Baby goats with runny eyes

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All three of my Nubian kids, ages 2 - 12 weeks of age, each have one eye that is runny most of the time. I've never had this before. They seem perfectly healthy, none of the mom's have it, no gunk, just a lot of tearing. Any ideas? CJ

-- CJ (cjtinkle@getgoin.net), April 06, 2002

Answers

Hi CJ, if the animals are all related, you may want to look for inverted eyelids (daughter is home from college, and she reminded me about her doeling born out of her best show doe, who was born with this). Now the second thing to do is do kneel down in the barn where the kids are, getting your nose all the way down to the level they live at. What does it smell like? If it smells like amonia or when you stand your knees are wet than the wheeping eyes and the runny nose that will start is the beginning of inhalation/chemical/enviornmental pnemonia call it what you like. Remember that the air you breath in their barn is way higher and cleaner than your does and certainly their kids! Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (Nubians) (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), April 07, 2002.

Vicki, related question. We have an Alpine doe kid 5 weeks old. Spry, and healthy, no temperature, no eye discharge at all. But twice now her left eye lense has clouded, become opaque, cleared and done it again. My first thought was an inverted eyelid as you mentioned above, but I see no sign of it. Joe thinks the cornea must have been scratched early on and will eventually heal. She's outside with shelter, dry bedding, good ventilation. Any observations?

Dennis

-- Dennis (westwoodcaprine@yahoo.com), April 07, 2002.


Hi, not sure why it would get cloudy, better than cloudy again. Are you sure she doesn't already have a problem with her cornea? My old, in the tank first buck, Eric, had a scratch on his cornea when we purchased him, in fact Easy Stream was going to back out of the sale because he wasn't perfect! I took him to a dog vet who specialized in opthomology and it was a rip, the sale went through because he wasn't blind. When it was very sunny out you could see the cloud perfectly, and the kids called him terminator :) When it was dark or he was in a covered barn, you could barley see it, and it looked like a small blue speck. Could this be what you are seeing? It has to do with the dialation of the eye. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (Nubians) (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), April 07, 2002.

I checked, no inverted lids. We don't have a barn, our sheep and goats have port-a-huts for shelter, which get moved all the time, so their bedding is always fresh. It's only one eye on each kid too. Weird.

-- CJ (cjtinkle@getgoin.net), April 07, 2002.

Vicki,

No, not a tear in the iris. The inside of the cornea becomes completely blue and opaque, then starts to clear from the top down. I've never seen anythink like it in any critter I've raised in my life! We've got two weird eye situations going on at the same time. I'll observe and report and maybe I can find out what's causing it.

Dennis

-- Dennis (westwoodcaprine@yahoo.com), April 08, 2002.



Have a two week old Togg doeling with the same problem. Yesterday, our granddaughter told me she thought the little thing was blind in one eye. I caught her and checked, and the eye is partially opaque with redness as if there was a possible injury. Nothing in the eye, no inverted lid, etc. Put some opthalmic ointment in it yesterday and again today. I can only assume somehow she has gotten injured or gotten something blown into the eye. Jan

-- Jan in Co (Janice12@aol.com), April 08, 2002.

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