Please help!!!

We just got 3 week old Nigerian dwarf goats both males on Saturday. Yesterday (wednesday) we noticed one started having some diarrhea in the afternoon and before that he has always grinding his teeth. I gave him a little peptmo bismo for the diarrhea and also started a probiotic for him but in some google searches I saw teeth grinding could mean pain and parasites. What do I do? I don't want to overreact but if he needs something more I of course want to take care of it. Do we wait it out? Is it the stress of a whole new home? Overeating? I should mention he drinks about one and half cups to 2 cups of milk 3x a day which is exactly what both of them get and only one is having problems. They also have fresh hay, water and grain which is barely getting touched. Please help!!!!

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  • Cut back on the milk. They should have no more than 20% of their body weight or about 32 ounces a day, whichever is less, so you are overfeeding. No more than 10-11 ounces per bottle ever with NDs. Diarrhea from over-feeding usually stops as soon as you cut back on the milk. 

    Do NOT give pepto bismol. It could just mask a very important symptom that is giving you important information. Diarrhea should never be ignored, and you should never give a drug to cover up the symptom.

    If the diarrhea does not stop within 12 hours ...

    This is probably coccidiosis. It has a 3-week life cycle, so diarrhea showing up at this age is probably that. 

    The treatment for coccidiosis is Corid, which you can buy at any farm store. There are two dosages listed on the label. You want to follow the 5-day treatment dosage -- NOT the longer one for preventative. I never recommend more than 5 days of Corid because it depletes thiamine. I don't know anyone who has had a problem using Corid for only five days. You don't need to dilute it as much as the label says. It's labeled for cows. If you dilute less, just do the math so that you give the correct amount of medicine. 

    Here is more information on diarrhea:

    https://thriftyhomesteader.com/diarrhea-in-goats/

    Here is more information on how to calculate how much milk baby goats need:

    https://thriftyhomesteader.com/bottle-feeding-goat-kids/

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