06/14/2026
***Please note that as soon as I was done recording I took the water bucket out of her pen and dried her off***
⚠️Educational Post: It is long but is a full recap of Silverbelle's illness & recovery⚠️
Silverbelle arrived here on transport late Wednesday, May 27th and she seemed fine and in good spirits and I believe she remembered me too 🥰(born and raised here, sold end of October '25)
Come Sunday morning, May 31st I noticed she hung her head and didn't look right. So I did a basic assessment: FAMACHA good, butt clean, stool normal, eyes, nose, and lungs clear, but temp was 98.4(anyone new to goats, normal temp for them is 101.5 - 103.5)...
So immediately I went about setting up a kidding pen in the doe barn with a heat lamp and put her in, gave her a shot of Vit. B complex and offered her grass hay and alfalfa hay which she started munching on the alfalfa and her temp didn't take too long to get up to normal. I made a drench of carrot juice with black strap molasses and chlorophyll to give to her and by 4:30 that afternoon she was climbing the pen, anxious to get out. So I took her back over to the pen she was initially in but in the back of my mind I was wondering what caused her to go subnormal 🤔
My hubby and I then cleaned the other pens in both barns and went inside for about 1 1/2 hours before coming back out to do night choring. I first went to the buck barn to bottle feed my buckling and looked over at Silverbelle prior to feeding him and she had her head in between the hay feeder and the pen and pressed her head against the wall and cried like she was stuck. So I rushed in just to easily bring her head back out(she was NOT stuck at all!). Immediately I thought something neurological is going on as I observed her doing a weird twist of her neck, then rubbed her face against the hay rack. But then acted completely normal(but I still wasn't convinced she was fine).
After feeding my bottle babies I walked Silverbelle out of the pen and noticed her back legs were wonky at times kinda like a drunk person. She kept walking into a fence and it took a while for her to pull her face away from it...Okay this is serious! 😳
So I immediately thought of polio or listeriosis and seen that on the goat emergency team they recommend treating for both as the symptoms are so similiar but because Silverbelle might be pregnant I was a little hesitant using Dexamethasone as it can cause abortions. So I called the breeder I got her back from and we talked out the symptoms and treatment and both decided it couldn't be listeriosis as that comes with a fever(or so we thought). I didn't have Thiamine so I put a call into my vet(who planned to come out Monday afternoon) but started Silverbelle on Vitamin B complex and gave that every 4-5 hours round the clock.
This video of Silverbelle was from Sunday night after 2 rounds of Vitamin B. I put a baby monitor on her and watched her throughout the night in between going out to give her Vitamin B and I noticed she wouldn't lay down or stay laying but paced the pen counter clockwise. She would walk into the side of the pen, turn, walk to the next side of the pen, turn, walk into the water bucket which I now had hanging, get caught up in it before backing out, then going around again. So I took the bucket out of the pen and put water in a clip mineral feeder cuz at this point I was afraid she might drown in it! 😥
By Monday morning she could no longer open her mouth on her own. She would rub her mouth over the hay like she was trying to will the hay into her mouth, and just looked so frustrated! I was frustrated too as she kept regressing instead of progressing. But I literally thought it was because the Vit. B complex wasn't strong enough and she needed straight Thiamine.
I made carrot juice smoothies and drenced her everytime I gave her Vitamin B shots so she stayed hydrated and at least had something in her system until the vet got there around 4:30pm. Vet thought she was very ketonic, keto strip showed moderate ketosis. I said it's gotta be more than that but vet did NOT think polio. Then as I described her circling the pen she said if anything it's listeriosis. So she thought since it's so early in gestation if Silverbelle was pregnant that the Dex wouldn't affect her pregnancy if she was able to carry babies through this illness anyways. So of course it is best practice to ALWAYS save the doe first, which I 100% agree!
So I gave her 10 mL of Nutridrench for the ketosis, then started her on Dex, Penicillin, and continued the Vitamin B complex and administered according to the Goat Emergency Team chart and gave every 6 hours round the clock, adding Probios and carrot juice smoothies every time I went out as well for extra nutrition. By Monday night she could open her mouth and chew hay but I had to put it to her mouth but what a wonderful sight to see!
Overnight she was able to find the hay herself and eat on her own! Tuesday morning she tested negative for ketones! All neurological symptoms were gone by Thursday, but she still needed the heat lamp to regulate her temperature and that didn't correct itself until very last and by Saturday morning she had gone 24 hours without the heat lamp and maintained her temp on her own! 🙌
So I continued meds every 6 hours throughout the day on Sunday, June 7th and twice a day on Monday, June 8th(just to be doubly sure she didn't relapse!) and she was good as new, praise the Lord!! 🙏
Moral of this story is be diligent in noticing any changes in your goat's behavior as they are notorious in trying to pretend they're okay until they are on death's door! I am very thankful that my vet was able to come out and brainstorm with me and I was able to treat her as quickly and vigorously as what I did because Silverbelle was heading downhill fast! And the longer it goes the chances of a full recovery are not very high if at all unfortunately 😕
