15/08/2026
Dear little soul Lady Thelma (just turned 1 yr old a couple of weeks ago). She has been here with us for 4 weeks now as an in-patient for the treatment of severe Anaemia caused by a load of blood sucking Barber Pole worms and a lot of blood sucking Lice throughout her coat. So she had 2 different parasites feeding on her blood, hence why she became so Anaemic and why she lost weight and was unable to put any weight on. She was 14kg on arrival here 4 weeks ago and has gained 5kg so far making her 19kg now. After 4 weeks you can easily see the difference in Thelma’s Famacha (membrane inside the lower eyelid) score/colour from the day she arrived to today. Ideally a healthy goats Famacha should be a darkish pink to red colour.
A pale to white Famacha colour score indicates that a goat is dangerously anaemic which can be fatal. You can see in the comparison photo I have added how pale Thelma’s Famacha was when she arrived compared to the colour it is now after 4 weeks of daily treatment and medications. Anaemia in goats and sheep is most of the time caused by Barber Pole worms that feed on a their blood. The paler the Famacha is indicative of the severity of the anaemia. Thelma is super squirmy and non compliant when trying to check her Famacha, even harder trying to get a non blurry photo as well so these pics are the best I could get. She also arrived here with her gum colour being white which shows even more so the severity of the anaemia. Thankfully she is recovering really well and has that nice healthy pinkish colour back in her gums. I did have a f***l egg count done of her p**p 💩 to check for worm eggs so we would know exactly what type of worms she had and if it was a small or large amount. Thelma’s f***l results came back showing she had barber pole worms, even though the owner told me she was de-wormed 2 weeks before she came to us, so that previous de-wormer did not help her with ridding her body of these worms. After the f***l egg count indicating still had worms I de-wormed her with a different de-wormer. I’m due to take another p**p 💩 sample to my vet to check if the de-wormer I gave her 2 weeks ago was successful in killing off the blood sucking worms. I think it was as she has managed to gain 5kgs of weight while here.
