Coccidiosis-longer treatment than 5 days?

[CJ Carlson]

We have 6 kids that we have been treating for coccidiosis with sulphadimethoxine 12.5% orally for 7 days. Most of what I have read says 5 days but their poop had just started to turn to clumped berries by day 5. Does the medicine keep working after you stop giving it? They are definitely alert and active and eating/drinking well. Before we discovered what we were dealing with, all of them had liquid poop and one or two of them were headed downhill fast even to the point of having cool mouths. (We had already lost one of this batch to it without knowing what it was.) Would it take longer to recover since they were in such bad shape? Do I keep giving it to them for 10 days?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Cynthia

[mpillow]

5 days 2doses per day then
1 dose once a week until weaned

Be sure to give them some probiotics to maintain rumen health

[Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians]

When helping folks with kids as far gone as yours were, I would say to continue on it. Now do not do that with Corid, but with Sulfa's they are used for alot more things than just cocci. With the poor blood supply our kids likely have from all the blood/diarrhea they had, they can use the extra help from the sulfa for bacterial pnemonia also.

What dosage are you giving them daily of this? Did you worm them? Have you had a fecal ran?

I would also give them probiotics and lots of good roughage to eat, until their poop is firm, you have cleaned up their pen, and they are no longer anemic looking. 21 days is not going to hurt anything.

The lifecycle of cocci is 21 days, but remember that it's only the last most harmful lifecycle of the cocci occyst that causes problems in the goat, so you can have some to millions of the less harmful lifecycles right now, and if they all mature next week, once again your goats immunity being so low they will not be able to fight it off. Once you go off the sulfa you will want to repeat the 5 days, full strength the first day than 1/2 strength days 2 ,3 4 and 5, just to make sure they are not going to relapse.

I would also move them to a goat pellet that contains a cocci med, like deccox, lasalocid or bovatec, rumensin. Feed them according to the wieghts on the bag, and you won't have to worry about cocci in them.

Of course prevention is the key, but since you have had such trouble with them, I would use a medicated feed. Also hopefully it wasn't just cocci that caused all your problems, because if it is you are likely ending up with kids that will not grow to their potential due to the scarring in their intestines. The reason I use prevention, instead of dealing with disease, once a kid has a bout of cocci to the point of death in the pen or bloodly diarrhea even if saved they are not something I would keep. Vicki