# Tilted head, weird acting goat



## christelle (Nov 22, 2014)

hi everyone,
I've had problems with my goat Cleo for over a month now. A month ago, I came home and she was down, shaking, and couldn't stand. Her eyes were darting all over the place. We gave her calcium thinking it might be milk fever, it wasn't. We then gave her B complex thinking maybe she had goat polio, and she was better for about a week. We continued the B complex for 10 days. A week later, she started tilting her head. Her symptoms now are the head tilt, and she's a little off balance. She also has little bumps all over her- they look like warts. The vet came out after the first episode, thought she looked "off" so tested for CAE, Cl, and Johnes- all negative. I am now waiting on a mineral panel. I brought her back to the vet last week, and she said there was a little gunk in one of her ears, so I've now been flushing her ear and she's on LA-200. It's been a week of treatment, and we see no improvement. The vet says it could be an abscess in the brain, or a tumor. Does any of this sound familiar to anyone? She doesn't have a fever, eats a ton, and is still producing milk.She's a 3 year old Nubian.


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## marusempai (Sep 16, 2007)

Neurological symptoms plus bumps on the skin sound like meningeal worm to me. We had a scare this fall with one of our does, I don't know what it actually was for sure since the only way to diagnose (to my knowledge) is a necropsy. Treatment is a huge dose of Safeguard wormer - ten times the label dosage, repeated daily for five days.


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## Caprice Acres (Mar 6, 2005)

Apparently lost my reply. :/ 

Warts are interesting - I was under the impression that the lesions were usually hairless/wounds from chewing by the goat, trying to itch or remove the irritating migrating larvae, but TMG clearly states 'nodules'. http://www.tennesseemeatgoats.com/articles2/meningealworm.html

I can't find the word 'nodules' or 'warts' anywhere else, just crusty lesions (from itching/irritation). 

From merck (Look under "Parelaphostrongylus tenuis") - http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/n...arthropods/nematodes_causing_cns_disease.html

From Goat Medicine:


> Parelaphostrongylus tenuis, the meningeal worm of the white-tail deer, commonly causes neurologic disease in goats in North America. Some paretic and nonparetic goats with P. tenuis infection have devel- oped linear, vertically oriented skin lesions on the neck, shoulder, thorax, or flank (Smith 1981; Scott 1988, 2007). Owners report that the goat has excoriated these areas by biting or rubbing, as if responding to intense pruritus. Lesions are usually unilateral and alopecic, crusted, or scarred (Figure 2.12). One lesion may heal and another appear closer to the goat&#8217;s head. One possible explanation is that migrating parasite larvae irritate dorsal nerve roots supplying individual der- matomes. The diagnosis of P. tenuis-induced dermato- sis should be entertained when goats with linear pruritic lesions have been exposed to pastures fre- quented by deer. Neurologic deficits suggesting spinal cord damage and eosinophilia or increased protein in the cerebrospinal fluid lend additional support to the diagnosis. Treatment and control of this parasite are discussed in Chapter 5.


Smith, Mary C., and David M. Sherman. Goat Medicine. Philadelphia: Lea & Febiger, 1994. Print.

It is usually diagnosed by symptoms, but you CAN collect CSF for testing but I'm not sure where you'd send the sample. If they are afflicted in the CNS, they will not recover generally, but you can halt it. It requires fast aggressive treatment. Depending on progression, their quality of life may be acceptable. 

Alternately if it is NOT, the head tilt could be an ear infection, polio, listeria, other CNS infection/damage. Listeria progresses FAST if it's neurological usually, so unless it's two separate incidences, I'd doubt it's that. Polio is usually progressive too, but you did intervene before with proper treatment - if the underlying cause is still present, however, then it could recurr. If the ear infection is caused by a bacteria that is not susceptible to your antibiotic, or the antibiotic cannot get to the bacterial infection, then you wouldn't have an effect with treatment. If she has any neurologic signs (cranial nerve deficits) then that can help diagnose.


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## christelle (Nov 22, 2014)

mygoat said:


> Apparently lost my reply. :/
> 
> If the ear infection is caused by a bacteria that is not susceptible to your antibiotic, or the antibiotic cannot get to the bacterial infection, then you wouldn't have an effect with treatment. If she has any neurologic signs (cranial nerve deficits) then that can help diagnose.


She doesn't have any neurological signs anymore. She did initially, but after the B Complex that seems to have gone away. Now it's the head tilt, and just general off balance. Is it possible to have an ear infection that you can't see? The vet looked in her ear- didn't see infection but did see some "crud". We've got drops we're putting in every night. Is there something else I could do? If it's polio and the underlying cause is still there, I don't know what on earth could be causing it- all the other goats are just fine. 

Thank you!


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## christelle (Nov 22, 2014)

The vet didn't think it was meningeal- she's not acting paralyzed in her back legs or stiff really, just off balance.


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## marusempai (Sep 16, 2007)

I'm trying not to sound like a smart alec but probably failing, please be patient with me.  Off balance and head tilting are neurological symptoms. It would be an unusual set of neurological symptoms for meningeal worm, but added to the skin symptoms, that is the thing I would suspect, personally.


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## Caprice Acres (Mar 6, 2005)

Yes, the head tilt and off balance can definitely be neurological signs. Many other neurological signs part of a neurological exam are hard to notice unless you're trained to notice them, too. Ear droop, sensation in different places of the face, proprioception of limbs, direct and indirect pupil responses, prehension of food/chewing food, etc.

Yes, an ear infection can be quite deep and can also cause neurologic signs as it messes with the vestibular system. 

Most diseases don't have a high morbidity (number of animals that are affected). The reasons animals get sick depends on too many factors.


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## Ziptie (May 16, 2013)

Just and FYI of what I just learned about meningeal worms..

We have had two goats with meningeal worms about a month apart. First one was a doe in milk. She had been licking her side bloody for about a week and lost condition really fast. Then one day the back legs stopped working and she couldn't even go up the ramp to get up on the stand. Vet said to diagnose meningeal worm's we would have to do a spinal tap. Too expensive so we just thought we try treatment and see what would happen. Though even after treatments she was still licking her side raw and on her skin was this weird black flaky crusty stuff. Then treated her with Ivermectin and it finally stopped. 

Second case happened about four weeks later with our buck. His skin was getting flay crusty look, lost condition fast(though it is breeding season), and then lost control of his back legs. 


Treatment for both of them worked, for the most part. Though they are both still week in the back legs and will probably be that way for the rest of their lives.


I always thought that meningeal worm was only a problem in warmer climates. It is rare here in Iowa but I guess we just got lucky.:surrender:


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## mzgarden (Mar 16, 2012)

just checking -- treatment now is Safeguard wormer at 10x dose, once a day for 5 days?
and either Liquid or Paste.


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## Ziptie (May 16, 2013)

Not sure if your asking me...but we used Panacur(also used for barber pole worms) 50 cc oral for 5 days(fairly sure on this but double check as the bottle is out in the barn). It takes them about a month to recover as much as they are going to. Dumped the milk for about a week after the last dose. At those levels I was concerned it would affect the chickens and pigs so none got anything. I also followed up each dose later in the day with a vit/probotic paste.


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## MCJam (Dec 27, 2012)

Years ago I had meningal worm in several of my goats with various symptoms, and one sounds just like yours. Head tilt and lack of coordination. I believe, at the time the treatment was either ivermectin or levasol wormer. The infection and further damage was halted, but the goats did not regain any neurological function that they had lost.


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## marusempai (Sep 16, 2007)

mzgarden said:


> just checking -- treatment now is Safeguard wormer at 10x dose, once a day for 5 days?
> and either Liquid or Paste.


Correct. Safeguard is recommended because it has been found to cross the blood/brain barrier, killing the worms that are IN the spinal cord - no other wormer has been found to do that, which is why Ivermectin is no longer recommended as a treatment (although it works as a preventative, before the worms are in the spine/brain).


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## Ziptie (May 16, 2013)

Ziptie said:


> Not sure if your asking me...but we used Panacur(also used for barber pole worms) 50 cc oral for 5 days(fairly sure on this but double check as the bottle is out in the barn). It takes them about a month to recover as much as they are going to. Dumped the milk for about a week after the last dose. At those levels I was concerned it would affect the chickens and pigs so none got anything. I also followed up each dose later in the day with a vit/probotic paste.


I checked the bottle it was 60cc for 5 days.. Plus the vet had me treat everyone with 10cc (no matter the size or age of the animal)


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