Rounds with the Vet

WE DON’T KID AROUND

when it comes to caring for our goats

Martha Weber, MPH, DVM, DACZM, DACVPM | Director of Animal Health

Sam, one of our La Mancha goats, was brought to us with the concerns that he was not eating well and was losing weight. It looked like fluid from his rumen (one of his stomachs – ruminants like goats have a complex digestive system) was coming out his nostrils. We anesthetized Sam for a complete exam with radiographs and blood work.

The first thing we noticed when we were working with Sam was that his breath smelled terrible. We examined all his teeth to look for infections or decay, but they were healthy. His lung X-rays were normal, so we knew he didn’t have pneumonia. We concluded that the bad smell was coming from his rumen. In animals like goats and cattle, the rumen serves as a fermentation vat to help the animals get the maximum nutritional value from their food. To work properly the rumen needs a healthy population of bacteria and protozoa (the microflora). Normal rumen fluid doesn’t smell great, but it should not be as unpleasant as the odor we kept getting from Sam as he breathed on us. Changes in the microflora population can happen for many reasons, but we suspect Sam ate something he shouldn’t have and that messed up the balance of organisms in his rumen, leading to abnormal fermentation. The best treatment for this problem is to give the animal a dose of rumen fluid from an animal that is not sick (transfaunation). The recommended volume of replacement rumen fluid for Sam was 3 liters (almost a gallon), which would have been very difficult to collect from another goat.

I reached out to the LaMaster Dairy Center at Clemson University, and they graciously offered to donate rumen fluid from one of their cows. I drove to Clemson and loaded up two large thermoses full of rumen fluid (we wanted to keep the fluid warm to keep the microorganisms alive and happy). When I got back to the Zoo, we brought Sam up to the hospital and lightly sedated him so we could pass a tube down into his rumen. We poured all the rumen fluid down this tube and then let him return to the farm after he recovered from the sedation. The keepers reported his appetite was improving by the very next day, and he has gained over five pounds in weight in the month since the transfaunation. We are so happy to see Sam returning to his normal healthy self!

IMPORTANT LIFE LESSON

If you are transporting actively fermenting fluids, do not put them in sealed containers! The gas build-up from the fermentation blew the thermos tops open and now my car smells like rumen fluid.

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