# goat health



## imported_Bambi (Aug 25, 2009)

Hi, just wondering if anyone has ever had a problem with a disease called "polio encephalo malaisa" (not sure I spelled it correctly)? We just had a doe that went through it, it is scary stuff. It is a deficiency of vitamin B in their body. It makes them go blind and lose all motor skills. If you catch it quickly enough and give them vitamin B shots, they make a full recovery ,although not always. I have been raising goats for twelve years and had never heard of it. 
The doe that just went through it lost alot of her memory, but each day she starts to go back to her old personality. Before getting this disease we could not use her for packing , because she was terrible with smashing her pack against whatever tree or object she could find.
I worked with her trying to get her to quit this behavior for days, but she would do it anyway. But since having the disease, she is great at packing without any of the old problems ( go figure). 
Anyway, I just wanted to know if this was a common disease and I am just ignorant.
Thanks,

Bambi


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## sweetgoatmama (Dec 10, 2008)

Polio (not the same as polio in people) is a common disease in goats and can be caused by metabolic disturbances in feeding and also cocci meds such as CoRid. CoRid binds up the vitamin B and makes it unusable in the body. 
Kids on CoRid should be give Super B, a vitamin only available from the vet, or at least shots of B complex vitamins while they are being stressed either with feeding or cocci treatment with CORid.

I suspect your doe may have lost enough brain cells that the bad ones when away. :lol:


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## Bob Jones (Aug 21, 2009)

> I worked with her trying to get her to quit this behavior for days, but she would do it anyway. But since having the disease, she is great at packing without any of the old problems ( go figure).


Maybe you could bottle some of the PEM stuff and make it available to people with problem goats ;-)

....Just teasing... send all nasty e-mail to Rex for not booting me long ago. ;-)


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## imported_Bambi (Aug 25, 2009)

Hi,

It is amazing , but she is doing fine now. Every other day she has to have vitamin B 1 crumbles added to her food to keep her normal. But her mental ability has gone back to where she was. Scary stuff if you have never seen it before.

Bambi


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