Okay all. I have probably talked about this doe enough, but I need some opinions again. Starlight, my 4.5 yr. old doe, is really hard to figure out. Her history...I got her 2.5 years ago, and she had an occasional cough then. That has never changed, really. Sometimes worse, sometimes better, but not significantly so. She has also occasionally had a snotty nose with no other symptoms and not acting ill.
This past winter/spring, when she was heavily pregnant, the nasal mucus got much worse. She was very stuffy and snotty, like a two year old with a cold. Think of when a two year old with a cold sneezes...that kind of snot. Just white to slightly yellow. However, she freshened with healthy triplets, good weights, nursed them all very well, and gave a quart every morning at 6 weeks fresh. She was much less congested and snotty through the summer.
Well, she's gotten terribly snotty again. Same as at the end of her pregnancy. She sneezes and flings off or licks off lots of snot. I can sometimes hear it when she breathes, especially in the A.M. Sometimes I can see that her breathing is a bit labored by looking at her sides. It's better during the day and in the evening. She is otherwise healthy. Not loosing production any more than the others, or more than normal. No fever. Eating normally. Not loosing condition. Poop normal. Normal activity level. Coat shiny and normal.
She comes from a herd tested negative for CAE, Johnees, and CL (as did all my goats). Also, she has never passed any of this on to any of the other goats, even though they live, eat and drink together.
My does are going into their first strong fall heats right now. Two were bred today, and Starlight could go into heat any time now. I feel like I need to make a decision about her condition. I have to decide if I need to take a trip to the vet with her before breeding her again (three hour drive one way) or just continue on with her thinking she must have an allergy or something. Any thoughts from others are appreciated, even though I know I'm the one who has to decide in the end.
She kidded in March, and this is her in June. She's at the front right. The second photo is her and triplets the day after kidding.
Replies
Thank you for the input, Astrud. Now I wish I kept better notes about things. I did get new hay at the end of August. I sure hope it isn't that, because I really can't do much about that since I bought about a years worth of hay all at once. 200 bales in the barn. It is meadow hay, full of all kinds of things. Probably every wild flower we have as well as leaves and shrubs with the grass. I hope the herbal allergy stuff I should be getting in the mail this week will help her. :)
You may also tried to isolate what is causing the allergies. This summer our old pony started coughing, so we called the vet and she thought that it could be allergies, since she did not notice any sings of pneumonia or some infection in the lungs. She put him on a antihistamine and also told me to give him some cough syrup when he was going to get ridden. After talking to the lady that trained him, I realized that I had gotten a new batch of hay (timothy, which he has had before but from a different supplier). So I bought some orchard grass to give just to him and his cough was pretty much gone the next day. Hay is very dusty and may contain some allergens she can't seen to process. For horses, some people will soak their hay for a while before they feed it to the horses in order to get rid of all the dust and mold that may be present in it. That is peculiar that she acts up in the spring and fall, that is when allergies typically flared up. Just some ideas. Hope you find out what is making her cough and have a runny nose.
I have been thinking that for the last two years, but decided to really think about it some more and make sure I wasn't ignoring something important. I'm still leaning toward thinking it's an allergy of some type too. Not sure yet about giving benadryl, but am trying it for a couple of days. Gave it last night, and this morning she seems to have responded to it just like I do. Still stuffy but all "dried up". I hate that feeling. :(
Rachel Whetzel said:
That was my thought... that it might be allergies.
Upon the advice of another goat group, I've decided to try actually trating Starlight's condition as an allergy for a while and see if it improves. Some suggested benadryl, others a homeopathic or herbal remedy. I ordered some herbs in a tincture that are supposed to help upper respitory congestion, and bought benadryl today. I am leary about using benadryl, but I decided to try it tonight and see what happens. I mostly am trying that because I was told that an allergy untreated can lead to a sinus infection. I don't even know if that's true or not. I am more concerned about using an antibiotic if it's not necessary than the benadryl, but not by too much. I just don't like drugs. Hate even taking Ibuprophen or tylenol myself.