Last Thursday I was at a cattle sale, and got a phone call from my family at home saying there was a goat with a broken back leg. They had carried her to a stall with water and hay. She was eating and acting very well for how bad the break was. I have no idea how she broke her leg, really no idea. This doe is an 18 month old Alpine/Nubian doe. She is one of the ones who's horns we banded successfully. She is a very, very big, healthy doe.
So I got home, and this is what I found. Can anyone say OUCH!?!! It was completely free-swinging, complete break. No skin was broken though.
So since it was really late and I had no energy to completely splint her leg, we wrapped it in a bunch of cotton and vet wrap just to stabilize it for the night. I also gave her some Banamine for swelling.
The next day, we unwrapped it and splinted the leg. First we wrapped it in lots of cotton, then put 2 school-type rulers on each side.
Next we wrapped all that in vet wrap.
I also placed the lid from a vitamin bottle on the bottom of her hoof to help keep dirt out, and keep the splint in place.
After putting some tape on to help hold things in place, we were all done! During the whole thing she just ate her grain and did amazing for us moving around her broken leg. . . although we were gentle, I'm sure it would hurt bad (although I've never had a broken bone in my life, so I personally wouldn't know and would rather it stay that way, LOL).
I started her on a round of antibiotics (Pro-Pen-G Penicillin) and for the first 2 days I gave her Banamine to help keep the swelling down. So far, so good. She is getting around VERY well on 3 legs, and seems to be doing fine. I will try to keep you all updated on her!
Hope you all had an awesome Labor Day weekend!! I certainly did. . . more on that and pics hopefully later ;).
Suriyah
4 comments:
Absolutely a SUPERB tutorial on splinting!! Thanks so much for posting this. I'm sure this will be a blessing to many people!!
Absolutely a SUPERB tutorial on splinting!! Thanks so much for posting this. I'm sure this will be a blessing to many people!!
5 weeks ago my little 4 month old doeling, Zarah, broke her back right leg. I did the same thing but not with the vet wrap. I have a vet friend so a week later I took her over to her house and she put a cast on. It was a little higher than your doe's break. I am so hoping her leg has healed. She gets it taken off Sunday. That's the only time we both have to do it. She is such a sweet girl and I hope this worked.
I hope your doe gets well and has no problems with her leg as well. I have never had to deal with this before. I learn something every day here.
How long will you keep the cast on?
Kris - sorry to hear about your doeling :(. I have never had to deal with a broken back leg before, but I did splint a doeling's front leg once for a friend and the doeling healed up just fine, you'd never know now that she had a broken leg. So I'm hoping for the same with this doe.
My plan is to leave this splint on for 2-3 weeks and then take the splint off, check on the leg, and re-splint it.
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