A trip to the vet

My Nigerian Dwarf goat, Pete, has a cough. It's not debilitating, but it's a nagging one. It's concerning because he's had the cough for almost as long as I've had him, which is six weeks now. That's a long time to have a cough.

After consulting with my local vet on the phone a few weeks ago and giving an antibiotic shot of Tetradure to both Pete and Reggie, Pete's cough still has not gone away.

Activity seems to aggravate it. When he jumps down from things, runs down a hill or I give him a good pat on the side of his chest, he makes this croupy sounding, hacking cough. Definitely time for a vet visit. Chronic pneumonia can be a slow killer. It creates abscesses in the lungs and is very resistant to antibiotic treatment. I decided to take my other goat, Reggie, along, to the vet, too, for comparison purposes. Reggie is four days younger than Pete, but is significantly larger (fatter) and more robust than Pete.

Knowing how much I hate going to the doctor, my friend Marcee, a.k.a. frugalmom, flew in from Illinois to help me:

Not really. I mean, she did help, but she was already here and I was glad. Getting two teenage goats into a carrier, out of a carrier and into an unfamiliar place is quite a task:

Once inside, though, Pete was quick to investigate his surroundings. The reading material immediately caught his eye:

Reggie was a bit shyer. But, after a quick kiss from Marcee for luck:

Reggie set off to explore, too:

Everything needed a sniffing:

Then Reggie decided to piddle on the waiting room floor:

No problem. The barefoot vet assistant cheerfully cleaned it right up:

The vet listened to Pete's heart and lungs. He (Pete) was such a good boy:

The diagnosis: not chronic pneumonia. This is a very good thing. Pete does, however, have some lung congestion. Reggie, who also received a "once over" from the vet sounds a bit "nasally":

The vet felt that a course of a different antibiotic was in order. The treatment: 1 cc of Baytril every other day for the next three days:

When we got back outside, the sun was shining:

It was a successful first trip to the vet. Pete and Reggie made some new friends and I feel better knowing that Pete doesn't have anything chronic:

I wonder if these boys will learn to love the car as much as Roxy:

Roxy doesn't think so: