Tulips visit to WSU
Late in the night on Sunday February 13th, we drove Tulips to WSU. I noticed that morning she seemed just a touch quieter than normal, but the real sign was she didn’t eat all her treats that evening. Tulips ALWAYS finishes her treat bowl at night! We sat with her a few minutes and noticed she was acting lethargic and having moments where she just stood like a statue. We promptly took her temperature, and she most definitely had a fever. We were immediately on the phone with our vets and after giving her some pain reliever and antibiotics we decided we still wanted her to go in that night in case she down trended at all. Eric helped me load her up at 10:30pm and Sukah was my co-pilot as I drove her in the middle of the night reaching WSU about 2:30am. We had a whole crew greeting us upon arrival. They did an exam on Tulips and her fever had gone down a bit by the time they saw her and she was eating her hay, so they decided to monitor her overnight until more could be done in the morning, when the rest of the veterinary team arrived. Sukah sat guard all night in the front seat, fighting his desire to nod off to sleep. I tried to get him to lay down with me on the blanket and get some sleep, but it was clear he felt he had a duty to do.
The next morning, they did an ultrasound, checked her utter, did some radiographs on her abdomen and continued to monitor her. They found that Tulips has mastitis. Which I have heard from humans who have had it, that it is quite painful. Basically, it is an infection in her mammary glands. Initially, I was relieved to hear that they found what the problem was and that it was treatable. What a relief and something different from the last few times we have had to bring residents in. They wanted Tulips to stay until they received her culture back on the sample they took when they cleaned out her mammary glands. Sukah and I drove home so we could take care of everyone else, knowing Tulips was in great hands with the staff at WSU. It took a couple days for the results to come back, and unfortunately when they did, we had a lot more questions to think about and decisions to make. They found bacteria that is rarely found in goats and because of that we also don’t have very much information on it, especially in goats. They aren’t sure how or where she got it or how long it has been there. Her utter had no signs of cuts or openings where she could have gotten the bacteria, so they are thinking it was internal. The second day she was there they noticed her cough a couple of times, which led to chest x-rays. In addition, they found two large masses in Tulips’ chest, one near her trachea and the other near her Vegas nerve. Not ideal placement obviously. We chose not to biopsy the masses, because the vets didn’t believe it would change our treatment plan so the possibility of poking them and having any of the fluids leak into her chest cavity definitely didn’t seem worth it! Another option was to have a mastectomy done. This would get rid of the mastitis in her mammary glands, but it is an invasive procedure and with her being an older goat, relatively thin, and large masses in her chest cavity, we opted out of that for the moment as well. Instead, we decided to bring Tulips home where she is most comfortable and gets to be with Woody and Sage. She is on a daily antibiotic injection and being monitored very closely. The plan is to have a 2-week check-up if all is well in the meantime. At that point we will do another round of x-rays and reassess how she is doing.
Tulips was SO excited to be home and the boys were ecstatic to see her! Maybe a bit too much up in her business upon arrival! She has been doing great since she’s been home. She’s not showing that anything is wrong. For now, she’s her ole’ fun Tulips’ self. She doesn’t appreciate us needing to take her temperature multiple times a day, as it is a rectal temp., I can hardly blame her. She also dislikes her penicillin injection, which is understandable as well. We are monitoring her mammary glands and need to milk her and clear out the substance inside as needed.
Please send Tulips best wishes, hopes, prayers, positive energy… or whatever you’d like to send her for good health. We are so hoping she can overcome this hurdle and be with us, Woody and Sage for much longer.
Head rubs from Tulips. :)
~ Namaste