Hello! I have some questions about deworming goats. I checked all of my adult goats eyelids today and 5 out of 6 had pale\light pink eyelids.
One of my goats was losing weight and having poop that looked like dog poop. So I picked up some Valbazen from my vet and wormed him on 1\31\22. He has now been pooping normally, but his eye lid color is still pale.
Another one of my goats, Alice, who just had twin bucklings, is in pretty bad shape. After the twins birth, she got super skinny, sometimes having irregular poop, and her eye lid color is pale.
The rest of my goats don't show any visible signs of worms, but their eyelids are still pale\light pink.
I'm not sure what to do with my whole herd.
For Alice, should I go ahead and give her Valbazen and a copper bolus (because her coat is reddish and a bit rough)?
And another one of my does, Madeline, who just had twin girls, has light pink\ pale eyelids. Her coat has also gotten a little red. Should I give her a copper bolus? I was really hoping to milk her, but I'm not sure if I can because of her eye lid color. Would her milk be safe to consume?
Also, if I was to do a fecal would it be best to do all the goats or can I just do a couple?
I hope this all makes sense! Sorry for all the questions, I've been doing research into parasites\dewormers and I just don't know what exactly to do with my goats. Thank you so much in advance!
Replies
Hello again! I moved my two adult goats (Alice and Madeline), who are struggling with worms, into a dry lot on July 4th. I wormed them with Valbazen on the 4th, and gave them red cell for 5 days (7\5,6,7,8,9). I haven't seen any change in their eye lid color since then. Both eyelids are still pale. I'm not sure what to do next or if I should get another dewormer.
Also, all 4 of my young goats were treated with a 5-day suspension of Corid. (On the fecal I had done, one of the kids had coccidia, and 3 of them have (or have had) hay bellies and log poop.) Even during the treatment their symptoms still persisted. I've never used Corid, so is it normal for them to have log poop and hay bellies during treatment? When should these symptoms stop?
Did you by chance get a fecal on them before giving the Valbazen on the 4th? The only way to tell if the Valbazen was effective (aside from a great improvement) is to do before and after fecals to see how much the egg count dropped.
I've had very compromised goats take 3-4 weeks before the eyelid color returns. Rebuilding blood volume is a huge effort for them. Be sure that they have plenty of good hay, maybe even some alfalfa, and I would put them on a good 16% dairy grain as well since research tells us that high protein decreases recovery time. And be sure that they have a good goat loose mineral available free choice, such as SweetLix or Purina.
When were the kids treated with Corid and did you do a 5 day drench or did you add it to the water for 5 days?
What diet are the kids on and how old are they now?
Tammy
I haven't done a fecal since April.
The two buck kids are 5 1\2 months old (Born 1\23\22) and are on a diet of allstock and coastal hay. The two doe kids are a bit younger than the bucks (Born 2\05\22) and are on a diet of allstock, alfalfa pellets, and coastal hay.
I got a bottle of liquid corid and diluted it as other goat owners have said to do. I then drenched all 4 goats for 5 days (7\5,6,7,8,9). I weighed them before drenching, and dosed according to weight.
I really hope those "other goat owners" told you to use the Corid dosage on the bottle because that's what you use for goats. You don't have to diluate as much as the instructions say, but the amount of the drug going into the goat needs to be the dosage on the bottle. There's just no telling what someone put on social media or their blog or whatever. And some people can't do math and wind up totally messing up the actual dosage when they start playing with the dilution.
Most allstock is worthless because it's just plain grain. They need something with 16% protein if they are growing AND recovering from parasites.
Can you post a picture of the eyelids? If you don't have a FAMACHA card, you may be misinterpreting what you see.
How much do the kids weigh now?
Here is the instructions I followed for the Corid dosage. This is what they said: "Multiply bodyweight x 0.3 to get the amount of cc's for dose." So my goat who weighs 35.2 lbs would get 11cc's of the diluted Corid solution. I'm working on uploading photos of the goat's eyelids...
The first 4 photos are of the kids who received Corid. The last 3 photos are of Madeline and Alice. The last 2 photos are of the same goat, Alice, whose left and right eyelid color was different. The kids weights are 35.2, 32.6, 26.4, and 25.2.
And here are the kids hay bellies.
Hi Emma
Thanks for providing all this info and the pictures.
The kids' FAMACHAs (1&2) look a little pale, so I would consider giving them a dewormer. (3&4) look nice and dark.
Coccidia can also cause anemia, however your kids' coats look very healthy, they are nice and sleek and shiny, and do not look like kids with a coccidia load that would be causing anemia.
Corid seems to have been mixed correctly with correct dose given, but I have seen some research that shows not all goat kids respond to that 10mg/kg concentration.
Your adult girls are definately pale, but as mentioned before, anemia can take weeks to recover from. Good nutritional and supplemental support should help.
Considering everything you have going on here, I honestly feel like you should get a veterinarian involved. They can do fecals to see where you currently stand (and I would definately do fecals before giving your current dewormer to the kids) that way you can do a second fecal 10-14 days after the dewormer was given and have a general idea how effective that dewormer is for you. Hopefully they will also get you set up with something stronger than red cell to help them recover. My vet prescribes iron injections for FAMACHAs of 4.
If the vet feels the kids need to be re-treated with something more effective for coccidiosis, they can prescribe an effective dose and put your mind at ease with instructions for follow up and monitoring.
Tammy
When I say you should strain the sample, I'm talking about something like a milk filter or coffee filter so that there is no debris on the slide. The only thing you should see is eggs, which makes it much easier to count the eggs.
FYI -- Tammy was saying strongyles, and I was saying roundworms, and they are basically the same thing. Roundworms is a lay term for strongyles.
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