# Doe ate plastic bag



## mulish (Apr 26, 2009)

We had a jailbreak today, a doe + her 2 kids got out. I had left a plastic bag with a handful of tasty treats - apple peels, etc. on table on patio. Bag was clear plastic produce size with a knot in it.
It is gone (have searched entire area). 98% sure the doe ate it. 

Is this a death sentence?

Is there anything that I can do to aid its passing? Should I tube her with oil? If so, how much?


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## dragonlair (Mar 24, 2009)

Lots of coarse hay to help push it through and probably oil to help it slide along..


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## mulish (Apr 26, 2009)

What amount of oil? Will any cooking oil work? if not, I have a store nearby & can get mineral oil. Do I give baking soda too?


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

If she is a valuable animal to your herd I would get to the vet. If she is not, than I would let nature take it's course and pray for a good outcome. Vicki


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## mulish (Apr 26, 2009)

So no action other than vet? The value call is hard. I love her, but vet is 1.5 hours away & cost will be more than her monetary value since it is after hours.

She is acting normal, very hungry as usual.


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

A vet can look and see if there is a bag in there, and talk to you about surgery.

I don't remember what it is called but they can also levage out rumen contents which could also bring out the bag. Hopefully the doe will chew it up really well with cud if she bit it into pieces, trying to bring up large parts could choke her, I would really watch her over the next few hours and days. If you see the bag as she is cudding rip it out of there if you can.

Filling it with oil is iffy, there isn't a lot of liquid in a rumen and filling the bag with oil, could make it balloon and it won't even make it into the next chamber. Why I think I would opt for nothing rather than treating her for bloat etc. Vicki


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## mulish (Apr 26, 2009)

Good point, Vicki, thanks. I am very aware of the shape of the bag, and the knot in it, as I put my hand on it this afternoon - didn't think about it ballooning with oil. My strongest prayer now is that she grabbed the goodies inside the bag, dropped it & her devil buckling ate it. . .


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## MF-Alpines (Mar 29, 2010)

I am ashamed to say, but one of my does ate most of a latex glove this kidding season. My husband had one in his back pocket. One of our does was happily eating hay while she was kidding. Somehow, somewhere, when I was doing something BEHIND the doe, and Jim was holding her from the front, she must have grabbed the glove. Later, he found something in her mouth, and it was about 2" of sleeve. I thought she was done. Nope. This was right after kidding which was 3/23. I expected the worse every single day. Maybe we got lucky. On the other hand, this is the doe that I have spiking a temp. But she is pooping and peeing normally.

So to answer the original OP, I would say, "no". But wait and watch. Really, what else can you do?


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## mulish (Apr 26, 2009)

Waiting & Watching are pretty standard this time of year. . .
thanks for sharing, MF!


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## dreamfirefarm (Nov 15, 2011)

I have had two Full grown Lamancha Bucks die from eating plastic bags. we had lived in a rural sort of area and they blew up on the fence. I would walk the fence dailey and pick them up. But somehow they got them. I found the bags in their rumens after they died and I had gone to extreme measures to find out why they died, short of exploratory surgery. I caught one of my yearling alpine does with a bag hanging out of her mouth, I rushed thru the gate and got her by the neck just in time to barely get my fingers on the stupid bag and pulled out 18 inches of clear plastic bag. This is my worst nightmare living by a rural hwy. I had a picture of the rumen of my little Orchard bucks rumen with the bags on my phone, but I washed my phone. I will see if I can find it on face book and post it so all can see it. Good Luck with your doe.


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## dreamfirefarm (Nov 15, 2011)

I found my picture if anyone wants to see it not sure how to post pics here.


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

Send them to me Lynn and I will post them for you [email protected] ...you were who I was thinking about. Vicki


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## dreamfirefarm (Nov 15, 2011)

I sent the pic


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

This is what was left after he decomposed long enough for me to look. This was my little orchard buck last summer, the one before this was a Tan Oaks buck a number of years ago, and he ate the blue walmart bags, rumen was just full of them. They dont decompose they dont pass, they stop up the works.


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## mulish (Apr 26, 2009)

Wow. How sad, Lynn, I'm sorry for your loss. 
As of now, my doe is her normal self - on the outside, at least. The bag has never shown up, so I'm assuming it could still cause a problem someday.


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## swgoats (May 21, 2010)

Gosh, I would never in a million years thought a goat would eat plastic. Another thing to worry about, geesh! I saw a cow at Purdue that they had surgically put a window to the rumen. They could open it up and sample the contents. I thought of that when I read these stories. Wouldn't that be handy?


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## Horsehair Braider (Mar 11, 2011)

This reminds me of being on another forum - not a goat forum - and having the people there insist to me that "goats can eat *anything*!" and me explaining that no, goats can NOT eat "anything" as it will kill them, and you should not allow them to eat strange things if they try! 

We had a neighbor who did not feed his goat, as he believed that the goat could eat "anything". The poor goat was so hungry he started eating baling twine, and died. The owner was shocked, no one else was... he actually paid for a necropsy, and the vet told me that poor thing was absolutely packed with baling twine. I've always been scrupulous about baling twine anyway, but that just made me really pay attention and keep my place picked up. Now I'll be extra careful about plastic bags too.


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## [email protected] (Sep 18, 2008)

It drives me absolutely NUTS when I find an old piece of binder twine in a bale of hay. Caught one goat with about a 6" piece in her mouth once.  I'm constantly picking up garbage from around the fence that's blown in from the neighbors or somewhere. That drives me crazy too--why can't people dispose of their trash like they're suppose to?! 

Hope your gals doing ok and hopefully she ate the goodies and the bag blew away.


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## swgoats (May 21, 2010)

I think it is just the crazy wind. I would never purposely litter, but open the car door and things go flying. If I see it, I try to grab it. I try to teach the kids not to open their door until I close mine. And those plastic bags can fly high and travel quite a ways. Sometimes I find trash in the hay even though it is nice hay. I know some people litter, but I think alot is accidental too.


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## Golden Delta Alpines (Mar 8, 2012)

How's your doe doing today, JC? The bag still hasn't shown up?


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## Dan N TN (Apr 15, 2012)

I do not know much about goats but, I know that it is pretty much a death sentence for cattle. We were given literally truck loads of old bread and had been putting the bags in a barrel to be disposed of and as you can guess, we had a jail break and they found the barrel. We lost 4 cows due to it but, I don't know how many others ate the bags and passed them. The vet came out and checked the first one and done everything that he could without operating. He explained it to us that the bag will fill with material and then pass through the large intestines but, once it hits the small intestine it becomes blocked. I found one cow down and put her out of her missery and then butchered her and even thou it was an extremely gross ordeal I opened up the intestines and found the bag lodged just as he told us. Again, I don't know much about goats so it may not be as bad for a goat to eat a bag.

I hope that your doe pulls through for you though.


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## Oat Bucket Farm (Mar 2, 2009)

We live in town and the wind always blowing bags around. We are constantly picking them up. Luckily, no one has ate one. We've found them playing with the bags and promptly taken them away. I always worry they will eat one.


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