[Simbas04]

Someone please help if you have any ideas about what could be going on or if you have any experience in this matter. A year after we took 2 of our does to a new breeder we began having issues with hair loss. It turned out to be mites and so we gave them ivermectin for a week straight as prescribed by our vet. Then the hair loss began again with our once over weight doe Kiwi (who had begun to lose an excessive amount of weight), but this hair loss was patchy and not how the rest had lost hair before. It really concerned me so I took her to the vet and they did a skin scraping and ran a ringworm test, which came back positive. We placed some fungal ointment on an area which was bald and the hair did grow back after about 2 weeks. This whole time she was separated with my baby boy Simba because they were the only ones looking unhealthy. My vet then prescribed sulfur-lime dip. We did that about twice, each administration 5 days apart, due to the rain and cold weather we had to stop. When the hair loss began again once it got warmer we administered it again. It was the second to the last dose and Kiwi began to cry out. Not a normal goat cry like "I want to be with my family", it was more like a sorrowful, "I am in so much pain" cry. She began to fall over and so we decided this was definitely an emergency. We took her to the vet to be seen right away and while we were there she began to stiffen up even more. Head was back, stargazing and completely stiff. They drew her blood and gave her IV. We left her there to be hospitalized and an hour later they called us to say she had passed away. We had a necropsy done on her, but it came back inconclusive. This was in April. We don't know what killed her, all we know is she was a bit copper deficient. Now my Simba is losing weight. Once an 85lbs goat, now I am able to lift him. He is losing fur in patches and I don't know what to do. Every time I take him to the vet it is the same diagnosis and I just don't want to lose him too... Can anyone please help?

 

[Simbas04]

Kiwi nor Simba have had a fecal test. Kiwi did have a BoSe injection when we took her to the vet for her patchy hair loss and that didn't seem to be the issue because nothing drastically changed. In 2010 they had CAE, CL, and Johnes testing, but they havent since I had my girls bred this last time. Within the last 4 months Simba has had a skin biopsy to see why my goats were losing hair and try to see if we could conclude from him what may have killed Kiwi, but it only came back conclusive for mites and when we did the ivermectin again the issue went away for awhile, but now it is back again. I feed them 2 cups of purina goat chow as a group when I put them up at night and there are 7 goats that eat that at once. I feed them orchard hay 1.5 flakes in the morning. And they always have fresh water and a mineral goat block available to them. What is Copper Bolused?

 

[Simbas04]

Thank you so much everyone for your help! I will be sure to try all of this to see if I can increase the health of my herd! I have one question first though. 5 of my 7 Nigerian Dwarf goats are wethers so I have been concerned that if I give them more then 2 cups of grain I may have to worry about crystals. Is that a concern that should be at the forefront of my mind? I was also told by my vet that alfalfa is not good for goat belly's so I haven't fed that to them for three years unless of course they are pregnant, then I give them an 80-20 grass hay/alfalfa mix. I was concerned about the mites in the surrounding environment but in June when Simba had his biopsy I asked the vet what I should do and they said that the mites were only found on skin and I didn't have to worry about killing them in the barn and kennels and such, just worry about ridding them from our goat's skin and hair follicals. I thought it was odd, so do you guys have any suggestions on what I should use to rid the mites we seem to keep getting?

 

[Simbas04]

The goats are up to date on CD&T as well as their dewormer. Simba even has a rabies shot because after Kiwi died I wanted to rule that out as a possibility because it looked like she died from something neurological.