About a month ago I noticed Bonnie limping. She was favoring her right foreleg. Then I’d see her walking just fine. Since I hadn’t trimmed her hooves since spring, I figured she had a rock under a flap of the hoof wall that had been hurting her. If it had shaken itself out, the pain was gone. I checked her hooves and they needed trimming so I scheduled a day with my son to do that.
One thing led to another and the hoof work got put off. I also saw Bonnie limping now and again. I checked her hoof and leg: No swelling and no tenderness. Titian and I rescheduled a day and we trimmed her hooves. I checked her right hoof and leg thoroughly and I didn’t find anything that looked like it was causing her pain. She was still limping, though.
Thinking I must not have looked well enough, Titian and I tackled her again. This time I used a Dremel tool to cut the hoof wall down as low as I dared, looking for some sign of infection. Nothing. The hoof seemed healthy. Time to consult a professional.
I’ve been looking for a good mobile vet who’d come and check B&C but had no luck. Turns out, I was looking in the wrong place. One of the vets I spoke to on the phone said, “Try calling Farm Vet out of Petaluma.” Petaluma? Coming to Oakland? That’s an hour-long drive on a good day. Would a mobile livestock veterinarian who probably has plenty of customers up there drive to Oakland? I figured I had nothing to lose. I googled “Farm Vet” and found their website. Using their contact form I asked if they served Oakland and told them about Bonnie. The next day I had an email asking if Saturday at 8 AM would work. Damn straights, it would work!
The next Saturday morning, Dr. Scott Cantor of North Bay Farm Veterinarians, Inc. pulls into my driveway. He checks Bonnie and diagnosed her as having arthritis in her lower leg joint. I had checked her leg from the shoulder down but didn’t know what to look for. Scott showed me how there was a slight clicking when her joint flexed. “That’s arthritis, which is common in goats over 7 or 8 years old.”
Bottom line: I now have a vet I can call when I need him for my babies, and Bonnie gets an anti inflammatory (15mg) in peanut butter on a graham cracker with her daily rations. I was also politely told to cut both goats back to only two cups of grain product a day because they are both over weight. Other than that, B&C are very healthy goats for their age.
Ed