Help!!Goat with runny stool

[dadof4]

I'm hoping someone can help me in a hurry! My wife went into pre-term labor last week with our son and I was unable to get to the feed store to pick up my normal dairy feed for a couple of days so I used alfalfa pellets for a couple of days, twice a day at milking times. She likes alfalfa anyway, but on the third day she was not having it any longer. That night I had picked up my feed and she was happy to be back on her feed. During this time her normal milk production dropped from about 2 quarts a milking to about 1 or 1 and a half. When she got back on feed, her milk production went right back to 2. Yesterday morning when I went to milk she pushed the food around a bit, ate a little and was done, leaving most of it. She has done this before, but she did it again in the evening, this morning and tonight. Her stool looked fine until tonight when I went out and saw that her butt was all nasty and a found a few puddles o' poo in the yard. She is in the same yard and hasn;t been moved or got into anything that I can tell. She does look a bit thin now and she was wormed a few months ago. She is in with one other doe which is the same as always and that one seems fine-she is not lactating. No other animals have come in contact with her. I am worried about her, on top of everything else on my plate. Anyone have any suggestions. Thanks.

 

[cassie]

If she didn't get any grain for a few days and then got the full ration, she may have grain overload. The symptoms you describe sound like it. A penicillin shot, a dose of enterotoxemia antitoxin (Clostridium perfingens), and an antiacid are in order. If it is a mild case she should be better in a couple days. You can get the antitoxin and the penicillin at the feed store. The antitoxin is important, but the penicillin will help a lot.

 

[elevan]

When a food change issue happened with my goats causing the runny poo...this is what I did.

1. Pour a bottle of Pedialyte into their water
2. Offer baking soda (should be offered always free choice anyway)
3. Closely monitor - should be better in a two days

I did not administer any meds or antibiotics unnecessarily. But I find that each goat owner does things a little differently from the next. So this is just how I did it and it worked out for my goat.

 

[()relics]

Quote:
Not needed if she is current on her cd/t boosters and an antitoxin is a long acting vaccine, useless for an accute treatment.
Quote:
also not needed unless you think bloat is a possiblility.
Now what is her problem? A ration change coupled with your anxiousness has stressed her and caused a loose stool. How to fix it? pepto until her stool is solid...electrolytes to keep her from dehydrating...Cut her feed in half and offer extra hay until the stool is more solid then slowly increase your feed amount to her normal ration...lastly once her stool is more solid give her some probios a few times, to help rebuild her rumens digesting ability. Penecillin/antibiotics should never be given as a shotgun treatment. If she has an elevated temperature and is "off feed" only then would an antibiotic be the option, and with a loose stool, ScourHalt would be the antibiotic to choose.

 

[cassie]

()relics :

Quote:
Not needed if she is current on her cd/t boosters and an antitoxin is a long acting vaccine, useless for an accute treatment.
Quote:
also not needed unless you think bloat is a possiblility.
Now what is her problem? A ration change coupled with your anxiousness has stressed her and caused a loose stool. How to fix it? pepto until her stool is solid...electrolytes to keep her from dehydrating...Cut her feed in half and offer extra hay until the stool is more solid then slowly increase your feed amount to her normal ration...lastly once her stool is more solid give her some probios a few times, to help rebuild her rumens digesting ability. Penecillin/antibiotics should never be given as a shotgun treatment. If she has an elevated temperature and is "off feed" only then would an antibiotic be the option, and with a loose stool, ScourHalt would be the antibiotic to choose.

Clostridium perfingens antitoxin is used for treatment and short term prevention. Toxoid is used for long term prevention. CD/T doesn't always take. Entero is an emergency situation and is very often deadly and in a breathtakingly short period of time. It is not at all uncommon for a goat that is current on its entero vaccinations to die of entero. The vaccinations greatly reduce the incidence but to not eliminate it entirely. I bred dairy goats for over 40 years and had a commercial dairy for many of those years. I also live in an area where entero is prevalent probably because of soil conditions. Out of necessity I became an expert, albeit reluctantly, at the recognition and treatment of entero.

All goat owners should have entero antitoxin and GasX (for bloat) in their medicine chests at all times. Both conditions are a true emergency and they can strike suddenly with no warning whatever. Time is of the essence in treatment of both.​

 

[()relics]

funny if you are a goat expert why you would shotgun treat with penicillin with no fever and then why pen(G) instead of scour-halt....BTW save the PM's for those that will believe you....I haven't lost a goat in years and don't need any "personal" information or treatment recomendations

 

[cassie]

()relics :

funny if you are a goat expert why you would shotgun treat with penicillin with no fever and then why pen(G) instead of scour-halt....BTW save the PM's for those that will believe you....I haven't lost a goat in years and don't need any "personal" information or treatment recomendations

If you are treating entero, (and an animal that has gotten a little more grain than it is used to getting is a prime candidate for entero) penicillin is given because it is effective against clostridial bacteria. Entero is caused by a toxin produced by clostridium perfingens organisms. The object is to decrease the number of clostridial bacteria that are producing the toxin. Penicillin will do this. In fact, in treating a full blown case of entero, the protocol is to inject penicillin and antitoxin under the skin and to give another dose of penicillin and antitoxin orally. And no, I didn't make that up. Fever is a the body's response to an infection. With entero, the goat is dead before a defense can be launched. Entero can kill in less than an hour. In some areas of the country, entero is very common. In others it is quite rare. A vet from a pharmaceutical company told me he thought it had something to do with soil conditions and I think he is right. When I lived on the coast I never saw a case. When I moved out here in the central valley of California I saw a lot of it.

Scour-halt won't help much in the treatment of either entero or grain overload. It is pretty effective with the garden variety scours caused by bacterial infections. My neighbor uses it on her baby goats.

By the way, I was just trying to impart objective information, none of which was meant to be personal. You took offense when none was intended. The main reason I said anything at all was that you stated that antitoxin was long acting and useless for treatment, which is incorrect. Toxoid is long acting and useless for treatment. Read the label on the bottles when you get a chance.​

 

[()relics]

you sent me a PM...that would be personal....I would say anyway...fell free to keep your comments to an open forum in the future...TY

 

[cassie]

()relics :

you sent me a PM...that would be personal....I would say anyway...fell free to keep your comments to an open forum in the future...TY

I wanted you to be sure to see it. I was trying to be helpful. Don't worry. It won't happen again. I have marked your name with a Do Not Disturb.​

 

[dadof4]

Well thanks too all for the help. I noticed that while she was off feed, she was eating hay more tje last couple days. She started back to normal yesterday and today she seems to be back on track. Thanks again to all and I will be better informed next time.
Hoping of course there is no next time.