07/12/2025
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Last Sunday I had a really trying day. I was hoping not to spend much time with the farm animals, and just enjoy my time with the family, but I entered the barn in the morning to find a buckling that was down. He presented with bloat symptoms and so I treated with an oil drench and 2 baking soda doses through out the day, and treated for pain. I gave massages, walked him and released a lot of gas. I spent the whole day in and out of the barn treating him. My last check in the evening was 9pm and he got up when I entered the pen, drank water, was nibbling on hay, and urinating normally. I thought I was winning but Monday morning I found him dead in the pen. I sent him for a necropsy and confirmed my course of treatment with the vet which he said was good and adequate with what I had on hand.
Previous to this there were no health issues, I was just telling my husband how nice he looked for a percentage buckling, and I had removed him from his mom to wean at 12 weeks the night before, he was in great body condition.
I got the necropsy results back and I was shocked. It turns out that he passed from severe bacterial pneumonia.
The fact that he showed not one symptom, was full of energy the day before, and was one of my current nicest bucklings when it came to body condition blows my mind. It’s frustrating because I have the antibiotics on hand to treat pneumonia, so had I seen a sign I would have been able to help him.
I consulted with my vet, and this specific bacteria that caused it is called Mannheimia hemolytica. This bacteria loves the weather we have been having, hot and humid and it also tends to hide and manafest until it’s too late. I also find it interesting to know that the lungs have connection to the digestive system and that’s why I seen those signs of bloat in his final hours. One thing my vet also mentioned is that goats sometimes hide things very well until they are too far gone, and I have seen this a time or two in the past.
I’m still surprised by the findings and I don’t like the feeling of helplessness in situations like these. Going forward I will not be treating any of my herd for pneumonia, but if I have any other deaths due to this bacteria I have option to vaccinate for it and will do the whole herd.
It just goes to show the importance of necropsy’s and investing when it comes to herd health, because I would have never known or thought the situation to be related to the lungs. I’m not really sure what I will do going forward to prevent this situation and hopefully it doesn’t happen again, but I guess if I’m presented with signs of bloat I will probably treat with antibiotics as well 🤷🏻♀️
