CHAKWAL: A farmer in Variyamal village lost his 22 goats moments after he injected them with an antibiotic without consulting any veterinarian, it emerged on Friday.

Sultan Kahoot, who keeps a large herd of goats, witnessed some animals with runny nose, a condition termed common by vets. However, instead of visiting a veterinary dispensary he went straight to a medical store and told the salesman that his goats were suffering from flu.

“The salesman gave me a micowan-300 injection and asked me to inject half cubic centimetre (cc) to each goat,” the farmer told Dawn. He said he injected less than half cc to each goat but hardly after 10 minutes the goats fell on the ground.

“I rushed to the goat pen but all the 24 goats expired in a sudden,” he said and declared the medicine “faulty.”

A representative from the manufacturing pharmaceutical company visited the site where he was challenged by the farmer to inject the same medicine to any other goat and see the result. But according to Salman Kahoot, the representative of the company refused to accept the challenge.

“I have suffered a loss of Rs450,000,” the farmer said.

When asked why he didn’t visit a government veterinary dispensary, he admitted his mistake and said he had been getting medicine from the medical store which the salesman gave after I told him about the symptoms of any disease.

When contacted, Additional Director Livestock Dr Syed Kamal Nasir and Deputy Director Livestock Dr Mohammad Riaz termed the loss a result of self-medication.

“We have our own dispensary in Kariyala village which is very near to Variyamal but the owner of the goats did not bother to visit that dispensary,” said Dr Kamal Nasir.

Dr Riaz explained that the injection was supposed to be injected in a nominal quantity.

“I think overdose was injected to the goats,” Dr Riaz said and added that goats did not need any sort of medication as flu is a common occurrence which is cured within a few days without medication.

Published in Dawn, June 7th, 2020