I am hoping to get some advise... I am out of town and my daughter is caring for our goats.
We have 9 Nigerian Dwarfs in our little herd, which I started building in April. Four are babies that I bought from a reputable breeder, who has award winning milkers. Since I brought them home at end of June, they have had two spells of coccidia, which I treated with Sulfamethdioxine. I believe they are on their third bout. I have heard coccidia "blooms" every three weeks. I have read "Raising goats Naturally," another book & a great deal online from sources I am learning to trust (this being one)! Since I am out of town a vet visit is proving unlikely, since my daughter has a three year old and the vet is 40 minute drive.
Since acquiring the babies, I have learned a great. I am hoping to get their immune systems stronger and caught up in health with the others.
Just this morning two have diarrhea. One doeling (dob:5/9) & one buckling (dob:4/29). I have been watching this particular buckling closely for sometime. He is skinnier than I'd like. They are all still on bottle. They are about 16lbs. And the buckling has not gained much weight since I got him.
They are on pasture, a feeding of chaffhay each morning, have free choice to: local fescue hay, sweetlix meat maker minerals, sodium bicarbonate & Thorvin Kelp. I keep their sleeping pen clean & fresh water twice daily. Probios, as needed. Some selenium & vitamin E occasionally with feed, since we live in extremely low selenium soil. I have given him a shot of vitamin B last time he had coccidia & most likely a worm overload.
My daughter has been administering charcoal & colliodial silver drenches & probios to the buckling for two days since his poops were doglike. But now this morning: runny.
Eyelids of doeling: pink
Eyelids of buckling: very light pink
Demeanor: doeling- normal. buckling- slightly mellow but nothing too concerning
Recent medications administered:
Sulfa round -- started June 28. Another started July 24.
I gave the buckling in question a Safeguard dose August 2nd. Following instructions provided in this thread.
I do not want to loose these goats; and I have been SO overly cautious to not over medicate them. However, I am thinking I should have my daughter start to administer sulfamethdioxine & cydectin for the buckling. ANY information/recommendations would be SO appreciated. 🙏
** I tried to upload photos of the buckling, but havn't been able to.
Replies
Stopping sulfa. Starting Corid. Increasing milk. Weight is actually 18+lbs for babies, as my daughter just reweighed yesterday. Once the Corid is done we will address new medicated feed for the next phase.
I unloaded two bags of chaffhaye 2 1/2 weeks ago into a barrel and I found black mold in it a fews days ago. It definetly wasn't the white film that we see sometimes. The other bag was a mishap directly from the store. Bag had holes, was clumpy moldy and badly smelled of urine- like rat damage.
Going forward, I will not unload as many bags into the barrel and we can definitely go through a bag faster if we increase feedings. I was just encouraging foraging. I will most likely have to provide the Chaffehaye for the whole herd, as my tweens will have a conniption FIT, if they don't get it too. They are all does, so I am assuming that's okay.
THANK YOU, THANK YOU! I am so grateful to you and this site for sharing wisdom. It is so encouraging and supportive to find solutions to problems from resources I trust. This has been a huge learning process.
Everything you said about the Chaffhaye make sense. You don't want to open more than one bag at a time. If by "tweens" you mean other kids, it's fine for them to have it because they are still growing fast. Their weight gain doesn't really slow down until they're around 35 pounds, and if you are planning to breed does, you can keep feeding them alfalfa because in addition to growing themselves, they will be growing babies, which requires a lot of protein and calcium. (Don't breed does until they are at least 40 pounds.) But does do not have a problem with urinary stones like males because they have a much larger urethra.
I'm happy to hear you've found our info helpful!
If the sulfa drug hasn't worked, it's not going to start working now, so I would try the Corid. If that doesn't take care of it, it could be something else, or it could just be too late to ever get him back to complete health. Chronic coccidiosis damages the lining of the gut, making it impossible for the goat to ever properly absorb nutrients, so he could wind up being an unhealthy kid with stunted growth. The fact that the sulfa didn't work is not a good sign because it kills coccidia and bacteria, so it should have taken care of an infection if that was causing the diarrhea. It's possible that he now has an antibiotic-resistant infection, so continuing to use the sulfa is definitely not a good idea.
I see what caused the problem ... He needs a LOT more milk than what he is getting, which is why he is so underweight. He needs to be getting 32 ounces a day. It sounds like he was taken from his mom at a later age. Chewing on the nipple is what a kid does when he has been nursing on mom and has no clue what to do with an artificial nipple. It can take up to a week to get a kid to switch to a bottle. I can't imagine trying to feed that much milk to a kid with a syringe. Nothing can provide him with as much protein and calcium as milk can, and as we all know, we can gain weight better when we drink our calories. So you need to do whatever you can to get 32 ounces of milk into him daily. He should not be weaned until he weighs at least 20 pounds, and that is my absolute minimum weight for weaning. We let does and wethers nurse from mom for as long as they are on our farm or as long as they want because milk is the most nutritious food for them, even after they are eating other foods. Adding a third feeding of milk would be a great way to get that last 12 ounces of milk into him, or you could do 3 feeding x 11 ounces each. Instead of doing the feedings 12 hours apart, you can do 3 of them 8 hours apart. Gradually increase it, so start with 4 ounces, then 8 ounces, then 11 ounces the third day.
How long are you keeping a bag of Chaffhaye? If it takes more than 5-7 days to go through it, I can see why it would mold. But if it's not that long, then I'm wondering if you're misinterpreting what you're seeing. It normally has some white flecks on it, but years ago we got a whole truckload of it, and after a year some of the bags started to grow mold on the end, and the mold looked very different than the white flecks that are normally there. If it is taking more than about 5 days to go through the Chaffhaye, you can let the growing kids have as much as they want, so maybe they'll go through it faster and there is less waste.
You can also start feeding the kids a 16% protein goat feed. When you are done treating the kid for coccidia, you can buy a medicated goat feed, which has a coccidiostat in it, which inhibits the reproduction of coccidia. (It is different from Corid, which is a coccidiocide and actually kills coccidia.) Usually, I only suggest medicated feed at the time of weaning, but this is a special situation. After you finish a bag of medicated feed (Purina Goat Grower is one example) you can switch them over to an unmedicated goat feed that is 16% protein and feed that until they are about half their adult weight or around 30-35 pounds.
Thank you SOOO much for your response Deborah.
I have been feeding them 2 bottles a day 10oz each feeding of Manna Pro Kid milk replacer. The buckling mentioned actually won't drink from the bottle, but we nurse the milk to him via a syringe. He chews a hole in every nipple with in a few seconds that we put in his mouth. I will increase the milk volume just a bit more to equal a quart.
I got the Sulfa from a local vet. He prescribed 1 cc per 5lbs on the first day, and 1 cc per 10lbs for 9 consecutive days. I followed those to a T.
I will find another source of Alfalfa. Twice now we have found mold in the bags of Chaffhay and had to through them out. I think our area just has too much humidity to store such moist items (?) not sure what is happening there.
In a sense of urgency I had my daughter administer a dose of sulfa last night at about 8:45pm EST. Would it be best to complete that? Or switch to Corid ?
THANK YOU AGAIN. I really appreciate it.
Whoever said that coccidia bloom every 3 weeks misinterpreted the fact that coccidia have a 3-week life cycle. That does NOT mean kids will get sick every 3 weeks. Kids should NOT get a second round of coccidiosis. They get it once and develop immunity to it, and you never see it again. Typically when kids keep getting it over and over again, it's because their immune system is not strong enough -- almost always because they have not had enough milk. A Nigerian should be 20 pounds 8 to 10 weeks of age, so these kids are definitely underweight, so I'm not surprised that they have had problems with chronic coccidiosis.
There is no need to be giving them charcoal and colloidal silver. And if they've already been treated with a sulfa drug and are sick again, the sulfa drug isn't going to work. Since it's a prescription drug, I'm wondering where you got it and if perhaps you were underdosing? You can get Corid over the counter and try that for five days.
How much milk are the kids getting? Is it milk replacer or cow milk? How many bottles per day with how many ounces?
Selenium - E paste or gel is a waste of money because there is so little selenium and E in it that it's worthless. The free choice Sweetlix has plenty of selenium in it. And goats don't actually need an E supplement if they are eating fresh green grass and browse. They just add it to selenium supplements to make the selenium better absorbed. You can use what you have, but I wouldn't waste my money on buying more.
Their diet looks pretty low protein. If Chaffhaye is the only alfalfa you have, they should have unlimited access to it at this point because they need that high protein. Fescue hay is pretty low in protein. They also need about a quart of milk a day.