Goat coughs

754 Views 4 Replies 3 Participants Last post by sweetgoatmama, Mar 28, 2010

jross

Discussion Starter · Mar 27, 2010

Here's another thread about a goat who coughs. My goat, Moose, has developed an intermittent cough over the past 2 weeks. He's also a bit lethargic. His eyes and nose look clear, no discharge. His appetite is good. His temp this morning was 103.

He has always been my laggard. He's not as big as the other 2, and doesn't look as good, but he has always been healthy and vigorous. He may also suffer a bit of stress because his half brother, Apache, picks on him a lot.

I will add that it is my allergy season (juniper pollen), and I really suffer from it. Maybe he's allergic also.

Re lungworms... if one goat has it, do all of them have it? The other 2 goats are pictures of health and vigor. But Moose isn't doing so well. I recently gave the boys a de-wormer called Positive Pellet goat wormer. I had them tested for worms once, with negative results, but I don't believe that.

Thanks for any wisdom you may pass on to me.

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sanhestar

· #2 · Mar 27, 2010

Hello,

no, it's not conclusive that if one goat has worms that all other goats have them, too or have them in the same amount. There are always some goats in a herd that are more prone to parasitic infections than others. Often they have other health issues going on, too.

As for fecal testing: lung worms can't be seen with regular flotation fecal tests. They need a test that takes several days to have the worm larvae hatch and if you haven't requested that test, as well, you won't know if your goats have lung worms or not.

And the dewormer you used is not effective against lung worms. You need to use ivermectin, cydectin or doramectin

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jross

Discussion Starter · #3 · Mar 28, 2010

Thanks. I will look into another wormer. I read in Carolyn's book that if a wormer also contains a "boticide" that it could be dangerous to goats. So I will look for one without the boticide.

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jross

Discussion Starter · #4 · Mar 28, 2010

Here is an interesting link to an explanation of lungworms.

http://www.tennesseemeatgoats.com/artic ... worms.html

According to this it isn't easy to test for lungworms. And unless one lives in a wet place (I don't) lungworms are unlikely.

Ivomec 1% cattle dewormer is recommended as a treatment. I think I will buy some of this and dose all the boys. with it. It should be effective against any other worms present as well.

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sweetgoatmama

· #5 · Mar 28, 2010

Lungworms and liver flukes require a different test to detect. Also, different goats have different amounts of resistance to parasites so you will have a curve as far as the number of worms in any given goat in your herd.

But goats can have allergies. You can give them children's benedryl and see if it helps. I had a goat who only didn't cough when we would start out on the trail if we were over 10,000 ft. SOmething that grows lover than that always got him and he wold cough like he was going to die for the first 10 minutes on the trail.

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