# New doeling possibly deaf?



## Chessa (Jan 9, 2014)

Fingers crossed I can find someone with some experience on this! One of my gals gave birth 5 weeks ago to 3 gorgeous little girls. The babies have been doing awesome, but I couldn’t help but be troubled by one of them. She was always off by herself just standing there crying and looking lost, she didn’t get up and run around with her sisters and play, she always has her ears down instead of perked up, and just in general she’s not acting like a 5 week old should. Her temp has been fine though and she’s not anemic. She is smaller than the other 2 because she is the one who gets kicked off the milk, she won’t fight her way in for it so I know she’s eating less (and you can see in the pic she stands all cramped up looking as though she’s having tummy problems, but that’s all been fine, so I think it’s more from fear). So today I was outside doing some things and I noticed her over by herself as normal. As I approached her though I realized that she was not responding to me making noise, so I did some more tests with clapping behind all 3 of the babies, and making noises, and sure enough she is the only one who doesn’t respond. I then looked in her ears, and they are hard to see into of course with a little squirmy baby, but they look as though they are closed completely! there’s no ear canal, the cartilage that makes up the ear just formed all the way across! (I will be verifying this tomorrow) So now at this point, I am at a loss. I right away wanted to pull her and hand raise her inside because she must be terrified out there, but then I’m thinking is it better for her to be around the goats so she can learn how to function without hearing? She’s now automatically become a pet because there’s no way I would sell this little princess! Has anyone had experience with deaf goats? This is a first for me! (Sorry for the long post, but I tell lots of details in my stories hahaha)


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

She is cute. You need to start supplementing with whole milk ASAP. Leave her with Mom and sisters. You also need to have a fecal sample done to include coccidia.

If she isn't getting in there to nurse properly, she is slowly starving to death and she looks like she has coccidia.


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## Chessa (Jan 9, 2014)

You think even with no diarrhea? Do you know if it’s possible for them to have coccidia without having any signs of it?


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## Goatzrule (Feb 7, 2013)

I would definitely be supplementing with more milk


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## GF3 Boer Goats (Sep 25, 2017)

MORE MILK!!!!!!!! If possible contact your local veterinarian and see if they have dealt with this before, or if they can refer you to someone who has.


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## Goat_Scout (Mar 23, 2017)

I’m not sure about her being blind, but I agree, you definitely need to supplement that cutie. If she won’t take a bottle, I’d start separating her sisters for around 12 hours every night but leave her with mom, so she can have all of the milk. 

Or, do you have any other does in milk? For a couple weeks I was supplementing one of my does’ twins on another higher producing doe, while they were still on their own mama.


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## Chessa (Jan 9, 2014)

I am definitely going to be supplementing her with a bottle. I did some more testing with her today, came up behind her making noise, and there is zero response. I am about 95% certain she is deaf. Otherwise she’s just Reallllllly good at ignoring me! Even this afternoon, the dog was out in the yard and he is always scary to the babies, so when they saw him they started yelling and all ran for their mama, and she had her back turned to them at the moment, so she didn’t even flinch. Then when she did look around and see they were gone, she was like Oops! I brought her inside for a little while, and she knocked out! She gets so relaxed when I pick her up, I think she’s very anxious all the time otherwise ☹


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## Chessa (Jan 9, 2014)

She is such a sweetie tho


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Absolutely she can have coccidia without diarrhea. One of the more prominent signs is poor weight gain. Most people no longer see diarrhea with high coccidia load.


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## GenTheGoatGirl (Mar 22, 2018)

Poor little sweetie! You're like me, a champion for the underdog. I have a puny lil guy I've been helping along, too.





  








Little Charlie




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GenTheGoatGirl


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Mar 26, 2018


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1


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Good advice given.


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## Goatzrule (Feb 7, 2013)

do you have a picture of her ear? Id be intrested to see


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## Chessa (Jan 9, 2014)

Goatzrule said:


> do you have a picture of her ear? Id be intrested to see


I will try and get a picture of the inside if I can. I looked today with a flashlight and I cannot see an opening anywhere. Seems to be completely closed up. Craziest thing.


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Hmm, I wonder if an ultra sound or something can tell if she has an eardrum and if a vet can make an opening if there is?


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## Chessa (Jan 9, 2014)

I guess I would have to weigh the plus and minus of both sides. I hate putting them through medical things they can’t understand, but at the same time, I’m not sure how rough her road will be without hearing. She has the rest of the herd thankfully to direct her so that’s good


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## Damfino (Dec 29, 2013)

How strange. If she were mine I would probably leave her be and let her figure it out. She doesn't know what she's missing and her eyes and sense of feel will learn to make up somewhat for her lack of hearing. She'll learn to take her cues from the other goats and look up when they look up, run when they run, etc. I doubt I would want to breed her though.


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## Goatzrule (Feb 7, 2013)

Is it on both sides?


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Goatzrule said:


> Is it on both sides?


 Very good question.


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## Deborah Haney (Jul 11, 2017)

If it were me I would wait until she fell asleep and have someone hold her head and ear, then take a flashlight a GENTLY palpate with a q tip to see if there is a deeper canal or not. I want to emphasize never letting the q tip out of your sight. You could also try making a loud noise while she's asleep or buying an otoscope. I think an ultrasound of the internal ear structures is the only way to know for sure, though.

If I had a deaf goat I would keep her (or sell her) as a pet and not breed her. I'd also use ASL to teach her the tricks and commands my other goats know.

Since goats are herd animals they rely on their herd to know when danger is near. When one reacts, they all react. She's young so she has other things on her mind but adults tend to be very much in tune with the herd.

I wouldn't worry about keeping her indoors vs her learning to cope without hearing. You can pretty much treat her like any other goat. Think of the differences like social skills. If you had a normal goat kid who was struggling a bit and you kept her indoors some, how much time would you want her to spend with other goats to develop social skills? Also keep in mind that this isn't an adjustment for her. Assuming she is deaf, she was born deaf so she doesn't have to adapt to having no hearing, she's just growing up and navigating her new world like her siblings.

She certainly is a cutie, good luck and have fun with her!


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Very good advice there.


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## Lisa2017 (Apr 25, 2018)

toth boer goats said:


> Very good advice there.





Chessa said:


> Fingers crossed I can find someone with some experience on this! One of my gals gave birth 5 weeks ago to 3 gorgeous little girls. The babies have been doing awesome, but I couldn't help but be troubled by one of them. She was always off by herself just standing there crying and looking lost, she didn't get up and run around with her sisters and play, she always has her ears down instead of perked up, and just in general she's not acting like a 5 week old should. Her temp has been fine though and she's not anemic. She is smaller than the other 2 because she is the one who gets kicked off the milk, she won't fight her way in for it so I know she's eating less (and you can see in the pic she stands all cramped up looking as though she's having tummy problems, but that's all been fine, so I think it's more from fear). So today I was outside doing some things and I noticed her over by herself as normal. As I approached her though I realized that she was not responding to me making noise, so I did some more tests with clapping behind all 3 of the babies, and making noises, and sure enough she is the only one who doesn't respond. I then looked in her ears, and they are hard to see into of course with a little squirmy baby, but they look as though they are closed completely! there's no ear canal, the cartilage that makes up the ear just formed all the way across! (I will be verifying this tomorrow) So now at this point, I am at a loss. I right away wanted to pull her and hand raise her inside because she must be terrified out there, but then I'm thinking is it better for her to be around the goats so she can learn how to function without hearing? She's now automatically become a pet because there's no way I would sell this little princess! Has anyone had experience with deaf goats? This is a first for me! (Sorry for the long post, but I tell lots of details in my stories hahaha)


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## Lisa2017 (Apr 25, 2018)

We just got a 2 month kiddo a week ago. His name is Fred. He never makes a sound maybe twice a little sound. As we watched him we keep noticing no sounds effected him so we did some test a pot dropped behind him clapping extra stuff Nothing. So seems we have a precious special kiddo. All our goats and sheep are pets. What's so strange is our 5 month goats Pet and Jax took to him right away as did our our mama sheep and her two babies. It's almost like they know. Fred watches everything and follows the whole heard. We are teaching it hand signals on his level to come and eat. We wouldn't change him for the world it's his world and he seems to like it. Extra special I tell ya

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Chessa said:


> Fingers crossed I can find someone with some experience on this! One of my gals gave birth 5 weeks ago to 3 gorgeous little girls. The babies have been doing awesome, but I couldn't help but be troubled by one of them. She was always off by herself just standing there crying and looking lost, she didn't get up and run around with her sisters and play, she always has her ears down instead of perked up, and just in general she's not acting like a 5 week old should. Her temp has been fine though and she's not anemic. She is smaller than the other 2 because she is the one who gets kicked off the milk, she won't fight her way in for it so I know she's eating less (and you can see in the pic she stands all cramped up looking as though she's having tummy problems, but that's all been fine, so I think it's more from fear). So today I was outside doing some things and I noticed her over by herself as normal. As I approached her though I realized that she was not responding to me making noise, so I did some more tests with clapping behind all 3 of the babies, and making noises, and sure enough she is the only one who doesn't respond. I then looked in her ears, and they are hard to see into of course with a little squirmy baby, but they look as though they are closed completely! there's no ear canal, the cartilage that makes up the ear just formed all the way across! (I will be verifying this tomorrow) So now at this point, I am at a loss. I right away wanted to pull her and hand raise her inside because she must be terrified out there, but then I'm thinking is it better for her to be around the goats so she can learn how to function without hearing? She's now automatically become a pet because there's no way I would sell this little princess! Has anyone had experience with deaf goats? This is a first for me! (Sorry for the long post, but I tell lots of details in my stories hahaha)


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