help! bad diarrhea in 8 day old kid

[dbarjacres]

First off, except for cocci, never dealt with diarrhea in my kids (or adults) in the 7 yrs I've had my little herd.

One of triplet bucks, born 2/16 had wet tail saturday afternoon. I gave him some pepto, seemed dry when I checked at night (dam raised, in same large pen as dam, brothers and 2 other does with 2 kids each - 2 born the same day and 2 born late Jan). Noticed Sunday he had liquid yellow poo yet. I needed to pull him and one brother for bottle kids anyway, so took both away. I milked his dam and the 2 times he's been fed, he's gotten 2 oz of his dams milk and 1 oz of water mixed in, along with GI Soother from Fir Meadow (which worked wonders on cocci kids last yr).

This morning, he has liquid almost running out of him when he moves. He acts normal and wants to eat.

I called the vet this a.m. and he's a good vet, but always gives me a doomsday scenario at first (once a horse with a fever and lethargic had EIA, another time a limping dog had Lymes, a goat with a staph infection had Bangs, etc, he always says the worst thing first). So right away he says crypto or giardia and bring in a stool sample and start on Naxel for 5-10 days.

I don't know where this kid could have gotten either (vet says giardia is in the area, he remembers we bought a puppy with it 15 yrs ago (ugh) and the neighbor across the road has had giardia (yeah, they let their animals drink out of the creek that the other neighbors gray water runs into, and it's a filthy amish farm) But these kids are in a 12x18 area that is clean and hasn't even had goats in since last summer.

help!

[Alice In TX/MO]

Kaopectate or the veterinary kaolin/pectin liquid to slow down the guts.

I would consider not feeding him anything for a few hours to let his insides calm down.

[Backfourty,MI.]

I agree with Alice. At 8 days old he really shouldn't be getting too much else by mouth other than his milk.

Just wondering if the doe has been getting something different to eat that is passing through the milk to the baby?

[Sherry in Iowa]

I think I would give him pepto a few times. If it's just an "upset" the pepto usually whoas the diarrhea here. Is it a nice big healthy kid? The only time I think I've had diarrhea in a kid is when that kid was huge and ate like nobody's business. I actually think it was "overeating" for a while.

[dbarjacres]

He was the biggest kid of the 3. I figured over-eating too, as it smelled like icky milk. It was pasty at first, but now is just like yellow fluid that just bubbles out.

I like my vet, but it really makes me mad when he says it's always something awful and (knock on wood) it's always been something easily treatable and common.

[Sherry in Iowa]

So, you have him and another one in the house now? You're gonna bottle feed them? If so, you can monitor what he eats..if it slows down by tonight with pepto and monitoring..my guess is that he was hogging it down a little too much. If it was something that was "catching"..those other 2 kids should be breaking by tonight I would think.

[dbarjacres]

Yes, "Oreo" and "Mudpie" (courtesy of the future owner) are in the house to be trained to bottle. I ran to the store, got some electolytes and a bottle of Neomycin (didn't use it, but saw some people do use occasionally so picked up in case) and a gallon of kaelin pectin (Doubt I'll ever use a gallon but that's what they had and it was $7). Ran home quick, gave Oreo 6cc of the pink stuff and he drank 2 oz of electrolytes. I think...hopefully...he may be thickening up. No new liquid spots on the towel, some orange gelish poo. at 11:00 "Mudpie" still has normal poo, and the other 5 kids outside do too.

Thanks for the tips. I'm so lucky I've never dealt with diarrhea except for cocci occassionally, and after just one dose of dimethox 40% or Baytril they would start clearing up.

I talked with my mom a few minutes ago, they custom raised dairy heifer calves for 20 yrs and she said the vets would always say oh, crypto, ecoli, etc and send off a stool sample and a week later the test would finally come back and be ok. At that time the calf either died or was better from whatever else they tried, so she gave me some hints too.

[trnubian]

I would give him a tenth of a cc of banamine to help calm his gut down. Keep up the milk. He needs milk. Give him some of the neomycin. Dosage by weight should be on the bottle. Hopefully that'll do the trick.

[dbarjacres]

Oh, I did do the banamine last night, forgot about that.

And, someone asked if I changed his mom's food, yes, that did happen the day before he scoured. The feed mill was out of what I'd been mixing (oats, rolled barley-out, and rice bran pellets -out), so I got their hobby farm mix which has corn, soy, oats and molasses. She only gets 1.5-2 cups/day, but maybe that was a trigger?

[mygoat]

My guess would be E. coli or Salmonella... but those are less likely if he recieved quality colostrum in a TIMELY manner. For those, Neomycin (as suggested) should be helpful.

Kid isn't the right age for overeating or cocci, so I'd doubt those. I doubt a feed change in the dam would greatly affect the kids.

Giardia/Crypto are possible... but you don't hear about them often.

[dbarjacres]

I don't know how he'd get crypto or giardia. We bought a puppy with giardia 15 yrs ago and nothing has had it since and everything is clean. He's in a totally clean area.

He was drinking from his dam within 20 minutes of birth.

How do they get ecoli or salmonella? Is my raw milk not safe to drink then? I don't have any milk for the house yet this yr until some kids leave or get weaned. Never got sick in the past.

[Alice In TX/MO]

Good grief and pollywogs. That was a HUGE change in feed. Gadzooks. CORN and SOY?

Urk.

It would have been better to give her straight oats till they got the right feed back in stock.

I think my rumen hurts.

[Minelson]

I don't have any advice...just keeping my fingers crossed that he gets better fast!

[dbarjacres]

I fed that mill mix last yr but now they seemed to have dropped the oat content and upped everything else. It may just go to our two calves. It won't be bought again.

[dozedotz]

I'm with Minelson. I can only imagine what you are going through!! It is so scary. Stuff like this has to be at the top of the list of why people don't raise goats!!

[Sherry in Iowa]

Is the kid slowing down on the diarrhea any? I bet it was the change in momma's feed. Maybe he got the poops because he is eating more than the others and getting more of the new stuff?

[dbarjacres]

He still has diarrhea. He is eating the newspaper that is under the towel in his crate, but refuses the bottle, so I tubed him a bit ago. He got a whole concoction in there...more pepto, couple pinches of electrolyte powder and GI soother. Can really tell now he doesn't feel good.

[Minelson]

Oh dear...I am thinking to keep an eye on his temp and only give him milk and some pepto.

[julieq]

Nothing more to add to the excellent advice you've been given, but I sure hope it all goes well.

[coso]

I have used this in the past http://www.jefferspet.com/spectogard...iv/cp/0026107/ will work if you are dealing with a bacterial scour, use banamine also to calm the gut, and the Kao.