Wednesday, October 17, 2012

She's Up and Walking...

This morning, I am hesitantly stating that Ellie seems to have turned a corner for the good. She greeted me at the gate across the doorway, eager for some food and company. That is right. She stood of her own volition and was waiting for us at 6 am. And, her water bowl was empty. And, she had piles of solid feces strewn all over the hay and shavings covering her floor. Can you read the smile in my voice? Not out of the woods, but definitive signs of progress.

When all else fails, you do the best you can. When the alternative is certain death, you take maybe even drastic measures. I cannot and do not recommend you follow what we did. I cannot possibly know how your sick animal might react; I write this as a record for ourselves to reference- a reminder of what we did, should we ever need it. I know some of this is redundant, but the benefit of having it all written in one place may be beneficial for future usage.


What we have been doing:

Day 1: Visit to Vet (Dr. Emerson)
Fecal Exam for parasite load
Blood Draw: 11 (should be 33)

Medicine Administered:
Bo-Se injectible
Thiamine .7 ML injection
Banamine injection
2 Pepto Bismal Tabs
Hay (as much as she wanted)
Water (as much as she would drink)
Blanket for warmth

Day 2: Home Care
.2 ML Vitamin 12 3000 mcg injection
SMZ 960 Tab
20 CCs Sub-Q Lactated Ringers injected (x2= am & pm)
Thiamine .7 ML injection (x2= am & pm)
3 ML Ivomec Injection Sub-Q
Probiotic Powder in water 5 MG
2 Pepto Bismal Tabs
Electrolyte Solution in water
Hay (as much as she wanted)
Water (as much as she would drink)
Baby Carrots (8 oz)
Mineral Block

Day 3: Home Care
SMZ 960 Tab
20 CCs Sub-Q Lactated Ringers injected (x2= am & pm)
Thiamine .7 ML injection (x2= am & pm)
5 Pepto Bismal Tabs (3 tabs am, 2 tabs, pm)
Electrolyte Solution in water
Hay (as much as she wanted)
Water (as much as she would drink)
Baby Carrots 8 oz (pm)
1 Banana (am)
1 TBS Molasses (x2= am & pm)

Day 4: Home Care
SMZ 960 Tab
Thiamine .7 ML injection (x2= am & pm)
6 Pepto Bismal Tabs (2 tabs, 3x day)
ProBiotic Powder in water 5 MG
1 quart Pedialyte (Citrus flavor)
Electrolyte Solution in water
Hay (as much as she wanted)
Water (as much as she would drink)
Kale (1/2 fresh bunch from store)
1 Banana (am)
1 TBS Molasses (x2= am & pm)

Day 5: Home Care
SMZ 960 Tab
4 Pepto Bismal Tabs (2 tabs, am & pm)
ProBiotic Powder in water 5 MG (refused to drink)
1 quart Pedialyte (Citrus flavor)
Electrolyte Solution in water
Hay (as much as she wanted)
Water (as much as she would drink)
Kale (1/2 fresh bunch from store)
Carrots 8 oz
1 Banana (am)
1 TBS Molasses (x2= am & pm)

Day 6: Home Care
SMZ 960 Tab
1 quart Pedialyte (Citrus flavor)
Hay (as much as she wanted)
Water (as much as she would drink)
Kale (1/2 fresh bunch from store)
Beets w/Greens (2 medium, slivered-pm)
Pumpkin (1/2 of 8 inch, raw without seeds, slivered-pm)
1 Banana (am)
1 TBS Molasses (x2= am & pm)
1 TBS Peanut Butter (pm)

Day 7: Home Care
2 ML Ivomec injection Sub-Q
1 quart Pedialyte (Citrus flavor)
Hay (as much as she wanted)
Water (as much as she would drink)
Kale (1/2 fresh bunch from store-pm)
Beets w/Greens (2 medium, slivered-pm)
Pumpkin (1/2 of 8 inch, raw without seeds, slivered-pm)
1 Banana (am)
1 TBS Molasses (x2= am & pm)
1 TBS Peanut Butter (am & pm)

Day 8: Home Care- Today
Hay (as much as she wanted)
Water (as much as she would drink)
1 Banana (am)
Broccoli (2 stalks and heads pm)
Spinach Greens (2 cups pm)
1 TBS Molasses (x2= am & pm)
1 TBS Peanut Butter (am & pm)

You may have noticed that as the injections and supplements have decreased, the variety of nutrient rich foods have increased. It is our belief that though medicine is necessary and can be life-saving, our bodies were created with an amazing capacity to heal. And, they were designed to obtain the necessary vitamins and minerals, not through injections or pills, but through eating food. We chose these particular foods to supplement Ellie's diet with because of the unique combinations of specific vitamins and/or minerals naturally occurring in each that we believe will help Ellie to heal.
Pedialyte, Water, and Mineral Block
As a browser, goats naturally eat brush; shrubs, leaves and pine needles, flowers and plants. A good quality hay is fed by goat keepers when these are not readily available in the landscape. As with everything, supplying a healthy diet is about all about balance. Neither "too little" nor "too much" is a good thing. It can upset the stomach, disrupt the normal function of a rumen, and cause more difficulties for everyone. With that in mind, I began looking through lists of food known to be safe for goats to consume. Next, I began searching for the nutrition values of these foods at  NutritionData.com. (These are based on our one stomached-human method of consumption, but I reasoned that these charts gave me a good, rough guesstimate). Finally, I compared the nutrition levels with the vitamins and minerals necessary for goats posted on the Vitamin and Mineral Deficiency List HERE. With this information to hand, we developed a menu for Ellie.

Besides keeping fresh hay available for her to eat, one of the first food additions to her diet were baby carrots. There are not many calories or carbs in carrots, but they are full of Vitamin A (2068 mcg of Alpha Carotene, Beta Carotene, Retinol, and Lutein). Goats with Coccidiosis need more Vitamin A because they have reduced intestinal absorption of nutrients. If we want a healthy goat, the ability to absorb vitamins seemed pretty important to me. Besides that, she loved them and readily gobbled them up and at Day 2, getting anything into her for food was high on our list of priorities.

Beginning on Day 3, we offered Ellie a whole banana each morning. We chose this because it is easily digestible and very nutritious. These values are based without the peel, which most humans do not eat, but a medium banana has about 200 calories, 51 g of carbs (6 g fiber and about 28 g sugars), 806 mg of potassium, 2.3 mcg of Selenium, 19.6 mg of Vitamin C, 144 mcg of Vitamin A (56 mcg Alpha Carotene, 58 mcg Beta Carotene, and 49 mcg Lutein) and .6 mg of Iron. She absolutely loved the banana.

We also added a TBS of Molasses. From past experience, we knew she would enjoy eating it. The goal was to eventually add one tablespoon of molasses both morning and evening, but wanted to make sure she would tolerate it. Molasses is a good source of potassium (293 mg), magnesium (48 mg), calcium (41 mg), selenium (3.6 mcg) and iron (.9 mg).

Is that a smile?
We wanted to offer more nutritious leafy, greens. On Day 4, we limited carrots and added Kale to Ellie's diet. Kale is one of the most nutrient rich plants! Just look at this list: 10,302 mcg Vitamin A, 547 mcg Vitamin K, 80 mcg Vitamin C, 299 mg Potassium, 90 mg Calcium,  23 mg Magnesium, 1.1 mg Iron, and .6 mcg Selenium. And, better yet, Ellie ate it up!

We were happy that Ellie seemed to be slowly getting stronger. Once standing, Ellie had improved to standing for hours at a time, but we were still concerned that she was unwilling to stand on her own. And, we wanted to get more selenium and iron into her system. On Day 6, we added a small amount of beets with their greens, pumpkin, and peanut butter. We chose beets because with 1.2 mg of Iron and 1.3 mcg Selenium, and 44 mg Calcium, it was a good source of these vitamins. Beets are also rich in Vitamins A & K. Pumpkin has 8567 mcg Vitamin A, 10 mcg Vitamin C, 24 mg Calcium, 394 mg Potassium, .9 mg Iron, and .3 mcg Selenium. Since Ellie would not cooperate in eating peanuts, we started offering her a tablespoon of crunchy peanut butter. If she would eat it, our plan was to give it to her twice daily. Peanut Butter has 94 calories per tablespoon and 2.6 mcg Selenium, 7.7 g protein, 14 mg Calcium, of .6 mg Iron.

At noon, I checked our girl's progress. She stood on her own, again. I fed her some kale and pumpkin.

And, then cleaned up this ----> with much  happiness! Those are almost pellets. It is too soon to call her healed, but I am beginning to think she is going to pull through and recover.

Thanks for visiting today.
Sean and Sonja ♥

5 comments:

  1. Great news! So happy for you and Ellie! Fantastic detailed info on her treatment as well. I know this will help out others if they find themselves in a similar situation.

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    1. Thanks! I can't wait for Sean to come home to share this with him. There may be "happy dancing" in the Twombly home tonight!

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  2. I am so glad she is making progress!!

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    1. We, too! I tried, unsuccessfully, to talk Sean into letting Ellie bed down with us last night, but he cited the potential for undesirable stinkiness and mess and talked me out of it. Of she keeps improving, I suspect I shall arrive home one day to her having jumped the fence and find her sitting on the couch watching Netflix via the XBOX. If she is, I will try to get pictures of it.

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  3. So glad to hear she is doing better!

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