Help!!!!!

[jrthom]

I bought 6 4 month old Boers this summer. One last week developed dog feces like diarrhea then two days later went lethargic and died. Another two days ago developed runny brown diarrhea and this morning went lethargic and died.
They both were in seperate pens well away from each other and get a little hay, handfull of grain every night and free pasture.
I worm with Ivomec and gave both probiotics and electrolytes to keep them hydrated.
Both goats have been on my farm for over a month and were healthy and bright eyed. My other goats seem comp[letely fine.
Any ideas?

[Alice In TX/MO]

My veterinarian says that Boers are looking for a place to die.

At that age, I suspect coccidia and/or worms.

What prevention care have you done for coccidia? Did you fecal test after deworming with Ivomec? Some folks are finding it's not effective any more.

The program I follow:
http://quirkygoatfarm.blogspot.com/2...-schedule.html

[jrthom]

I worm with Ivomec when I get them, give them probiotics, and if I notive diarrhea I give electrolytes to help prevent dehydration

[moonspinner]

JR, you should always suspect coccidia in kids with the runs. Just keeping them hydrated does nothing to treat the cause. They need a coccidiostat ala Albon , Dimeth, etc. Coccidia is so prevalent and needs attention asap.

[mygoat]

Symptoms are far to vague. I would guess your ivermectin wasn't working or they were in desperate need of coccidiosis prevention. Run fecals. Most well ran boer goat herds do not do much direct dosing of kid for coccidia prevention because it's too much work. Most creep feed a medicated grain to their kids that is balanced 2:1 calcium to phosphorus (to prevent UC in males) and that contains some sort of coccidistat. However, they are not taking enough in young in life to make any difference, so direct dosing is suggested at least once or twice to young kids. After that, depending on the feed of choice/quality/managment, they should be taking in enough coccidistat to make a difference with coccidia.

I didn't find my boer goats less hardy with good management. The reason they seem less hardy is people do not intensely manage them like they do dairy goats.

[TeenyTinyFarm]

What form of ivermectin did you use and how did you dose them?

If they were mine I would also treat all of them for coccidia.

[jrthom]

Vet was out and he says coccidiosis... he has been seeing a lot of it in my area with the up and down temps.

[dozedotz]

Sorry! Cocci is a killer for sure...hope the others will be ok with treatment!!

[mzgarden]

sorry for your loss. We had one 5 mo doeling with coccid. Fine the night before, woke up to find diarrhea in the pen; pretty clear which girl it was by looking at her hind end. DiMethox treatment dose immediately and for 5 days. We were fortunate we were able to turn her around and her sister did not get sick. Vet confirmed with fecal and said they had seen a lot of it.
Again, sorry for your loss.

[punchiepal]

Don't forget about cocci-
1. One in the pen has it, treat the pen as the others have been exposed to it also.
2. They can have serious, body stunting cocci without diarrhea. Why prevention is best.

[Alice In TX/MO]

Coccidia are a normal part of goat intestinal inhabitants, but in young goats, they can increase in numbers to be lethal. In adults, a small background number of coccidia is acceptable.

Many of us routinely use prevention methods till they are about six months old.

[wintrrwolf]

If breeder was feeding a medicated feed that was hindering overpopulation of cocci after the stress of the move it probable kicked the cocci into overdrive.
For serious diarrhea I give doses of pepto to get it to stop, they lose more than you can replace with just electrolytes.
Ivomectin is good for other types of parasites just not cocci.

[Frosted Mini's]

I have not found the boer bottle kids I've had to be any less hardy then my dairy kids UNTIL this last batch I got born in May...they just don't seem to be as growthy as the early spring ones were. I had 80 lb boer kids that were 3-4 months old and only getting milk (lots) and pasture and alfalfa pellets...they never got coccidia meds or deworming and lived with adult goats.