Probios

[Minelson]

Does Probios work on adult goats? I thought I remember someone saying that it works on kids because their stomachs are not fully developed yet but does nothing for adults.
Any thoughts on the Probios use with adult goats would be appreciated....

[Goat Servant]

Hmmm Ive never heard that one Minelson. I always give adults probiotics/probious paste if they are taking any meds. I give it 6 hrs after meds.
Source; my ultra experienced breeder with an undocumented super honorary PHD in Goats.

[RiverPines]

Probios work on all ages.
Its replacing or adding to the natural gut flora that all 4 chambers in a rumen has.
Kids need that bacteria flora to digest milk and adults need it to digest roughage.

That gut bacteria also runs through the intestines.

In times of sickness, stress, while being medicated or wormed, that gut bacteria can go out of balance causing anything from just minor lack of full absorption of nutrients to full blown scours and/or total rumen shut down.
Probios keep that good bacteria number up to prevent those things.

[Backfourty,MI.]

Is one of you little goats sick Minelson?

[Minelson]

Originally Posted by Backfourty,MI.

Is one of you little goats sick Minelson?

Nope...just had some chunky-clumpy poops today. Probably from so much fresh browse. I was thinking about giving all 3 probios but then remembered reading that it is useless on adult goats...

[Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians]

Nope, it's totally been debunked. It only has bacteria in it for intestinal bacteria and for single stomached goatlings. It has only one, lactobacillicus bacteria even found in the rumen...soo all the many many tubes purchased and used here for years to help with rumen health after wormings and meds, nada zilch waste of money. I do use it for goatlings, they get pea size amounts after bottles...in the real world kids get bacteria from the enviornment off their mothers dirty teats, so starting kids with bacteria from probios just sounds smart Now I am sure that this will debunked one day also

Karin Christensen can be googled, she has a yahoo group goat biology or something similar to that...she is one smart cookie and has studied the rumen in college. She also has excellent worm info on her website with photos, lifecycles etc...

So although alot of good info comes from seasoned breeders, alot of what we do, we do because we think it works LOL! Vicki

[Minelson]

Ah ha! I thought it was you Vicki but didn't want to single you out in case I mis-read something. Thank you so much for the info

[RiverPines]

The probios I use have 4 bacteria in it.

All are different if you research them.
enterococcus faecium is a gram pos group D bacteria.
lactobacillus acidophilus found throughout the GI track in animals, including the mouth.
lactobacillus casei has a wide pH and temperature range, and complements the growth of L. acidophilus.
lactobacillus plantarum is a Gram-positive aerotolerant bacteria found even in salvia.

I have used my probios for many years now and it has made a huge difference for all probs poo related. I wont go without it.
Pepto cant beat probios in stopping pudding poo.
Works for me on nursing and bottle kids and on adults.
It works on lambs and sheep too.

[hoofinitnorth]

Yes, I brought up Karin's work on this and Vicki stated she thought it worked on single-stomached goats. Remember though, goats are only "single stomached" in a functioning sense for the very first couple of weeks of life. By 3-4 weeks, all four compartments of their stomachs should be developed and working to some degree.

Probiotic supplements are one of those things that I always bought and used and now will probably not continue to buy, but will continue to use until it's gone. Most of the girls really like it. I only buy probiotics that do not have dairy products in them (so no yogurt), just to keep everything here bio-secure from the dairy diseases (CAE, CL, Johne's, etc.).