3 dead goats

[Brettley 72]

I recently put a herd of goats on my property near Forster to help keep the undergrowth down. They were doing really well for a few weeks until Friday when we turned up to find 3 goats missing from the herd.Two were found within 100 metres of each other in a heavy growth area. I cannot find the third as she is a black goat. The two goats haven't got a mark on them nor any signs of sickness. I have had a vet out to inspect them and do a postmortem and he said they were healthy but there was some discolouration in the lungs and liver. Whatever killed them did it very quickly making me think it was a snake bite. Does anyone know if these a symtoms of a particular snake. I am waiting on pathology results.Snakes don't seem to be hyvernating this year because of the warm winter. I am devastated

 

[Flaviemys purvisi]

Does your property contain any lantana? Specifically red lantana?? I lost many goats years ago in the upper Macleay Valley thanks to red lantana.

 

[Brettley 72]

I don't have any red lantana but I do have the yellow flower. I thought they had eaten some but there were no signs of any kind of sickness . The goats had been eating until it died abruptly. The Vet was fairly certain that they hadn't eaten any as he looked inside it's stomach . There was also some kind of blotching under the skin on it's chest

 

[Genos]

El Chupacabra?
*EDIT* Sorry about your goats by the way.

 

[Sdaji]

Snake bite seems unlikely considering 3 died at the same time. A snake bite would be a freak one off incident rather than a snake going on a goat killing spree. It's remotely (very, very remotely) possible that a goat was bitten and panicked and other goats came to check it out or attack the snake and they also were bitten in the same incident, but it's more likely that there was another source of poisoning, and yes, liver and lung damage with a sudden death does seem likely to indicate acute poisoning, and yes, this is consistent with a snake bite. It's odd that three suddenly dropped dead and no others have any issues; whatever the source of poisoning, even from a snake if it was a situation involving multiple individuals, you'd think there would also be sublethal poisoning in a few of them. Unexplained death by poisoning isn't really something I think will be possible to identify with the information we have here, but a snake is unlikely.

 

[xXFlying]

Were they possibly poisoned by someone and not something?

 

[Brettley 72]

One was just over a year old and pregnant, one was a 2 year old British alpine and the other was only a baby. I don't think anyone would have the heart to do that to them The property is pretty isolated too.All the goats were hand raised and from where I got them from probably would never had seen a snake before.Where I found them was close to long grass with lots of dead trees laying down, perfect snake territory and the goats will no longer go down there. My sheep tried to leed them down there but they soon run back up the property. We have spotted a few snakes about even though it is winter mainly blacks but it doesn't fit with a black snake

 

[xXFlying]

One was just over a year old and pregnant, one was a 2 year old british alpine and the other was only a baby. I don't think anyone would have the heart to do that to them The property is pretty isolated too

Aww thats so sad. I really hope no one would do that but there are some very disgusting people out there.