We have a 5 month old Doeling with what we believe is lungworm... She coughs a good bit but has no other signs of distress. I got a 52g pkg of Prohibit (levamisole hydrochloride) for cattle and sheep and would like recommendations on dosage amounts. Peaches weighs in at 34 pounds and I plan to mix the 52 gms. of prohibit at sheep drench standard at 52 gms per gallon of water or 13 gms per quart. How many ccs should we give her every 10 days??? Thanks for all and any help/advise... Tom& Barb
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If by "vets guide," you mean Merck's, I quit using that years ago because I didn't find the goat info in there helpful. I assume that what you read said that a fecal flotation doesn't detect lungworms, which is true. Unlike other worms, which are diagnosed by finding eggs in the fecal, you would find larvae in the fecal of a goat with lung worm. Because of that, you would use the Baermann procedure, so it's not the same as a fecal flotation. Here is more info on that: http://www.vcahospitals.com/main/pet-health-information/article/ani...
If this doe is the more aggressive of the kids, it's unlikely that she has lungworm, as weight loss is a symptom. There are actually three different types of lungworm, and only one even has coughing as a symptom. The other two only cause weight loss. As a vet professor said to me years ago when I had rushed a buck to the ER at 9 p.m., I have a hard time getting excited about a goat that's walking around, eating, drinking, and chewing its cud. If it's being bossy on top of all that, I really don't worry. A lot of time the very bossy goats are the ones who are coughing when they're eating because they are trying to beat up the other goats while they're eating, and things just don't go down the right way. If you are like most goat owners, the time you are around the goats the most is feeding time, so you may be seeing the only coughing that she's doing all day.
Also, according to Goat Science and Production, you would use ivermectin or one of the white dewormers (fenbendazole, albendazole, oxfendazole) to treat lungworm. Prohibit is not in the same class as either of those dewormers.
Deborah! Thanks for the comeback... Everything that we have read including the Vets guide, says that it is extremely difficult to detect lungworm in a fecal exam and they don't recommend it. We have a decent microscope and I have a few years lab experience in a biological lab, so if you could walk me through the process, I'd try... She was very timid and bashful when we got them 2 months ago, but has become the more aggressive of the two youngins in the last 3 weeks or so... We just love them and don't want to lose her...
So many people think that whenever a goat coughs, it has lungworm, but like other parasites, lungworm causes poor production and weight loss. If she is thriving and growing, there is probably another cause for her cough. You can also see lungworm larvae in a fecal. Prohibit is a somewhat scary dewormer as it can easily be overdosed and potentially kill a goat. All other dewormers are given at 2X the cattle dosage, but Prohibit is only dosed at 1.5 X the cattle dosage. Because of the possibility of overdose and the fact that it is truly the dewormer of last resort for intestinal worms, I wouldn't use it unless I had a definitive diagnosis of a parasite that would only respond to it. The current recommendation on treating lung worm is to give a second dosage 35 days after the first one because of the longer life cycle of the lung worm.