# lock jaw please help anybody, thanks



## paperboy-7 (Feb 15, 2005)

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hi vicki friend called. 12 hours ago-goat ate fine. Milking 2 does birth 3 months ago. Wormed 30 days ago with Ivermectin. Good fecal samples. No temperature. At morning feeding would not eat, humped up. Had to pry jaw open. Standing but weak. No CD&T vaccine. How does tetanus work? Did not know what to tell her beside tetanus. She is worried about lysteria. What do you think? Vets in area concerning goats are zeroes. I am going to take over tetanus anti-vac, what do you think? She will probably do blood test. The good vet is 80 miles away. Thank you for your reply, Preston


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

I wonder if pain couldn't be causing the goat to clench it's jaw?

What are the other symptoms? I'm not sure but I think tetanus doesn't have a fever but listeriosis does.


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

I just grabbed this off the Goatworld website. It says that it does produce a fever. And gives a way of checking by tapping the goat on the chin.

http://www.goatworld.com/articles/tetanus/

Tetanus is an illness caused by Clostridium Tetany and is characterized by stiffening and a lack of coordination. The classic symptom is referred to as "lock jaw" (the old name for this disease). If the chin of the victim is tapped sharply, the eyes will roll up. Tetanus most often occurs due to wounds (deep or shallow) that have not been allowed to bleed properly. Fever accompanies this disease and quite often, loud noises will cause the goat to convulse. Vitamin C can act to detoxify the clostridia before this disease reaches critical stages. Tetanus is a very painful disease. Immunizations may stop tetanus from developing, but they will not stop it from occuring if conditions are right for it to develop. It is believed that adult goats build a natural immunity to tetanus - younger goats are more likely to contract tetanus. There are two types of tetanus shots available; tetanus toxoid (which is the immunization) and tetanus detoxoid (antitoxin). Tetanus toxoid SHOULD NOT be given within six weeks after a wound has been treated. Tetanus detoxoid is the injection given at the time the wound is initially treated.


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## LomahAcres (Jan 21, 2007)

You may just want to 'call' a vet and get his opinion, especially if they are far away.

Tetanus is very fast moving and recovery is slim. It usually enters through a deep puncture wound, but could also enter through something as simple as hoof trimming. It takes about 7-11 days to show up from the time of the wound, usually the head will be held up/back, the goat will appear stiff in movement, sluggish in waking, discordant, crying in pain, and may or may not foam at the mouth and develop lock jaw. In my experience with Tetanus, there is no fever present. Also I think if a goat had tetanus within 24 hours, she would go down and have almost constant muscle spasms (more and more as it progresses), death within 2-3 days (after showing signs). For treating tetanus, penicillin, and Tetanus detoxoid (you may want to 'call' you vet for dosage amounts), you should also look for the wound and clean it. Treatment is usually only effect in the early stages. Not to be cruel, but if you find she DOES have Tetanus and are unable to treat it, you may just want to put her down as it can be a very painful death.



With Lysteria, the goat should show weakness to one side, walk in circles, and slowly become paralyzed and die. Fever may be present, or slack jaw, facial paralysis on one side, drooling. Lysteria usually accurse in the later stages of pregnancy. Treated with Procaine penicillin every six hours for three to five days, then daily for an additional seven days.

I would look on the web for different views of Tetanus and Lysteria, deciding if either sounds like what she has before treating, it may just be something simple? But I would act fast in either case.


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