Meningeal worm or genetic defect?

I've been reading what has been posted about meningeal worm and fear that I now have my second case of this nasty worm on my hands. I have 7 goats. Eve, our doe 2 years ago, 4 months after her first kidding showed all signs on meningeal worm. We treated her for this with safeguard, 3 days in a row, with the addition of Vitamin B. This saved her from what we believed to be Meningeal Worm. She survived, walks sway back, has a good life but can not be bred. Deer still jump in the paddock and we can not keep them out for all we try. 

2 years later, now, her only daughter Patches, 4 months after her first kidding shows signs of meningeal worm, well, really, the complete loss of use of her legs. Not walking in circles, not able to walk as of today. So I went and bought the same stuff again, but have not used it. They say you can't diagnose meningeal worm easily, but after death. So I am taking her to the good vet tomorrow to find out what it really is. I had decided to keep her buckling intact for breeding, but now am very hesitant.One vet  last time would NOT diagnose Meningeal worm as they said it was so unlikely in goats, and treated her with steroids for a bone problem. A better vet diagnosed it and gave me the idea of using safeguard and Vitamin B. But we never confirmed it really was M worm. 

Any ideas? Is there something genetic that would lead these does to both be the only ones to get this worm here? 

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  • Culling does not meaning killing. It simply means eliminating from your herd because they're not right for your management or your goals or your farm. You could sell her to someone who doesn't have deer visiting their property all the time, or they don't have the snails that are needed as the intermediary host. It's a bizarre but lethal combination that causes m-worm in the few goats that are susceptible to it. Between our creek (perfect home for snails) and woods (perfect home for deer), we know that it's going to be an ongoing problem for us unless we can get another livestock guardian that keeps the deer away. I knew our Anatolian kept our animals safe from coyotes and coons, but I had no idea that he had been keeping them safe from m-worm until months after he died. So many time we'd hear him barking and look out to see deer in the field across the road, 1/4 mile away and heading away from our farm because of his barking.

  • My vet too said that without going to MSU and getting spinal tests done for lots of $$$ he could not confirm, but that when it looks like meningeal worm they treat it with the three shots I mentioned. I have restricted Patches movement and locked her in my best little pen where she can see all her friends :) I am milking her onto the straw to relieve her. I have transitioned her food from 1 cup of mixed grain twice daily to be 1 TBS mixed grain plus a pile of alfalfa pellets. I read somewhere that bagged grain can exacerbate the condition. Not sure about this decision but it seems alright. She is calm. She stands up and moves around, and is now laying with her feet under her instead of straight out in front. I am contemplating giving her one more dose of Safeguard/ferbenz..... today. Still on the fence about what to do with all of this. I have never culled any animals, but I know that in my future I will have to learn how to sustain this herd. I appreciate all of the information you have both shared. Thank you. 

  • Oops! I hope you didn't think I meant you should get rid of your whole herd. I simply meant that animals that are susceptible to meningeal worm should be culled. (Because the vast majority of goats are not susceptible to it.) And it doesn't sound like your most recent goat had m-worm anyway. What you described sounded like a simple case of an intestinal worm.

    Misfits Farm said:

    The vet did tell me that a fecal check will not help with detecting the Meningeal worm.  Since she really did not have pale eyelids or  gums, I was not so sure it was worms and maybe it was founder.  Doing a fecal check was her way of telling me she had worms.  No, we do not worm monthly with ivomec plus and no, I'm not ready to cull my herd.


  • Thanks for clarifying what happened. Anemia (pale eyelids) is only a symptom of barber pole worm. There are other intestinal worms that do not cause anemia, so she could have had one of those. 


    Misfits Farm said:

    The vet did tell me that a fecal check will not help with detecting the Meningeal worm.  Since she really did not have pale eyelids or  gums, I was not so sure it was worms and maybe it was founder.  Doing a fecal check was her way of telling me she had worms.  No, we do not worm monthly with ivomec plus and no, I'm not ready to cull my herd.


  • The vet did tell me that a fecal check will not help with detecting the Meningeal worm.  Since she really did not have pale eyelids or  gums, I was not so sure it was worms and maybe it was founder.  Doing a fecal check was her way of telling me she had worms.  No, we do not worm monthly with ivomec plus and no, I'm not ready to cull my herd.

    Deborah Niemann-Boehle said:

    Meningeal worm does NOT show up in a fecal in any animal other than white tail deer. If it was merely an intestinal worm, it would not cause so much trouble. If goats have it, it will be in their spinal column, so a spinal tap is the only diagnostic test used, and it's not even 100% accurate. If your goat had meningeal worm, and if the initial treatment did not kill the meningeal worm, the goat would have either been dead or still debilitated, paralyzed or whatever. What you describe is NOT the treatment for m-worm. 

    I really hope that when you say your vet put you on Ivomec Plus, that you do NOT mean a monthly dose. That is a somewhat workable strategy with llamas and alpacas, but it is a terrible idea with goats. Barber pole worm will get resistant to the ivermectin, and then you will having goats dying from that. As I said, goats are actually very resistant to m-worm, so your best bet is to simply cull your herd of all susceptible animals, if deer are a continuous visitor on your farm.

    Misfits Farm said:

    We lost our two llamas and a goat to what the vets believed what was the Meningeal worm a few years ago.  They put us on Ivomec plus that we give orally to the goats.  This summer one of our goats went down and the vet thought it was the meningeal worm again.  They gave her the ivomec plus as a shot and gave her banamine and then I gave her panacure wormer for a few days after that.  I had a fecal check done  two weeks later and I had to give her a repeat dosage after the initial treatment.  She is doing really well now.  Her mother was the one that died.  We have a lot of deer around and I ended up moving the pasture to a smaller spot that I know the deer will not go to.

  • Meningeal worm does NOT show up in a fecal in any animal other than white tail deer. If it was merely an intestinal worm, it would not cause so much trouble. If goats have it, it will be in their spinal column, so a spinal tap is the only diagnostic test used, and it's not even 100% accurate. If your goat had meningeal worm, and if the initial treatment did not kill the meningeal worm, the goat would have either been dead or still debilitated, paralyzed or whatever. What you describe is NOT the treatment for m-worm. 

    I really hope that when you say your vet put you on Ivomec Plus, that you do NOT mean a monthly dose. That is a somewhat workable strategy with llamas and alpacas, but it is a terrible idea with goats. Barber pole worm will get resistant to the ivermectin, and then you will having goats dying from that. As I said, goats are actually very resistant to m-worm, so your best bet is to simply cull your herd of all susceptible animals, if deer are a continuous visitor on your farm.

    Misfits Farm said:

    We lost our two llamas and a goat to what the vets believed what was the Meningeal worm a few years ago.  They put us on Ivomec plus that we give orally to the goats.  This summer one of our goats went down and the vet thought it was the meningeal worm again.  They gave her the ivomec plus as a shot and gave her banamine and then I gave her panacure wormer for a few days after that.  I had a fecal check done  two weeks later and I had to give her a repeat dosage after the initial treatment.  She is doing really well now.  Her mother was the one that died.  We have a lot of deer around and I ended up moving the pasture to a smaller spot that I know the deer will not go to.

  • We lost our two llamas and a goat to what the vets believed what was the Meningeal worm a few years ago.  They put us on Ivomec plus that we give orally to the goats.  This summer one of our goats went down and the vet thought it was the meningeal worm again.  They gave her the ivomec plus as a shot and gave her banamine and then I gave her panacure wormer for a few days after that.  I had a fecal check done  two weeks later and I had to give her a repeat dosage after the initial treatment.  She is doing really well now.  Her mother was the one that died.  We have a lot of deer around and I ended up moving the pasture to a smaller spot that I know the deer will not go to.

  • The vet was very helpful and said we may have caught it early enough. Her eyes look great, as well as her health, aside from her weak legs. She stood up to get her shots. He gave her Ivomec, banamine, and dexamethasone. He said he has seen meningeal worm in goats, but that of course, it is rare that 2 in the same herd would get it. We shall see....

  • Thank you thank you for sharing your experiences and all you learn from them. IT is so helpful Deborah. Patches is still down, we are heading to the vet this morning, expecting very little, just confirmation really. I started the Safeguard and Vit B yesterday. She did stand up a few times yesterday. The blog article was very helpful. Strange that I have 2 in my herd as well.

  • Here's a blog post I wrote about m-worm:

    http://www.homegrownandhandmadethebook.com/2013/12/m-worm-nightmare...

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