Symptoms:
1) Rubbing and itching (bald spot may appear near front or mid of goat) This is an early symptom.
2) Look for a sore to open up in the middle of the itchy spot
3) Weakness: goat begins to be unsteady on her feet
4) Unable to get up and stand on her own, staggering
5) Prefers to lay on one side only. When you flip her she acts in pain.
6) Bound up muscles on one side
7) Star Gazing
8) Good Appetite even though obviously very sick
9) Secondary effect: Pneumonia
Treatment:
1) Fenbendazole 10 x's the normal dosage once a day every other day for five days. Dose a 100 lb goat as if she weighed 1000 lbs. One full syringe of horse paste will NOT work!! Get Fenbendazole specifically for goats
If you use horse paste you will have to give 3 full tubes. With this white liquid you will need to give one syringe of 220 ml. Administer the entire dose slowly so as not to cause choking.
3) Watch for secondary problems like Thiamine deficiency
4) Move animal and massage legs and muscles that are affected
I lost one animal because we didn't figure it out in time. It was winter, normally MW hits in the fall. They were pregnant--the vet and I both thought early signs were just big babies making things difficult. Missed the rubbed shoulders and sore because I thought it was an external parasite which is often the case in early winter. There is no test for MW so if you rule out ketosis, goat polio and milk fever suspect MW!!
About this disease: Meningeal worm is a parasite carried by deer and hosted by snails or slugs.
How a farm animal can get it : They accidentally eat an infected snail or slug while browsing
How it works : The worms hatch and migrates to the goat's nervous system and to it's brain where it is safe to reproduce away from the effect of most wormers. They damage nerves and the spinal cord and eventually kill their host.
