This is why I hate giving shots to goats

[here to stay]

Horses are easy.  Goats on the other hand...

The vet left me with 3 antibiotic shots to gave Sally.   I should have said something right when he was here about what he chose to use.  These were big shots.  But I only had to give them every other day.   I could do this.  Besides this man never informs me what his intentions are.  He just does it.

The first day I couldn't find the goat for all the winter fuzz.  A lot of the contents ended up a sticky mess down the outside of her neck.   

The two days later I put on a game face and tried again.  I thought successfully but a couple of minutes later the contents of the shot started rising to the surface of her fur.  Evidently most of the shot again had ended up outside the goat.

I called the vet on Tuesday but have not heard back.  So comes the last shot and I am absolutely determined.  I clip her fuzz down to the skin, take aim and in goes the shot.  All 8 ccs of it. Where upon Sally screams, throws her head straight up, her tongue dangles out of the corner of open her mouth.  She freezes like that a few seconds while I am sure I have just killed my goat.

Then she went over to her hay and started eating.  I still keep watch, thinking she might keel over any minute.  Even the next morning I was not sure what I find.  Nothing except a humongous lump of the contents of the shot under her skin.

So now I know Sally has not received the antibiotic except the third shot.  There were only little lumps before.  I've been taking her temperature twice a day and it's averaged 101.8 until after the shot that actually got into here when it dropped to 100.6.  Then back to 101.2 that evening.  Today I call the vet again.  What should I do?  Probably wait and see if the infection returns.

Sheesh I hate giving shots.

[woolybear]

Just finished having to go thru this with my Dopey. She got polio/listeris, only I had to 2 shots - vit.b complex and penicillin. My advantage was I had the hubby do the holding while I gave the shots. It did not help that I had popped something in my left wrist (I'm right handed thankfully) and couldn't use it very well.
Fortunately Dopey never acted like I had killed her. She was more focused on what DH was doing to her than me. I had to give the shots every 6 hours until her symptoms started to improve. I felt like the poor goat was becoming a pin cushion.

[shellymay]

here to stay,   Okay, first some shots are under the skin and some are in the muscle, depends what meds are being given so always ask first.....

Your antibiotic shot you had to give must of been something like LA200 or LA300 and in the neck is the best place for said shot, but with this shot you want to kinda point the needle upward as you are pushing it into neck, yes having two people to hold goat is best but can be done with one person if your comfortable giving shots, her comes the good part, YOU DID IT and her reaction tells me you did it right because this kind of antibiotic STINGS like hell and the animals will show you how bad it stinks with the reaction of dang your killing me     so the first two you gave goat maybe got some but defiantly not all or goat would of acted the same way all three times  

Each type of meds take different size of needles also so it is good to know what needle for what meds, muscle shots are so much easier as they are given most generally in the butt and they don't sting, same with woolybear, giving Pen it doesn't sting either......

[shellymay]

Forgot to say that you can purchase LA200 and LA300 at most farm stores and keep on hand, you could also repeat the shots you MISSED with and give more to goat.

[here to stay]

shellymay, I thought it would be easier because it was under the skin. The vet gave me three syringes that must have single digit gauge needles already attached. They were the widest needles I've ever seen.

The trouble was that I could not see to the skin because of the density of fuzz. Even parting the fur down to the skin gave no field of vision. So I thought it was placed under the skin but then a slight movement dislodged it without my knowing. I should have clipped the fuzz rather than thinking determination would do the trick.

However, the shot the vet gave while here did not have such a reaction. She was fine with it.

[princessferf]

Children (goats) always show more drama for their "parents" than for outsiders. Probably why she "nearly died" when you gave the shot vs. the vet.

[Bear Foot Farm]

Give the shots behind the shoulder where it's easier to pull up a "tent" of loose skin to insert the needle.

[mogal]

What Bear Foot Farm said.

I used to live near the University of MO veterinary teaching hospital and one of my neighbors, a theriogenologist, knew so much about goats, he was almost a walking encyclopedia. He used to joke about the types of shots--IV, IM, SubQ and IG. IG? What's IG? IN GOAT! He recommended pulling up a tent of skin and inserting the needle into the tent.

My goats tolerate these shots very well regardless of what the material injected is and the gauge of the needle.