Raising Goats Naturally
Page 16
Cryptosporidiosis
Cryptosporidium is a protozoan parasite, like coccidia, and diarrhea is the main symptom. It is very hard to treat as there are no effective drugs available, and kids sometimes die as a result. While coccidiosis occurs in kids older than three weeks, crypto can infect kids a few days old. In older kids, you will need a fecal exam to determine if the cause of diarrhea is coccidia, cryptosporidia, or something else. Cryptosporidiosis is most often seen in kids that are kept in cramped, unclean quarters indoors.
To control an outbreak, when kids first get diarrhea, they should be isolated from other kids to decrease the risk of others also getting sick. In dam-raised kids, this may mean moving the dam and siblings, along with the sick kid, to another stall or pen. It’s a good idea to wear latex gloves when handling a kid with diarrhea because cryptosporidiosis is zoonotic. Luckily, this disease is extremely rare in healthy herds that are kept in clean conditions.
Enterotoxemia
Sometimes called overeating disease, enterotoxemia progresses so quickly that the first sign may be a dead animal. It’s a disease of the digestive tract that occurs when a goat has eaten moldy or otherwise contaminated feed or too much feed. Many people think it is the same thing as bloat, even though the two conditions have very different symptoms. You may have heard or read that the CDT vaccine prevents bloat, but it actually prevents enterotoxemia. This confusion probably arose from the fact that accidental overfeeding of grain can cause bloat or enterotoxemia, so some people advocate a CDT vaccine when you discover a goat has overindulged in grain accidentally. The CDT vaccine does nothing to prevent bloat, and it is not terribly effective in preventing enterotoxemia in goats. This disease is much better understood and more researched in sheep and cattle, and the vaccine works better in those species.
Enterotoxemia causes watery, bloody diarrhea in goats. An affected goat is usually lying down and screaming in pain. When you see a goat with enterotoxemia, you will know that you need to call the vet immediately because it is obviously very sick. Treatment includes the administration of an antitoxin for C. perfringens D as well as antibiotics and intravenous or subcutaneous fluid administration. Even with veterinary treatment, many goats with enterotoxemia die.
Floppy Kid Syndrome
Floppy kid usually occurs between three days and two weeks of age. A kid who had appeared healthy suddenly can’t stand or even nurse or wrap its tongue around a nipple. The kid does not have diarrhea and is not dehydrated. If not treated, it may fall into a coma and die, although in a few rare cases, kids have recovered completely. Floppy kid is a metabolic disorder caused by a base deficit. It may be caused by consuming too much milk. It can be easily corrected by giving a kid about one-half to one teaspoon of baking soda dissolved in a small amount of water. Since the kid is not dehydrated, it only needs to be enough water to get the baking soda into the kid. Even though the kid can’t suck, it can usually swallow, so you should be able to get the baking soda into the kid with a bottle or eye dropper and a lot of patience. If not, a vet can administer sodium bicarbonate intravenously. A single dose of baking soda is usually all that is needed, although since overfeeding is the suspected cause, some people also advocate limiting milk consumption for the next 24 hours. Since multiple cases can appear in a herd sometimes, there may be an infectious agent involved in some cases.
Because of the simple name of this syndrome, a lot of people assume they have a case of floppy kid when it is actually something else, so read through the list of symptoms carefully and note the age at which it occurs. A newborn cannot have floppy kid, nor can a kid that’s a couple of months old. Also, if the kid is dehydrated or has diarrhea, it has a different problem.
Foot Rot
The name “foot rot” exactly describes this condition. It usually develops when goats are exposed to wet pastures or wet bedding for a prolonged time. The skin starts to break down and eventually gets infected. This condition is less common in goats than in sheep and can usually be prevented by providing goats with dry bedding and trimming hooves regularly, as well as by keeping goats inside when it rains or when pastures flood. Foot rot is contagious, so animals with this condition should be isolated from other goats. Commercial medications for foot rot are available. Some goat owners recommend vaccinating a goat with foot rot for tetanus because the risk of tetanus is greater in a foot with broken skin.
Hardware Disease
This is not really a disease at all, but means that a ruminant has ingested metal. And, of course, the metal can make the goat very sick. It is more common in cows, although goats are more likely to eat plastic bags or baling twine, which also can cause problems. When a goat consumes something that is not digestible, the only symptoms may be lethargy and a loss of appetite. When a goat is not eating, drinking, walking around, or chewing its cud, it is usually time to call the vet.
Hypocalcemia
The terms “milk fever” and “hypocalcemia” are frequently used interchangeably, although technically hypocalcemia is the cause of milk fever. When a doe becomes deficient in calcium during late pregnancy or early lactation, she will go off feed, show signs of mild bloat, become lethargic, and have difficulty standing or walking. If she has not yet kidded, she may have weak or ineffective uterine contractions. If she has already freshened, her production may suddenly decrease. Her body temperature will also go below normal, which makes the term “milk fever” rather confusing.
This is one of those areas where conflicting information abounds — claims that too much calcium in the diet causes it and claims that too little calcium causes it. Because most of our knowledge about lactating animals in North America is based on cows and too much calcium is the cause of milk fever in cows, it was also believed that too much calcium caused milk fever in goats. Recent research in goats, however, has shown that goats do not require the same low-calcium diet that cows do, and in fact, can develop hypocalcemia if they do not get enough calcium-rich feed such as alfalfa.
If you think a doe might be in the early stages of hypocalcemia, you can give her an oral calcium drench made specifically for goats. It is not a good idea to give human calcium supplements because they are not well absorbed. If she does not show improvement within a couple of hours, contact your vet, who will probably treat her with an injectable form of calcium. It is easy to mistake other illnesses for milk fever; however, a doe with milk fever will respond within a couple of hours to calcium injections.
Goats with milk fever are especially susceptible to ketosis.
Infertility in Bucks
Luckily, infertility in bucks is rare. An inability to get does pregnant is usually related to nutritional deficiencies, which is why a good mineral is essential for bucks. Deficiencies in copper, selenium, cobalt, and zinc can cause fertility problems. As a buck gets older, his sperm count may go down, meaning he can service fewer does in a day, which is something to keep in mind if you have two does go into heat at the same time. Older bucks may also start to have problems with arthritis or other aches and pains that make it difficult for them to mount a doe.
If a young buck has been bred to multiple does and never settled any of them, a visit to a veterinarian is in order to make sure he is genetically a buck. An intersex goat may appear to be a buck on the outside, even though lacking all of the necessary anatomy.
Infertility in Does
Based on emails I receive and posts on my online goat forum, it seems that a lot of people worry about the ability of their does to get pregnant. The reality, however, is that less than one percent of does have a genetic inability to get pregnant, so it isn’t something that you are likely to experience unless you have a sizeable herd. Freemartins and hermaphrodites are very uncommon in goats, but a quick physical exam by your vet or anyone trained in artificial insemination will tell you if your doe is physically capable of getting pregnant.
The most common reason goats do not get pregnant is mineral deficiency, and this is fairly common. Copper and selenium both play
an important role in a goat’s ability to come into heat, get pregnant, and stay pregnant for five months. If several goats in the herd are having fertility problems, you should look at your feeding and supplement program to ensure that it is providing adequate amounts of copper and selenium. You can find more information about this is under “Nutritional Deficiencies.”
It is possible for does to have cysts on their ovaries, which could keep them from settling, but it is not common. A cystic doe may appear to come into heat every week or not at all. This can be tricky for an inexperienced goat keeper, who may not notice a doe coming into heat if it isn’t one of the more vocal ones. A cystic doe can be treated with hormone injections available from your veterinarian.
In does that have freshened before, it is possible that a subclinical uterine infection from the previous delivery is keeping her from getting or staying pregnant. This is more likely to occur following an assisted delivery where the attendant had their hand inside the uterus. Some people will automatically administer antibiotics to a doe after an assisted delivery with the assumption that it will take care of the risk of infection. A low-grade infection, however, may not have any other outward symptoms, so you would have no idea whether the antibiotics had worked until you found yourself with a doe that wasn’t getting pregnant.
Johne’s Disease
The possibility of bringing Johne’s onto your farm is one reason you should not buy goats from the sale barn. Although Johne’s is rare in goats, it also infects cattle and sheep, which means that a goat that was healthy when it arrived at the sale barn could pick up the disease while there. Although Johne’s is just one of many diseases that an animal could pick up at a sale barn, it can be one of the most devastating. It is a disease that comes onto your property through the introduction of a new animal that appears to be perfectly healthy. An animal can be carrying Johne’s and shedding the virus in feces, contaminating the pasture, before they appear to be sick. Transmission is fecal-oral, meaning that your entire herd could be infected in short order. Johne’s can survive on the pasture for several years.
The only way to know if an animal has Johne’s before it shows symptoms is to test. There is no test for Johne’s that is extremely accurate in detecting infected animals, which means that it is not terribly informative to have a single negative test result on a single animal. It is more reassuring to have a whole herd test negative, and it is even more reassuring to have annual negative whole herd tests. After several years of negative results in a closed herd, the odds of Johne’s in that herd are as close to zero as one can get. Because Johne’s is so contagious, more than one animal in a herd will have it, so odds are much better that there will be some animals testing positive in the whole herd test if the disease exists in that herd.
The most common age for infection to occur is in the first month or two of a goat’s life, although they won’t develop symptoms for a couple of years. Older goats that are exposed to Johne’s may not contract it.
Weight loss is usually the only symptom of Johne’s in goats, but weight loss is also associated with parasites, dental issues, and other diseases and causes. Even social hierarchy within the herd can mean one goat isn’t getting its fair share of hay during winter when pastures are dead. Bucks also tend to lose a lot of weight during breeding season, sometimes as much as 20–30 percent of their normal body weight. Because copper-deficient goats tend to have poor parasite resistance, their body condition may be poor even when they have a small parasite load, which leads some owners to worry that their goat has Johne’s.
There is no vaccine and no cure for Johne’s, so if you have an animal with the disease, euthanasia may be the best solution.
Ketosis
Also known as pregnancy toxemia, ketosis usually occurs in goats in late pregnancy or early lactation when they are undernourished, although it can also occur in obese does. If not treated, it can be fatal. It is most common in goats that are carrying three or more fetuses or who are especially heavy milk producers. The more fetuses a goat is carrying, the more likely they will reduce the capacity of the rumen, making it difficult for the doe to eat enough. Other than going off feed and becoming lethargic, symptoms of ketosis during pregnancy are not obvious, although the doe’s breath may smell sweeter than normal. If in doubt, compare her breath to other does in the herd. A doe in milk with ketosis will have a decrease in production and is more likely to have hypocalcemia.
There are a couple of options available for detecting ketones in a goat’s urine, and one that will detect it in milk or blood. Ketone test strips or powder are available from goat supply companies online and from farm supply stores. You can also use regular human ketone test strips available at pharmacies. If a goat tests positive, she can be treated by dosing with propylene glycol or one of the liquid supplements that has propylene glycol as the first ingredient, until testing is negative for ketones in the urine. If a pregnant doe does not start eating again, you should call the vet. Sometimes the only way to save a doe is to terminate the pregnancy.
Listeriosis
This is an infectious disease caused by the listeria bacteria, which can survive in the environment for years. The disease can lie dormant in an infected animal until the animal becomes stressed. A goat with listeriosis does not necessarily walk around in circles, in spite of its common name, “circling disease.” An infected goat may seem uncoordinated, not want to stand, hold its head twisted to one side, stop eating, and lose muscle control of its face so that its ears and eyes are droopy and its tongue hangs out. Symptoms are very similar to meningeal worm. Vets may sometimes treat for both diseases if the symptoms don’t point clearly to one or the other.
You should seek veterinary attention as soon as possible. Goats with listeriosis can die quickly if not treated. Pregnant goats with listeriosis may abort.
A goat with listeriosis will shed the organism in its milk, and it can be transmitted to humans if the milk is consumed raw.
Mastitis
Mastitis is an infection of the mammary gland, and it can range from subclinical to fatal. Unless you are on milk test or test your goat’s milk yourself, you will have no idea that your goat has a subclinical infection. The commercial dairy industry tests cows regularly for mastitis because the only real symptom of subclinical mastitis is lowered production. The reduction can be so minimal that you wouldn’t notice it in a home milk goat, although when added together, this loss of production in commercial dairy animals adds up to millions of dollars a year in lost profits. Subclinical mastitis may or may not develop into full-blown mastitis.
If you are on DHI milk test, one thing tested monthly is the somatic cell count (SCC) in the milk. An infected doe will shed white cells in her milk. Deciphering SCCs in goats is a little more complicated than in cows because goats may also shed epithelial cells in their milk, so they are notorious for having a higher average SCC than cows. Most of the DHI testing labs in the United States do not use a test that distinguishes the two types of cells, epithelial and somatic, which may result in SCC readings that are incorrectly high. If you are on milk test, ask the lab if they distinguish between the two. If not, you will usually need to ignore their definition of a mastitic goat, which is based on normal cow scores, and figure out your own definition of normal for your individual does. Some does always have higher counts than others, but a sudden increase in a doe’s score from one month to the next could be a sign of mastitis. A gradual increase throughout lactation is usually nothing to be concerned about.
You can easily test a goat’s milk by using the California Mastitis Test (CMT) every month. If you are on milk test and your goat has a SCC result of 500,000 or more, it is a good idea to test each half of her udder using the CMT. As you are starting to milk each goat, put a few squirts into your strip cup, then squirt milk directly into a section of the CMT paddle, add the diluted reagent, and swirl. If the mixture remains completely liquid, it means the SCC is less than 200,000, and the goat does not have mastitis.
— GIANACLIS CALDWELL, Pholia Farms, Rogue River, Oregon
When I have a goat with a high SCC or a CMT that shows the possibility of mastitis but she is not otherwise showing symptoms of mastitis, I will try some alternative therapies such as peppermint and oregano essential oil diluted in a carrier oil massaged on the udder. Most organic dairies use peppermint oil as their first line of defense against mastitis. I added the oregano after hearing a botanist talk about it being used for mastitis in women. Some people also use tea tree oil. If you are not experienced in using essential oils therapeutically, there are commercially available udder balms that include these ingredients.