09/30/2026
Goat learning experience AND Angel update!!! Long read I will warn you now.
I can honestly say......Ive seen it all, just about, now with raising goats. I believe we are dealing with our very first cases of meningeal worm and it has not been enjoyable in the least.
First, it was one of my bestest, yes I know thats not a word, and sweetest original goats, our wether Handsome. I thought he had been acting a bit off for maybe a month or so, but he was eating fine and clearly drinking fine and his weight was alright. Yet, he seemed to be off by himself a lot which was odd. So, I kept my eye on him. But, last week I just felt like he was getting worse. Droppy ears, sorta just blah. Made note one morning before work to sort him off later that night and check him over good. Got home and went to find him, but he was nowhere to be found. I thought wth is laying dead somewhere in the pasture I cant see bc of the grass? So, headed out through the garden and was going to get the Kubota. Then, there he is...standing in the garden in my grapevines and trees in one of those half moon wire cages. He got himself stuck in there and couldnt really backup. He looked just crappy. Grabbed his collar and pulled him out of there and down to the barn we went. While walking to the barn Im thinking to myself wth is going on here exactly? First thoughts were polio or listeriosis maybe, then for whatever reason it popped into my head perhaps this is meningeal worm? Google the first two and pretty quickly dismissed both. So, decided I think this is what we are dealing with here. Now, not lucky for a friend of mine, but helpful for me she had already delt with a case of this in a young buckling. Honestly, probably why it popped into my head but he was acting way different than hers had been. So, I sent her a texting asking for her protocol and Josh went to Googling some stuff. We started an aggressive treatment plan for him and Josh made him a temporary pen in the milkroom. This was just a strange thing to watch. He started circling in one direction in the pen and would stop and stare at the wall or stick his head in the hay feeder but not eat. Barely ate all except for a little grain for the first several days and his weight tanked. I thought well this is gonna be a s**tty way to loose one of my favorite goats ever. He just looked so crappy. His eyes like glazed over kinda and just overall listless. I think on day 4 he seemed to finally start eating the alfafa in his feeder and more grain. Day 5 of treatment I felt bad he was in the milkroom and brought him out into the barn so he could have more room to walk around and get some sun. He would still do similar things and lay around, but I felt like Id seen a tiny bit of improvement. As of now, he is still in the barn kinda the same, but his eyes do look somewhat better and he is eating better. Yet, he is far from recovered in my opinion. Please say some prayer for my sweet boy. He has been one of the best pets Ive ever had.
Then, it hit our very nice mature Oberhasli buck Argo like a bat outta hell. That one was absolutely heartbreaking to watch. Not only heartbreaking, but a massive challenge to deal with bc he is about 180lbs. Last Friday I had a bad day at work and was p**sed off and frustrated I decided to take 4 hrs of leave and left early for the day. Upon arriving home, I pulled into the driveway and happened to look over to see my sweet big boy laid out in the lot in the wet grass. I rolled the window down and yelled his name. No response. Yelled again and saw one of his ears twitch, but he would not get up. Immediately knew I had some sort of emergency on my hands. I parked the truck, ran inside, dropped my laptop down and let the inside dogs out. Grabbed my boots and threw them on flew out the door. Running down to the barn through a ton of muck and mud since by now wed gotten almost 3 inches of rain. Soooo not pleasant. Start off through the barn and out the door running all the while calling his name and finally heard that sweet soft goaty call he does when he sees me. Trust me, that hit my soul like a ton of bricks and I hollered "Im coming! Im coming my boy!" Get to him and he is like all stretched out and his eyes wide. He tries to move but he cant get himself up. Im standing there thinking what in the hell is going on. I have no idea how, but I sorta rolled him over and he was able to pop up himself. Im thinking did he just slip in the wet grass and get a bad spot and couldnt get himself up or what? I watch him and he goes backing to grazing. His normal get on his front knees and grab some grass and start munching. Ive always found that to be weird, but he has always done it, so that is his normal. Then I notice he is just walking off in his hind end. Laxidaisy and shifting his weight back and forth in those back legs. I was like what is going on. Then he just lays down. Im thinking wth? He gets up and does this a few more times. Then, the last time he walks over by the hay bale and his hind end just collapses. I was like oh s**t. He tried to get up, but couldnt and was hollering. It was then that it all clicked. I knew right then and there I was right with Handsome and this was ironically our second case of meningeal worm. Like wtf are the chances?!?! This time though he the presentation was strikingly different in a lot of ways. But after knowing what my friend went through and having just refreshed myself with researching it, I knew sudden paralysis or weakness in the hind end was a symptom. Im standing there thinking how in the hell am I going to get this 180lb buck back into the barn?! I go get a sled we had and pull down to him. Proceed to attempt to roll him onto it. I have no idea how I did that myself. He was SO heavy and mind you he was still trying to get up, so a bit of challenge. I assume it was pure adrenline on my part. Try to pull him and moved him maybe 2 to 4 inches before I realize there is no way in hell I can do this on my own. On the phone with my husband and he says call the neighbor and see if her husband is home. Hangup and dial the neighbor. Thank goodness she answers. I explain what is going on and they head over. Now, they are not livestock people so they had no idea what they were walking into. Lol. They arrive and when they get there are like omg he is BIG! Uh yeah, too big for me to pull myself. So we devise a plan. Strap him to the sled with halters and dog leashes and we get to pulling. Well, we get most of the way up the hill and the halters start to slip off bc of the weight of him on the sled and pulling him through wet grass and weeds, so we stop and I go get another dog leash. That was the only that worked the first round. So, redo his gurney style contraption and away we go. Now, weve got him to the barn door but somehow have to lift 180lbs of dead weight basically, while half trying to flail around, up onto the concrete stoop and over the barn door sash and drop down a few inches into the barn on the concrete floor. This was no easy task even for the 3 of us. His wife was like dang I cant lift his ass up! Trust me he was HEAVY!! So, got my superhuman strenght out and grabbed the sled from the side, while he pulled, and somehow got him up onto the concrete stoop. Then we all assisted and got him into the barn and through to the middle where we have a dift floor. I knew Argo would have a hard time trying to get up on concrete bc no way to dig his hooves into the ground for grip. So, there we were.....in the barn!! YAY! Rolled him off the sled into fresh shavings and what do you he pops right up, standing there. Honestly, thank God bc I was about to administer the works to him. Thankfully my neighbors were able to hang around to hold him steady while I shoved 10xs the dose of Safeguard down his mouth (that was not enjoyable for either of us), dexamethosone (my first IM shot Ive ever given and thank God Ashley could walk me through that one), vitamin B12 complex, probotic paste, and an ivermectin injection. Argo was NOT thrilled. He really did not like that Ivermectin shot either and its bc the medicine burns, so he hollered holy hell and went down like a towering tree and then tried to get up, but her husband and I just held him down bc I didnt want him to hurt himself. Now, I had dewormer all over my shirt and smelled horrible of buck p*e. It was a real fun time after the day Id already had at work. 🙄 This was the LAST thing I wanted to come to thats for sure, but the farm is renlentless at times and there is no "Ill just do it later" sometimes. Instead, farm life dictates what youre going to do NOW!! When it was over her husband looks at me tells me what a good job I did getting through it all and keeping my composure. Then as his wife and I are standing there talking, I see the husband petting him softly on the head and telling him its gonna be okay buddy and my heart just exploded honeslty. The kindness and compassion they both showed to my sweet buck and to myself was almost overwhelming. I was and still am extremely grateful for everything that day. Especially on a day when I was already stressed out before getting home and feeling undervalued at my job. It meant a whole lot to me. 🥰
Fast forward to Monday and Im texting the wife bc she so kindly is asking about how Argo is doing to see no other than ANGEL in the barn on my camera system!!! Now, this dog would not go into the barn anymore after we put two little bucklings in with her. We couldnt understand why, so we brought her an igloo and put it in her pen while Josh was making her a permanent shelter. She refused to go in the igloo as I predicted. Then, he got the shelter done and no dice still! Then enter the these two goats. Both having a hard time and in the barn. Argo was separated off by a wire panel from Handsome so they could have their own space. So, as I mentioned, I was texting the wife and pulled up the barn cameras and couldnt believe my eyes. Angel, the rescued dog that is terrifed of everything and wouldnt get near the two bucklings, with Handsome RIGHT by her hind end with his legs practically touching her butt and half his body hanging over her!! I was like O M G!! I watch, Handsome moves away from her to the other side of the barn. She stays put. Then Handsome walks out of the barn and she stays put. Then, I notice she looks back at Argo not once but twice. Then, when Handsome doesnt return, she moves out of the barn and Im going to assume went to look for him to make sure he was alright. I realize right then and there she does know her job. She was attempting to assess the situation with both and guard both at the same time. I about fell outta my chair. Lol. Then later that night I am walking inside super late and happen to look over and who do I see STANDING in a corner of the pen?!?! ARGO! Now, earlier in the evening Id attempted to life his hind end to help him get up and he just fell over. He couldnt do it and came in and told Josh idk maybe were gonna have to put him down. He said "Give it some time." Typically, I am the one to say this, but it was hard watching him attempt to get up and just fail to do so and instead somehow shift himself around. As it was, I had to scrap up some nasty shavings he was laying in bc he couldnt get moved, put alfafa in front of his face and bring the water bucket over and stick right in front of him. He drank an entire bucket, so yeah I thought this cant go on much longer. Then, yesterday came around. I happen to check the cameras again and who do I see standing and getting up again, ARGO!! I was in total disbelief honestly. From where we started Friday to yesterday, and compared to Handsome, I thought no way. Last night when I went down there I was shocked he walked up to greet me at the panel. My sweet buck. 🥹 So, I unclipped the panel and walked in. He seemed to have much more energy, so I thought Id remove the panel and let him and Handsome out together, but to my surprise Argo went up to Handsome and actually attempted to act bucky!! I was just floored. Instead, I decided to swap them around bc now Argo seemed to be better than Handsome. Unbelivable really considering where we began with Argo just last Friday. Now, this concreted my working theory on the meningeal worm. There is no blood test or f***l test for it by the way and even vets have a hard time diagnosing it. It is only diagnosed off of clinical symptoms.
So, if you made it to the end of this minature book.....why am I telling you all this in such great detail you wonder? To inform you of my experience with it and provide some knowledge of the different ways it can present in case you too run into a scenario that doesnt make sense and you're standing there with one of your beloved goats just baffled. From my research, time will tell how both will recover and both may or may not experience some sort of permanent damage. Since Handsome is now 10 years old I suspect this is why he is having a harder time whereas Argo is now 3 or 4 years old. Cant remember off the top of my head. Anyways, please send some prayers their way. They are both two of the best boys Ive had the pleasure to be around and we only have one kid from Argo here. 😔 I will post some videos and pictures later to show you what exactly this all looks like bc, if youre like me, Im a visual learner. Take care everyone. 🥰
