What do I do now?

[ALLRKIDS]

I have several goats that developed a dry cough early this fall. We have wormed them with Ivermec three times at 10 day intervals and they continue to cough. There is no fever, no runny noses, the coughing is random. Not when they have been running. They look healthy, eat well, run and play. I was thinking maybe selenium and Vit E but since they don't appear to be sickly I'm not sure if I should. I'm open for any and all suggestions.

[Terre d'Esprit]

Don't do anything. Goats are like people-- they just sometimes cough. Just like in people, there are coughs from a condition, like a cold, or an allergy, or some type of irritant in the environment. There are also coughs to clear your throat or get rid of a tickle, or just because something went down the wrong pipe!

If I was concerned about a cough in my herd, I would look carefully at their conditions. Did I just put down new wood shavings? Are they eating dusty feed? Did they just run up from the pasture? Do they seem sick?

It sounds like you've run through the checklist, and if it doesn't seem to be anything health related, I wouldn't worry about it. If you continue to be concerned, you should check with your vet.

Hope that helps!

T

[Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians]

As you move to feeding more hay ,and pastures are dried out, the goats diet is moved from a damper diet to adry diet, it takes more coughing to throw the cud up especially seen in kids learning how to cud. Cough without fever and snot just isn't a concern. You can test for lungworm and it is certainly cheaper than all that Ivermectin if you have a good amount of goats. Vicki