Once upon a time in a land not so far away there was a goat herd who was supposed to be going on vacation. She was all packed and ready to leave for the island where she was to spend the night. She went to do one last herd check and found that her prize winning buck was laying out on the ground as flat as a board and looked like he'd been run over by some large vehicle.
She picked him up and stood him on shaky legs and tried to feed him some hay whilst she phoned the veterinarian thankful that it was 'extended office hours' only to realize that it was sunday and therefore an emergency call. She left a frantic message for the vet who promptly returned the call and informed the goat herd that she needed to bring the little goat into the office.
The goat herd jumped up carrying the goat in one arm and scurried around gathering a carrier and towels and dashed off to the vets office arriving minutes before the vet. She stood there pacing while she waited checking on him and finding him flat in the carrier once again. The vet arrived in a flurry of activity and promptly took his temperature and checked his vitals to confirm the fact that his heart was racing and his breathing was shallow, whilst his ears were warm but his mouth was cold, his tongue pink but his gums a sickly white.
His temperature registed at a horribly shocking 91.7 degrees on the thermometer(normal is 101.5 for a goat) and quickly diagnoses the fact that he has gone into shock and is wanting to die. The vet quickly races inside to set up a heating pad and get warmers set up to raise his body temperature and they place the goat into the heater. She tells the goat herd that if it is going to work it will do so in the next few hours and that she will call in about an hour to let the goat herd know how he is doing.
Two and a half hours go by and the goat herd hasn't yet received a phone call from the vet updating her on the prognosis of her goat. She decided to call the vet and get an update only to find out that the goats body temperature had climbed up to 98 degrees and was holding steady at that point, and that he had been placed on sternal recumbency(sitting on his chest), a IV drip of fluids w/ glucose and cephlexin and albon(worm drugs). She was also told that the vet would call her back around 6:30 to 7 pm with another update but that it was looking good. She went and tried to relax the best she could and sat to eat dinner(a delectable pork chop and farm fresh corn on the cob) while she waited.
Just after 7 pm the phone rang and she answered it thankful that it was the vet. The vet informed the goat herd that the buck would be perfectly fine and his body temperature was normal he was eating, drinking, chewing a cud, and having all normal body functions. She also informed the goat herd that the buck could come home the following morning with some extra antibiotics but that he should pull through fine. The goat herd was so excited that she burst into tears as it had already cost over $500 for the rest of the buck's family medical bills this year alone.
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