Hey guys, I am hoping someone here can give me a heads up on what may be going on with some of my goats.
I have 2 almost 2 month olds that have developed loose stool. I wormed them on 4-8 using panacur and I gave them 3ml each per my vet's instructions. I also gave them their first CD-T shot at that time too. Their diet is very basic and it consists of their Mother's milk, grass and hay. Once in awhile they are able to steal some goat pellets while the adults are not looking, but it is not often. Any idea what may be causing this? Anything I can give them to help clear this up?
Also, I figured I would throw this in weather it is relevent or not. The above kid's Dam's had loose stool while PG and after they gave birth I wormed them. They cleared up, but now they have clumpy poo. Their diet contains grass, hay, goat chow, black oil sunflower seeds and alfalfa pellets. Any idea why they are have poo issues? I am still new to goats so I have a tendency to notice little changes.
Thank You!
Replies
By loose, I assume you mean unformed or diarrhea? If so, that's usually coccidiosis in kids that age, although sometimes they'll have a poopy back end for a day and then it totally clears up on its own. If they have it for more than 24 hours, you should either take a fecal to the vet or treat for coccidiosis. If you treat for coccidiosis, it should clear up within 24 hours if that was the problem. If it doesn't clean up within 24 hours of starting treatment, then you are either using a drug that's not not working or it's not coccidiosis.
As for the does, it seems that a lot of them have clumpy poop around 6-8 weeks post-kidding. They also tend to be in not-so-great body condition at that time also because they're at peak milk production. If you just dewormed them a couple months ago, you might want to look at your pasture situation. If they are on a fairly small piece of pasture, they may be ingesting parasite eggs on a regular basis. If that's the case, you'll need to start rotating pastures.