I am asking this question for my aunt with goats again. Her goat gave birth about two weeks ago, babies are doing fine. Suddenly, Mama came down with diarrhea and dropped her milk production by 3/4. Does anyone have any remedies? Can you use kaolin-pectin on a dairy goat? Does anyone know of any possible causes? The goat is chewing her cud, but not eating normally? Thanks in advance! Cara Lewis cnllewis@email.com

-- cara lewis (cnllewis@email.com), April 13, 2000

Answers

You could take a fecal sample to the vet and get it tested for worms and coccidiosis. I had a doe that became very thin and might have died if I hadn't finally figured out that's what she had and dosed her for it.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@transport.com), April 13, 2000.

Cara, you always want to worm a doe after she kids, or goes through any type of stress, like moving to a new home etc. The birth caused her hormones to become activated, and this triggered the arrested larva (the worms were literally asleep) to become active, and to start multiplying rapidly. We use Valbazen Drench at 6cc per 100 pounds by mouth, and this is safe for her kids when they are about 3 or 4 weeks old. Make sure and rake the pens where this diarrhea is, it is full of worm eggs that her kids will get the poop on their feet, and then step in the feeders, and then reinfest themselves with more worm eggs. Buy yourself a goat weight tape so you don't have to guess at how much they weigh. Good luck with the doe, Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), April 13, 2000.

Rebekah and Vicki are right on [as usual]. She certainly needs the cause treated as well as the symptoms. I always worm my does right after kidding too. The hormone change seems to trigger an exceleration of worms. the only other thought is perhaps she is getting too much or the wrong kind of feed. I really dislike sweet feed for cattle, it has a lot of urea in it and will make a goat sick. Hope the doe will get better with treatment, oh and you can give a goat kaopectate or pepto-bismal but not immodium,I learned that here in the forum.

-- Karen Mauk (dairygoatmama@hotmail.com), April 13, 2000.

Hi,

In addition to worming I'd also try giving her some ID-1, Immuno-G or Goat Stress.. all contain the basic same ingredients and work very well for sick goats, etc. and for new kids. You can get goat stress from Hoeggers, Immuno_G from http://www.springbriar.com.. thats what we use and the ID-1 from a man on one of our goat talk lists. If you are interested I can get his e-mail addy. Hope this helps.

Bernice

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), April 14, 2000.