Hi guys...
I have 3 does- Penny & Annie are twin sisters, 5 y/o, Truffle is 1 y/o. Day before yesterday when I let them out in the morning, there were nasty poops in the stall- soft, long turds with no pellets in them (not clumpy pellets). Truffle looked like she had some poo on her butt and has had problems before so I assumed it was her. I gave her some pepto and some probios- didn't help. This morning, more nasty poops and now I see poop on Annie's tail hair too. Saw Penny poop and hers was fine (and someone at least is still fine because there are also healthy pellets in the stall.)
This has never happened the the adults before...Truffle had clumpy poops when I brought her home from her C Section that was hard to clear up (I dewormed her when i brought her home, even though no anemia, because I figured the stress would let the worms get her) but lots of pepto, tlc and probios and she finally got over it. I thought it was because she was eating lots of grain suddenly due to being in milk and I did not grain her during the pregnancy to keep the baby from getting too big (ha! We all know how that turned out)
At any rate...I already dropped off a fecal at the vet b/c it came on so suddenly & I am not sure what to do...coccidia, deworm or what. Or is it possible for them to get giardia, because there is a lot of standing water in the pasture.
All of them basically act okay, are eating, etc. Annie I thought could possibly seem a little bummed out but Truffle is her usual bouncy self.
There is no other pasture I can put them in...everythign is flooded...still praying for the rain to stop :(
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Last update...the poop problem went completely away on its own. This morning everything is perfect.
Resiliant goats...THIS is why I refuse to sell Miyagi even though I can't breed him to my little girls...I want milkers that are resilient like him
Update on the rest of it: poops look much better this morning, so maybe they just ate something in the pasture that didn't agree with them? Since no one is dangerously anemic I think I am going to just wait and see for a few days and see if it doesn't clear up & turn out to be some weed they shouldn't have eaten.
Annie is very round but I never can tell the difference between a round goat and a fat goat...
Now you're getting into issues of resistant goats and resilient goats -- which is different than resistant parasites, which are parasites that are resistant to dewormers, and that is something that you would see across your herd. Some goats are resistant to parasites, which means they simply don't get very many. Some goats are resilient, which means that they can have a huge load, but their body just keeps pumping out more red cells, so they don't become anemic. And then you have goats that are very susceptible to worms and their effects, so they get huge loads and get sick.
Some sources say that copper deficiency can cause a similar symptom as iron deficiency anemia ... but I kind of wonder if that's because copper deficient goats tend to have problems with parasites, and it's really the parasites that are causing the anemia.
I personally don't usually worry about the parasite status of overweight goats. I worry more about the fact that they're overweight.
It doesn't sound like anyone is in immediate danger from what you've described.
Well Penny's poops are okay & body condition is fine
Annie is fat if anything
Truffle is thin if anything but she has been that way since her c section, she does not eat well despite my trying to tempt her with anything at all. I dried her off because of it -- she just wouldn't eat well on the stand & was losing weight. She is a shameless hussy and cares more about flirting with the boys than eating...and stands at the gate crying for the bucks instead of grazing...
I have seen pasty poops on Truffle & Annie's tail, seen Penny do normal poop...Truffle is always bright red (eye membrane) Penny and Annie are chronically paler than I would like...both have always been that way. Best color I ever got from them was after 1/2 bottle of blackstrap mollasses. I have NEVER gotten Penny or Annie to "optimal" on the FAMACHA, like Truffle & Miyagi always are. Very frustrating. Maybe they really have dewormer resistance and I just don't know it, but wouldn't all the goats if they did?
Check body condition and eyelids on them and try to figure out which one is pooping abnormally. It is better to only deworm one that needs it.
Conditions were probably perfect: nice, moist poop and 80s and humidity overnight...low 90s after the sun is up
uh oh...no I didn't see them do it, it just looked fresh, was in the stall when I let them out.
picked it up around 7am
Took it to the vet around 9:30am, I called a few times and I know they hadn't done anything with it by 2pm.
Should I just deworm them?
How old was the poop? Did you see the goat actually pooping and pick it up and take it straight to the vet? Eggs can hatch pretty quickly -- in a couple of hours if conditions are right -- and then there would be nothing to see.
Just spoke to the vet...fecal was negative, didn't see parasites, coccidia, giardia, nothing. .........????
Guess I will just watch and see. They have been grazing a lot more lately b/c I quit feeding them anything when I dried them off but that has been a few weeks now, I don't know why that would suddenly upset their stomach now.
Yep! In milkers, they can suddenly drop production 25% in twelve hours due to worms. That's one reason I don't like using a milking machine -- I like to weigh every milking.
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