Cache Valley Fever

I introduced you to the new kids yesterday, but I failed to mention one little girl.  I was saving her for a happy ending story, but that is not to be the case.  Strangely, I’m only telling about her now because her story intersects with two other little girls here, Nellie and Wanda.

Muffin had twin girls on May 15th~two very pretty little girls.

Muffin with Nellie and Wanda

I noticed right away that Nellie was possibly the world’s most photogenic goat.  You can’t take a bad picture of her.

Nellie

Wanda, on the other hand, generally doesn’t slow down long enough to get a good picture of her.

Wanda with Muffin

I was sad to see one day that Nellie seemed to have hurt her back.  I figured it was from one of her flying leaps off the log and she’d be better in a day or two.  However, she got worse.  Her back end would wobble when she walked.  She’d fall and have a horrible time trying to get back up.

Nellie

Then I noticed Wanda looking a bit shaky in her back legs.

Wanda

I called my poor over-worked vets and Dr. Schmitz came out.  At a month of age, they are really too old for floppy kid syndrome.  They are too young for meningeal worms.  The most obvious cause of weak back legs would be a vitamin deficiency.  We treated both girls with selenium and thiamine last Thursday.  It didn’t help, and they actually grew worse.  Nellie was now reduced to pulling herself with her front legs, and Wanda was beginning to get more wobbly on her back legs.  Nellie was grinding her teeth, a sign of pain.

Nellie and Wanda

On Saturday, I called and reported their worsening conditions and we gave them an antibiotic and anti-inflammatory as a last ditch effort and left their fates to Nature.  Sunday, I noticed that Nellie was no longer grinding her teeth.  Her mobility wasn’t any better, but she was not in pain.  Wanda was actually out playing with other kids.

Nellie

I called back on Monday because I was still concerned that if this was an infection they would simply be reinfected if we didn’t find the cause.  That’s where my other pretty little girl comes into the story.

When Pebbles had her little buck on Friday, she also had a little girl who was not well.  She could not move her back legs at all.  Her joints were stiff, and the hooves even went the wrong way.  Her front legs would not completely straighten.  Even her mouth was fairly stiff and locked, and she didn’t have a sucking instinct.

She did improve enough to nurse, and I decided to give it the weekend to see if we could get her joints working.  If not, I’d take her to be euthanized on Monday.  She did improve, but not a lot.  Ever helpful, Leo was there to wash the milk from her face.  I think she truly enjoyed his attention.

On Sunday evening, she began to develop pneumonia because she didn’t have the muscles to cough all the fluids from her lungs.  This morning I took her to the vets to end her pain.

This dear little girl was the final piece of the puzzle for Dr. Schmitz to recognize Cache Valley Fever in all three girls.  The locked joints, birth defects, and kids that begin life fine and then develop neurological symptoms are all signs that their moms were infected with the virus during their pregnancies.  It is a virus transmitted by mosquitoes, and there is nothing to do for the kids but love them and end their suffering when they no longer have a good quality of life.

Bless my beautiful little girls.

More information HERE.

Linking to You Capture where this week’s theme is pretty.