Help!!!! Goat choked!!

Last night one of my goats (about 6 months old) was so greedy and pretty much inhaled the small fruit pieces i was feeding him.. He suddenly started choking, throwing his head back, coughing and started foaming from his mouth and almost vomiting - it was the most scariest thing ever. We then lifted his front legs up and massaged his throat which made him heaps better, he is still up and walking around. Only thing is, when checking on him through the night and again this morning he is still coughing and spluttering and still has a small amount of foam just hanging in his mouth. Does he still have something stuck? Or could this be a cut or something in his throat? :confused:[:0]

Yes he could very easily have a windpipe or oesophagus injury. I have heard of a donkey having it's oesophagus pierced by a piece of carrot. Phone your vet and ask if there is anything you can do, eg pain relief, liquidised food, pellets and how much, antibiotic to prevent or slow secondary infection, something else ....
Good luck.

Thank you Longridge! The vet asked me to bring him in, we're going to try molasses and warm water and another neck massage and hopefully it comes out. I definitely think it's something small still lodged in his throat - or else he wouldnt be coughing and spluttering. Poor wee dude.

If it were something stuck in his oesophagus then it should have been moved with cudding, thus I suspect an injury to one or the other tubes, so molasses may not do anything except provide nutrition. Do not give more than about a tablespoon of molasses or you risk overloading his gut with sugar, which can cause Pulpy Kidney. If he has had both 5-in-1 vaccinations, that should protect him. If not, talk to the vet about which antibiotic to give goat before you give him the molasses.

Holly, welcome to the LSB.
How did you get on at the vets?

Thank you everybody for the advice. There was still a piece stuck down his windpipe - so far down the vet said there was no way he could bring it up himself. The Vet put a big tube down his throat and poured water. Which did the trick! Poor little guy was so exhausted, he slept for a whole 24 hours! But hes much better now, yay!

Thanks for the update, it's great to know he's okay now. It must have been very frightening. My goats have had various scary problems but so far not that one....

It was very scary, Kate - what has happened with your goats?? Be good to know what else can go wrong!

Where do I start? Usually things go wrong just after Geoff has gone away for a few days [}][}]

The worst of course was coming home one day to find Yoda with a badly broken leg after he was stood on by a horse. Which is how we ended up with a three-legged goat.

Apart from that kids have fallen into water troughs and nearly drowned, so now all troughs have rocks in that the kids can use to get out again.

A few broken horns...

Getting stuck in things...

a bad haematoma after one goat swung another from his horn...

eye problems following a scratch...

Once we thought a goat had a broken neck...turned out she'd got her fleece caught in her teeth and couldn't straighten up...there was kid we heard screaming and found it head-down in a hole where a fence post had been removed...cuts and bruises....

So far though, no choking [8D][8D]

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Some others
Fly strike in a rotten foot, but this tends to be a blessing in disguise as the flies eat up the rotten rot and anaethsetise the foot. But the maggots have to be stopped before they start eating the healthy flesh.
Poisoning by globe artichoke plants.
Poisoning by worm drenches that have levamisole in them.
Worms.
Eye problems caused by infection.
New born problems caused by insufficient iodine during pregnancy.
Abortions caused by diseases.
The weak one being picked on by the flock, which can lead to severe injury.
Thiamine deficiency which causes "star gazing" and death soon after.
Joint deformities in new borns caused by copper deficiency.
Worms.
Footrot.
Worms.
Footroot.

Wow, so a lot to look forward to then. Hopefully mine just stick to escaping now and then - that i can deal with!

LR - if you're on top of your copper, you won't have such an issue with worms, footrot, fertility problems or birth defects.

Welcome to the world of goats!

Andrea, loving the world of goats!!! I've just got the 2 as 'pets' so hopefully that will minimise the amount of issues!!

Andrea, yes I have fairly recently heard that copper is necessary, but The Manager is one of those s***I** people that like to have goats as well as sheep. And I am the fool that has to do the drenching, vaccinating, hoof care, etc. Drenching is difficult, especially with horned goats. I find vaxing very difficult, and with goats the needle usually goes into the muscle (
Note to self .... find out if I can drench goats with an aqueous copper sulphate solution, and what concentration.

LongRidge;508945 wrote: Andrea, yes I have fairly recently heard that copper is necessary, but The Manager is one of those s***I** people that like to have goats as well as sheep. And I am the fool that has to do the drenching, vaccinating, hoof care, etc. Drenching is difficult, especially with horned goats. I find vaxing very difficult, and with goats the needle usually goes into the muscle (
Note to self .... find out if I can drench goats with an aqueous copper sulphate solution, and what concentration.

Yes, you can drench with a copper sulphate solution, but how do you know your goats need it? As much as they need, you can still poison them with copper. What kinds of symptoms are you looking at?

For what are you vaxing your goats? How intensively are you keeping them? I don't vax. The only jabs my goats get are ABs, anti-inflammatories, and B12 or B1, if and when necessary. Easy enough to isolate one goat for ministering to.