As I sit here typing this I am waiting for our farm vet to come and give me a second opinion. Two nights ago I walked out at 7 PM after having dinner with my family to do chores, and I noticed that all the goats were down by the garage, which is unusual, because it was a cold and rainy night. I had boxes in my hand and I was going to take some time to burn some corrugate that we had accumulated from shipments that we got the week prior. As soon as I stepped foot outside, I heard the goats yelling and I immediately heard the unmistakable sound of a goat that is in trouble. I dropped what I had and I ran up to the barn. Before my eyes was one of my worst nightmares. I knew it was Kim that was in trouble, because I did a headcount when I walked outside and saw she was missing. My poor sweet girl was dangling by her left hind leg in my "goat safe" hay feeders.
She is notorious for jumping on anything and everything that she can including into the tops of our hay feeders. I keep these hay feeders very full to prevent anything like this, but with it being a cold rainy day the girls were all in the barn and they had eaten the hay feeders mostly down. Poor Kim was dangling there, her face was all beat up and her hind leg was facing the wrong direction. Thankfully, she is small, so I immediately picked her up and extracted her from her horrifying situation and got her to the back stall by herself and laid her sternal while I called our emergency vet. I also gave her 1/2 meloxicam tablet to manage pain and inflammation until I was able to get her into the vet. Thankfully, the vet was able to see her an hour after I called, so I loaded her into my jeep and off we went. The vet quickly examined her and determined that she needed an x-ray to see if her hip was out of socket. After a quick x-ray the vet determined nothing was broken or out of socket. She advised me to simply follow up with 1/2 tablet of meloxicam each day for 3 days and she should be 85% better by day 3.
I felt better, but the more I thought about it the more I wanted a second opinion. I asked while I was at the emergency vet, about nerve, tendon and ligament damage and I was told that there was no issue with that. Kim is telling me otherwise, she lays with her leg straight out and puts zero pressure on her hoof. My gut tells me she needs more, perhaps pain management, steroids or anti inflammatories, or that perhaps there is no hope for her to ever walk normally again.
As I wait for our vet, send Kim good vibes. She has her size, and her fight on her side. She is only 38 lbs and I have been able to keep her separated in a small hospital pen in our barn. If she has a chance we will give it to her. I will keep you posted! Hope you are having a better week than us. Take care and happy goating!
