 200, Geomycin 200, Agrimycin
200, or Maxim 200) into the eye. This seemed to
clear up the problem in about two weeks.
This past December Liza had twins on Christmas
Day. It was a week before Lucky
was able to walk, so Liza was kept in a rather confined
area. When the babies were about three weeks old,
we noticed a foggy film over both of her eyes. Liza's
pinkeye was caused by the fine alfalfa falling from
the hay rack into her eyes – something we
actually witnessed.
By now we were able to recognize pinkeye,
and we have a close enough working relationship
with our vet that he accepted our diagnosis and
told us to stop by to pick up some medicine. The
treatment consisted of a mixture of equal parts
Dexamethasone, Gentomycin, and sterile water. This
mixture could be dripped into the eye or sprayed
and was by far the best, least expensive, most effective
treatment to date. The eyes cleared up totally in
10 days. We also recommend washing the area around
the eye with Listerine to cut down on the chance
of flies transmitting the disease to other animals.
NOTE: Gentomycin cannot be injected into meat animals,
but since this treatment is topical it is permitted.
