So, I had a couple of doelings born a two weeks ago in the cold, and I already had posted on here about their frostbitten ears. Anyways, they are doing good, the frostbitten parts of the ears look like they will fall off soon, and hopefully that goes good. How do I look for infection and prevent infection?
I am just slightly worried about one of the doelings. She was the smaller of the two, and her weight gain has always been a little less than her sisters. Birth weights were 6.19 and 6.27 lbs. I forgot to weight them yesterday, but today they weigh 10.37 and 11.49. Which seems pretty good, right? they are 1/2 ND 1/2 Alpine.
They both are jumping around and are pretty active (especially since the temp is up to 45 degrees after being in the negatives for the first 1.5 weeks after they were born!). But I noticed that sometimes when she stands, she holds up one leg. At first I thought that she was just lifting it up to scratch herself, but I'm not sure, sometimes she just stands like that.
I had worried about them getting frostbite on their legs, so felt them quite often after they were born to make sure that they were warm. Do you think that frostbite on her leg/hoof would be quite obvious by now? Or any suggestions? I read that frostbitten legs would start to loose hair, but haven't noticed any of that. How does a frostbitten hoof look? Do you guys think this would be a worry?
sorry, this is all over the place, but hopefully it makes sense. If not, feel free to ask for clarification on any part.
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Here is an update. They both have lost the tips of one ear, and their other ears are pretty close to losing the tips. So far so good. I have continued to soak Sunshine's hoof twice a day, and put on iodine in the morning, then vetericyn gel in the evening. I haven't seen any significant change, but no pus or anything. Her temp has been close to 102 degrees every day, so that is good 🤞 I'll add a picture of her hoof.
I trimmed the fur from the area so that I can see the area better. This pic is from about a week ago. The only change is that it almost looks like the tip of the hoof is slightly shriveling...but I can't say for sure. The purple color is the blu-kote.
Thanks for the update.
is she still favoring that foot or starting to use it more?
tammy
Yeah, she does seem to be using it a bit more. And it only seems to cause her pain when I press on it with a little bit of force (which is much improved). When she runs, she uses her leg like normal, when she walks, she has a slight limp, and when she stands, she holds her leg up slightly. Compared to her sister, she lays down a bit more to rest her hind leg I'm assuming.
But do you guys have any idea how much longer it would be until I start seeing the tissue die and fall off? Or will I not see that with the hoof? Or maybe her hoof wasn't frozen as bad as I was expecting 🤷♀️ I don't know. I guess I'll just have to wait and see, and keep it clean to prevent infection!
I do not have an exact answer for you on that hoof, but I have an opinion :)
I think if it was severe you would have already seen tissue sloughing. Since that is not the case I believe it may gradually have healthy tissue replacement as the damaged areas grow off over time. Much like when a nail bed is damaged and gradually grows off because the injury was not bad enough for the entire nail to fall off.
tammy
What about the outer part of her hoof that flaked part ways off when she was a few weeks old? Is there any chance that it will grow back? I know I am asking questions that there isn't always an answer too, but any ideas? Thanks 😊
I think it's just going to be a wait and see game on that area of the hoof. She may just have a permanent indention there. I really hope you keep us updated on this so we can all learn from it!
thanks so much for keeping us informed :)
tammy
How frustrating. A few posts that I had read said that when their goat got frostbitten hooves, there was swelling. Which I haven't seen with hers. Do you think I will? I just feel so bad about this whole thing. If she ends up loosing her hooves, would the best option just be to put her down?
I sent pics of both hind hooves. Do they both look bad then?
Ears falling off from frostbite is kind of like a scrotum falling off after banding. It's dead, so unless it gets dirt in there, it's probably not going to get infected. In fact, ears seem far less likely than a scrotum to get infected because they are on top of the goat's head as far as possible from the ground, unlike the scrotum that is on the ground when the goat is laying down and there are crevices where dirt can get lodged. If it gets infected, it'll be hot and possibly smelly with pus. If Mom didn't get a CDT a couple of weeks before birth, then there is a small chance of tetanus, but that's pretty rare. Mortality for that is almost 100%. If a goat gets tetanus, all of their joints lock up, and you can't bend them or open their mouth, etc.
The purple hoof is worrisome. What worries me is that if only the hoof pad got frozen, it could fall out, then you'll have a big hole where dirt and manure can get caked in there. But there is nothing you can do at this point other than watch. I'd check for pus and a bad smell. The fact that she is holding it up indicates that it hurts, so that's a bad sign also.
And I guess another thing about the purplish hoof is that all of her hooves have a bit of that coloring, and also her sister's. But her sister isn't favoring a leg or anything. Which is why I just figured that goats hooves may just be that color...but then again, I have never really examined the colors of my baby goats hooves 🤷♀️
Okay, sorry. I just checked closer, and her sister only has some purple on both of her hind hooves. Not her front ones. Then Sunshine (the one I'm having issues with) has some purple on all of her hooves. There is more purple on the one that she favors. I just feel so terrible, because it must be hurting her 😞 I was in the stall examining them all closely, and she went to a comfy spot and sat down like a dog for a bit. I wonder if both her back legs hurt. The poor thing 💔
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