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Author Topic: 4 month old goat with scours.  (Read 7011 times)

Offline 10framer

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4 month old goat with scours.
« on: August 19, 2014, 10:55:07 pm »
he's been eating my chicken's cracked corn and starter grower.  he was still browsing today and ate some goat food.  he doesn't seem particularly lethargic.  should i worry or let it run it's course?

Offline GSF

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Re: 4 month old goat with scours.
« Reply #1 on: August 20, 2014, 06:53:36 pm »
Check it's eyelids to make sure it's not eat up with parasites. Is it still scouring? Sometimes they'll eat something that doesn't agree with them and it'll cause them to scour. In my pen that'll be buckeye. That usually lasts one day.  At 4 months it could very well be Coccidia - coccidious (cox-sa-dia) (I'm way off on my spelling). They are also parasites but worming won't kill them. They need a sulfur based drug. I buy Di-Methox 45% injectable from www.jeffers.com. It is a 5 day continuous treatment. If you miss a day you start over. The first dose I always give SQ (under the skin) the other 4 I give orally.

You have to bribe a goat to get it to cooperate. I give mine some shelled corn every now and then. It's their cocaine addition. Or you could confine it and try to catch every day. If the eyelids are white to lite pink it could also be worms. (Some of my goats have never had bright bloody red eyelids. They've always been lite pink)For that I use Ivermectin plus injectable. I mainly do that orally. I run the herd through a catch area (with corn for bait) then I close them off. I have a large hard plastic container that I pour a little corn in so they can hear it. I let a couple slip through in the middle, then I contain them and treat them. After that I open the other end so they can get to the corn. Then I repeat the process. Its best not to stare directly at them when you're fixing to grab one. Something about the predator thing. Watch them from the corner of your eye. My confinement area is so small it don't matter if I look - they still gonna get caught.

Hollar if you have any more questions. I've had goats for 8 or 10 years now. I know a good bit about them. Sometimes you just can't save them. I keep a closed herd and line breed. (aka inbreed).
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Offline iddee

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Re: 4 month old goat with scours.
« Reply #2 on: August 20, 2014, 07:06:14 pm »
Give her a handful of beech-nut chewing tobacco. If it's worms, it will help. If not, it won't hurt. They will take it and ask for more. A good monthly treatment for all goats.
"Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me . . . Anything can happen, child. Anything can be"

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Offline 10framer

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Re: 4 month old goat with scours.
« Reply #3 on: August 20, 2014, 09:33:45 pm »
he's back to normal.  i think he ate a little too much corn.  he still ignores goat feed and goat treats but runs my young birds off of the starter/grower.  he's eating polk salad too and i've read that it's poisonous and i've read that it's not.  gary, what kind of goats do you have?  i'm looking for some nannies that will be ready in the spring if you want to sell some.  i'm not interested in small goats.  i'd like to find some spanish mixes.  this buck is a percentage boer. 

Offline GSF

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Re: 4 month old goat with scours.
« Reply #4 on: August 21, 2014, 07:20:01 am »
back to the illness; I forgot to mention bloat. When they get into feed like that it's not abnormal for them to get bloat. Basically it's death by gas build up. I guess it's more than they can digest at one time. They can browse all day and this won't happen but something about grains will make it happen.

Nothing I have is 100 percent anything. All have brush goat in them. I have a Kiko's, Nubians, Boers, Oberhashly/Saaben mix, and some just plain ol goat. For instance, the ones I call boers have all the markings but don't have the size. If I had pure boers I'd be fixing fence all the time. My fence is built to keep stuff out. I placed RR crossties about every 5 to 7 T poles. Between each T Pole I have 2 to 4 stakes in the ground to keep the bottom of the fence tight to the ground. Then I have 3 to 5 strands of barbwire on top of the 48" field fence (hog wire). For the most part the barb wire is tied to each other and to the field fence. Each T Pole secures the fence with 5 to 7 ties. It's a fortress that covers about 14 acres.

Over the years my goats have rubbed against the field fence to scratch themselves. It is bowed out in places. I've seen 4 or 5 goats at one time put their front feet on the fence trying to be first to get the goodies. If they had the weight that a boer had the fence would probably come down or at least partially pull loose from the post/slide down the T Poles.

Right now I don't have any to sell. (they're all quite) I just sold two a couple of days ago. However, they don't have any size. When you're out and about buying goats be sure to look at their living quarters and their buts. Goats should have a lot of area to roam. It's their nature. Look at the entire herd when you're out and about buying goats. Dirty buts usually isn't a good sign
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Offline 10framer

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Re: 4 month old goat with scours.
« Reply #5 on: August 21, 2014, 11:29:39 pm »
iddee, that sounds like it would work.
gary, that's why i won't buy sale goats.  i think it was bloat.  the dang thing still ignores goat feed and eats polk salad and starter grower.

Offline GSF

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Re: 4 month old goat with scours.
« Reply #6 on: August 22, 2014, 10:12:01 pm »
Iddee, I always heard it needed to be peppermint flavored. I've never done it that's why I ask.
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Offline Michael Bush

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Re: 4 month old goat with scours.
« Reply #7 on: August 23, 2014, 12:06:46 am »
Feeding them sage (as in Artemisia, not Salvia) will do less harm than the tobacco and has been used by worms by every culture on the planet for all of recorded (and probably unrecorded) history.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemisia_%28genus%29
http://healing.answers.com/personal-health/8-herbs-that-kill-parasites
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Offline 10framer

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Re: 4 month old goat with scours.
« Reply #8 on: August 23, 2014, 11:01:12 am »
there is a study out that shows feeding papaya seed removes something like 75 percent of adult worms and a good percentage of immature ones as well. 

Offline iddee

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Re: 4 month old goat with scours.
« Reply #9 on: August 23, 2014, 08:36:01 pm »
GSF, any brand will do, but beechnut is one of the mildest on the market, and what most kids carried when I was young. Goats love it. We used it to lure them to the barn.
"Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me . . . Anything can happen, child. Anything can be"

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Offline OzarksFarmGirl

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Re: 4 month old goat with scours.
« Reply #10 on: October 11, 2014, 04:53:03 pm »
Pumpkin/squash seeds will also kill worms in goats.  Pumpkins are easy to find this time of year, and I've found that a lot of places tend to start giving them away after October 31.
I just cut the pumpkins in half and let the goats eat out the insides.  Oh, and pumpkin puree will help stop scours in goats as well.  Just be careful not to give too much (about 1/4 cup for a small kid, 1 cup for a 75 pound goat) as too much can cause it to get even worse.  And be sure to take all grains away until their stools are totally cleared up...give only fresh water and full access to as much fresh clean hay as they can eat, to get that rumen working properly again. 

Oh, and if the eyelids are pale then the goat is also anemic (typical with worms), so give the goat an adult human size dose of Geritol every other day or so until the lid color comes back to where it should be, to boost the iron back up.  I personally hate the taste of the stuff (Geritol), but the goats seem to really like the sticky sweet taste of it.   If you can find one get a Famacha anemia guide chart that shows the various stages of eyelid color and anemia in goats/sheep.
   

Offline GSF

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Re: 4 month old goat with scours.
« Reply #11 on: October 12, 2014, 08:01:53 am »
OzarksFarmGirl; That chart is helpful, but I've had generations of goats (mama, daughter, grand daughter, ect) that have always had pale eyelids. It didn't matter how much free range minerals or iron they got. Like it's always said, know your goats.
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Offline OzarksFarmGirl

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Re: 4 month old goat with scours.
« Reply #12 on: October 17, 2014, 04:42:43 pm »
I've had generations of goats (mama, daughter, grand daughter, ect) that have always had pale eyelids. It didn't matter how much free range minerals or iron they got. Like it's always said, know your goats.

That is true. It's like that with some people, too.  I've been anemic since I was a child, and despite having been on prescription iron, eating a diet consisting of lots of iron-filled weeds, spinach, very rare (raw?) steak/venison, etc...even had iron shots that turned half of my hip "rusty", my iron levels remain below where they "should" be. My teenage son is the same way, and as of yet, despite being tested for everything, the docs still can't find out why we're like this. If not for having very pale lids/gums and knowing what the lab results are, we wouldn't even know we were anemic as it doesn't seem to affect us.   

Offline 10framer

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Re: 4 month old goat with scours.
« Reply #13 on: November 25, 2014, 02:12:35 pm »
i took him off of the grain and he was better in a couple of days.  i bought a boer/kiko buck a few weeks ago that looks more like pure kiko and he has pink skin.  it's going to be hard to tell about anemia with him in general.  dirty butt and/or a hanging tail is what i've been using for a worm barometer so far.  i've only wormed two to date and they both looked better within days and were back to normal in about a week. 

 

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