Our smaller goat – Hope is her name – has something wrong with her one good eye. She was born with a bad eye that does not see. She has seemed fine and could definitely see this morning when I lead her and her sister Gracie up to their outdoor area. (We are moving them around the property with temporary fencing.)
About 2pm we heard a commotion outside – the goats were running around wildly and crying. But they have done this before on occasion. We looked out the window to make sure there was nothing there to hurt them, but saw nothing.
A bit later my husband was outside and noticed Hope’s eye – at least half of the whole eyeball is bright red, but does not look wet or have any substance coming out. She was blinking as if it bothered her, but she was calm. As we watched, we noticed she could not now see out of the eye because she is bumping into things such as the fencing.
We don’t know now if she got hit or jabbed in the eye and then started running around, or if she was running around spooked for some reason, then ran into something and hurt the eye. Or maybe she got stung by something, or perhaps she has some kind of eye ailment which effected the first eye, and has taken until now to surface in the second eye. They are about 14 months old now.
It was quite hard bringing her back down the hill to the goat house. She dug in and leaned back and did not want to budge – which she never does. I usually run down the hill and they both follow – eager to get to their evening grain and alfalfa. But I guess because she couldn’t see, she was afraid to go. My daughter and I stood on each side of her, talked to her gently and kind of dragged her. She finally found her food in her house and seemed content.
I checked on her later and she seems calm and ok, but still can’t see. She faced toward my voice but kind of looked up in the air – not at all what she usually does. I will call the vet as soon as I can in the morning.