Disaster last night, my beloved goats got into some poison as I was herding them to their barn house for the night. I've read up on what to do and antidotes on this forum and Fiasco Farm website to prepare myself to deal with it today. But I have never used a drenching syringe and am unsure on it's proper use. I am hoping I can get some help. On the Fiasco Farm website it says:
"To use, stick the metal nozzle into the side of the goat's mouth, and back just a little further than the back teeth. You need to stick it in far enough, but not so far you jam it down their throat."
If I stick it down the side of the mouth, should the nozzle be between the cheek and the teeth, or between both rows of teeth and just angled on the side?
When I give my dog liquid medicine, after administering the liquid I hold her mouth shut so she takes a gulp. Do you do this for my goats too? I thought I read somewhere not to do this? If you don't hold their mouth shut, won't they just shake their head and let all the medicine fly out? That happened to me once with my Australian shepherd and Pepto Bismo, made a terrible mess and I doubt she got any in to her. (When I called the vet he laughed and told me I was meant to give her the pill form, only I was so distressed I didn't think about that!).
Does anyone know of a Utube clip that shows how to drench? I did a google search but didn't come up with anything.
Any help is appreciated. I didn't get much sleep last night and am pretty foggy this morning. So I am trying to make sure I am prepared ahead of time. Thanks.
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I have seen the poisoning by roddy's so many times on here. We have some in the garden and keep the gates secure but I have decided to dig them out. Hate the idea that we could have something so toxic in the yard and no gate is always 100% secure. Accidents happen.
My little goats sure mean more to me that those plants. So glad your little goats are okay Judy. It is bad enough that we have bracken ferns in the woods -but spend many hours walking around pulling them up in the spring and early summer in the areas we take the goats. Missed one last year and watched my girls zero in on it during a walk - they didn't get much of it before I pulled it up. The woods are full of things for them but they have to go after something you don't want them to eat.
Judy,
We live just out of Melbourne at the beginning of the Yarra Valley (Lilydale).
We have the first ND goats in Australia. It was a major project to get that going and is still an ongoing process. So far, the five kids we had are going well and we plan to have more (from fertilised embryos) on the ground by Sept. next year.
If you get back to Australia, come see us!
How long have you been in the U.S.? I am a vagrant Yankee. My wife and I came here for work about 24 years ago (for a year and a half - haha!) and stayed. My family is still in the U.S.
-Michael
Michael,
I'm glad there was some entertainment in this little drama somewhere! It looks like we got lucky on this episode. After more than 48 hrs no one has shown any ill effects from the incident. The only thing noticeable is that they went crazy over baking soda for a while. We are breathing a huge sign of relief and we have changed our barn and fence configuration to make sure this doesn't happen again. When they all decide to get in to mischief, they can be a handful.
Give us an update on how your NDs are doing in Australia. Where exactly are you located? I was born and grew up in Melbourne. When I was home on a business trip about a year ago I was looking to visit ND farms but I couldn't find any. At the time I was surprised and thought it odd.
Judy
Michael Garwood said:
Judy,
I sure hope they are all OK after this dietary excursion.
I have to say though, your description of what happened had us in stitches this morning!
Trying to get these creatures to do something, like NOT go where you are going, is just a riot and an invitation for chaos. It is, well..., like herding goats! I suppose. We are discovering very quickly that they are wilful.
Again, hope they are all OK.
-Michael
Did a quick search online and found this -- http://www.library.illinois.edu/vex/toxic/rhodo/rhodo.htm -- as Julia said, they'd be sick within six hours.
Thanks Julia and Deborah for your input. We are at 23 hrs and so far everyone is OK. The bush has been removed and I am up to speed on how to use the drenching syringe when I need to. I am cautiously optimistic.
Goats actually have a very high tolerance for poisonous plants. It was even mentioned in one of Michael Pollan's books -- he said that they taste small amounts of everything, and if one makes them feel off, they don't go back to it. Anyway, I'm pretty sure you would have found sick goats this morning if they'd eaten enough to make them sick.
Well I am hoping that I got lucky. But I saw them eat and snack. It was a crazy scene. Husband and daughter were not home so there was no one to help. Normally putting them away is a calm routine affair, very orderly. It was getting dark and as I opened the gate they charged it, I guess they were cold and ready for bed. Then one found the bush at the bottom of the hill. I ran to get her away, and all the others followed and started snacking on the leaves. Not knowing what else to do, in my desperation I sat on the bush and tried to push all the branches under my hind end, all the while screaming at them and pushing away those that were snacking. I thought I was successful and then I realized that one branch was sticking out behind me and one goat was chowing away. This is the only time in my life when I wished I had a larger rear end. Oh it was awful.
My goats were vomiting after about 6 hours after they ate the Mountain Laurel. Maybe yours didn't actually swallow any (fingers crossed!). They would have reacted by now unless they only ate a tiny bit. Recently one of my does ate a bite of azalea but didn't have any reaction. Hopefully it was too small an amount to cause a reaction. Not sure if you should drench them... but I'd like to hear what Deborah says.
I hate to say it, it was the dreaded rhododendron. We moved into a rental property for the winter months while we take the winter break from building our homestead 3 miles away. We moved the goats also over here at Thanksgiving for the winter so we could more easily care for them. I thought I'd taken care of all the toxic plants, but I learned last night that there was one I didn't know about but they apparently did. I feel awful. This morning I cut the bush down.
For the night they had plenty of warm water and baking soda in their barn, this morning too. It has been 19 hours since the incident. So far no one is showing any adverse signs, except they are unusually interested in baking soda (I always have it available as free choice but they rarely touch it). They are acting normal and out and about, eating hay and doing normal goat things.
My mistake, I thought that activated charcoal was given only if they show adverse signs. What should I do at this point?
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