What was her feeding schedule?

At 4 weeks they are nibbling things ... what could she have nibbled on, and is it toxic to goats?

She would eat aprox 16ounces dailey, usually fed 3X a day. I guess she could have nibbled on something but I have no idea what. SHe and 3 other older goats were out with the family almost the whole day. We were raking the yard. Everyone else seems fine and whatever it was hit her very fast. Is there a certain type of plant etc that would be toxic. She hadn't acted sick at all before this.

Sounds like poisoning of some sort, maybe a snake bite? Do you have poisonous snakes?

Rhododendron, azalea, wilted cherry leaves, poisonous mushrooms, milkweed, to name a few toxic plants. Cornell Univiersity has a good toxic plant list, I think the Univ. in PA has one, too.

Sorry to hear about the little one. I would familiarize my self with the plants & reptiles in your area so you can either remove the plant or keep the animals away.

We keep on hand activated charcoal (for poisonous plants ingestion), and antitoxin for general toxitity. If we were to see a goat acting like they had a toxic poisoning, we would administer one or both, depending on the symptoms. This might (or might not) buy us some time to get some professional help in a situation like this, maybe save a life.

Again I'm sorry for your loss.

Brendasue

I am very sorry that you lost your pet.

This is a very hard fact about farm animals. They are often not worth ( their monetary value, not emotional value)the cost of a vet visit and so vets will not treat an animal when they know that odds are that the owner will not pay.

A vet visit with some minimal treatment and some blood work can quickly add up to hundreds of dollars. It doesn't take much for a vet bill to add up to thousands of dollars.

Unless you are a regular customer, and the vet knows that you will pay a $500 vet bill, even if the goat dies, you are very unlikely to find a vet to treat a pet goat.

I was in my vets office when some people were in with a sick goat and their bill was over $1500. They paid. Would you? Does your regular vet know that you will? I suspect that you don't have a regular vet, since you were calling around trying to find one.

You would have to have a farm or horse vet. A dog and cat vet might not know all that much about goats.

If you want to have livestock, you need to learn how to treat the livestock. Get a couple of good books about goats and read up. Your local library has some or can get you some if you don't want to buy.

When you say that the children played with the goat all day, was that very gentle handling or did it involve chasing, carrying, maybe wrestling. I don't want to make accusations, but baby goats are not sturdy and the wrong kind of handling, over-heating, dehydration, or stress can kill them.

For a couple hundred dollars you an get a necropsy at your state's veterinary college, if you really want to know why the goat died.

I'm so sorry to hear about your daughter's goat. It's so disappointing to loose one when they are apparently doing well, and not know why. (Even more so when it's your child's special pet)

Try reading some of the articles at Onion Creek Ranch; the author has done a great job in describing symptoms and treatments and you might be able to figure out what happened. (and most importantly, how to prevent it from happening again)

Here is a link that might be useful: Health and management articles at Onion Creek Ranch Website