HELP! I have a 5 week old kid with diarrhea. He had it for 1 day last week and it cleared up on its own. Now we are on day 2 of this episode. He is still active, eating, and playing normally. What should I do?
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I had one out of 7 kids get it... then weeks later another, and then a couple weeks later another. So out of 7 kids, I had 3 with cocci. All of mine were dam raised and I kept a tight lid on exposed feces. When they would go outside it was so wet and muddy they always had something on their feet and short of washing their feet every time they came in to eat, there was nothing I could do to stop it. Hopefully yours will stop with just one ;)
It is so tough to keep their little feet out those feed isn't it Jess?? Sigh, LOL. Like Astrud said I wouldn't necessarily count on all of them coming down it. I had 4 girlies all together and only the one came down with it. Some are just more resilient than others like Deborah has talked about. The one I had come down with it was one of my bottle babies and from what Deborah has shared in other threads they can be more troublesome when it comes to cocci than those that are dam raised. Thankfully my other bottle raised baby didn't come down with it but she is also a bit older than this one too so I think that may have helped her out a bit. All the rain we've gotten over this summer certainly hasn't helped the cause. Hope the Sulmet helps your boy and gets him back on his feet soon!
Not necessarily, this was our first year raising kids and we notice that not all got it. Even among siblings, some did and some did not. Also some would come down with it later. So at times it felt like we were always treating someone.
Thanks everyone. I was thinking it was probably cocci but its always nice to get others opinions. I started him on Sulmet yesterday as that is what I have on hand. I'm hopping for improvements to happen soon. There stall is clean and the 7 goats have about a 1/2 acre area to run. but there little feet will not stay out of the feed buckets. LOL I do find it a little odd that out of the 4 kids I only have 1 with cocci. I would think they would all have it.
I agree with the others that is probably cocci. I just recently went through this with one of my doelings and she was exactly like your kid. Had one episode of diarrhea that cleared up then another one came one. In between she had regular poops along with some clumpy poops. She was also active, eating fine, etc. I took a fecal in and sure enough she had cocci. I had to go straight to Corid due to other measures that had be taken before I got her and it worked great. I followed Deborah's dosing instructions for giving it undiluted and she is all good now with no signs of it coming back on. Good luck getting the little one back on track. Keep us posted on how it's going.
My first kid that got it this year did NOT respond to the dimethox and I had to switch to something else. Deborah suggested Corid and it worked really well but you must stick closely to the dosage and the days prescribed. It is also in most feed stores but as Deborah suggested in another thread, you can give it to them undiluted smaller dosage rather than giving them SO much liquid. Deborah gives 1cc (ml) per 25# of the liquid Corid every day for 5 days.
Sounds like cocci to me. In my experience, it has a very distinctive smell. I have used Sulmet when my kids have gotten cocci and it works just fine, in case you can't find DiMethox. My kids have gotten it no matter how clean I keep the stall, but this year, I'm going to try one of Deb's recent suggestions and keep a good layer of clean straw on the floor rather than trying to keep the barn floor swept clean.
In all likelihood, he has coccidiosis. You can get DiMethox 12.5% at a farm store or TSC to treat him. If you can get a fecal to be sure that would be great, but kids that age with diarrhea is very likely coccidiosis. The dosage for it is: 1ml per 5 lbs the first day and 1ml per 10 lbs for day 2 through 5. I drop a drop of stevia in it to make it more palatable but it's not necessary. It should stop the diarrhea pretty quickly but be sure to continue every day for the 5 days. As Deborah has said over and over, keeping the barn area free of feces on the floor is critical since the kids put their feet into bowls all the time and contaminate the food.