HOLLAND FARM & HATCHERY.....GOAT HEALTH

GOAT HEALTH

WE ARE NOT VETERINARIANS......THIS INFORMATION IS BASED ON OUR EXPERIENCES ONLY. This is not meant to be medical advice or prescription, but rather sharing our experiences, as a way to save others from our mistakes...which ultimately affect our animals!

The best medicine for goats is preventative medicine. Give your goats a clean, healthy environment to live in. Be sure they have lots of fresh water and clean feed. Give them lots of fresh air and sunshine. Worm them regularly, and rotate pastures if at all possible. It is also helpful if you can keep your pastures high, so your goats don't keep their heads to the ground. Afterall, that is where the parasites are!

We use a Q-Mist Automatic Insect Repellant to keep the flies and insects down during the summer. The Apache Fly Bait cans, and hanging fly traps work great, too.

Always walk through and take note of your goats appearance every couple days. Goats can be quite the little actors. Sometimes they show no outward signs of being sick until it is too late. Pay attention to any changes in eating habits, or strange behavior. If you catch problems early, they are usually easy to handle.

If you are going to have more than just a couple of goats, we highly recommend you put together a Goat First Aid Kit. Below is a list of what we keep in ours:

Iodine Wound Spray
LA-200
Agri-cillin
Disposable Syringes
Sterile Disposable Gloves
SafeGuard Wormer Paste
Probiotic Paste
Wound Kote
Furazone Spray or Puff-R for Pinkeye
Gauze Pads
Self Adhesive Ace Bandage
Ther-A-Bloat or Mineral Oil
Kaopectate or Pepto Bismol
Nutri Drench

There are several Goat Supply contacts on our Contacts Page.

DISEASES

ABCESSES	Caseous lymphadenitis. These abcesses affect both sheep and goats. CL is very contagious when the abcess bursts. It is best to have the vet lance the abcess as early as possible. The fluid in a Caseous Lymphadenitis abcess is usually like cottage cheese, although reports from goat farms are suggesting that this disease may be mutating....recently CL when lanced are liquidy instead of cheese like. If the fluid is more pus-like, then it was probably a result of a foreign object and is less serious. But I would not take my chances. Be very careful not to contaminate your pastures or pens. After the lancing, treat the wound with a good antiseptic. We also give a shot of penicilin (or agri-cilin) before the lancing, and 3 days after, to ensure against infection. We are not veterinarians....this information is based only on our experience.
BLOAT	Bloat is normally caused by overeating, grazing on fresh, wet pastures, or a sudden change in feed. Bloat can be deadly. It sounds so minor, but take it from us, we lost a new goat from bloat, and it happens very quickly. Bloat is a serious build up of gases in the digestive tract. At the first signs of bloat, swelling of the left flank, and painful bleating, give the goat mineral oil every half hour followed by baking soda dissolved in water that is room temperature. Keep the goat up and moving. Call the vet immediately. Trust me this is an emergency.
CAE	Caprine Arthritis Ensephilitis. A disease caused by a virus, which is usually passed to kids through the mothers milk. CAE causes lameness, and inflamation of the joints, and can be deadly. CAE is only detected by a blood test. No treatment or vaccine is currently available. The animal could live for years, but be lame.
COCCIDIOSIS	This seems to be more prominent in younger goats, although we have had Coccidiosis hit our herds and affect young and/or older goats. Symptons include no weight gain, lack of appetite, scours, and general unthrifty appearance. Treat with a good cocci medication (usually an oral solution you can add right to the water) and keep the bedding area very clean. If the infected goat is one of a herd, we generally do a herd treatment. For the past 2 years we have been using a medicated feed that has a preventative measure dose of cocci medication in it from Southern States.
PINK EYE	Pink Eye is most commonly caused by flies that carry the bacteria. It is extremely contagious, any infected goats should be separated from the herd. Treat with an ointment or Puff-R. We found that these treatments took a long time to show any signs of improvement. We now treat Pink Eye on our farm with a shot of LA-200 (intramuscular) followed by Puff-R treatment for two days, if the Pink Eye does not show any signs of improvement we follow up with one more LA-200 shot on the third day. The LA-200 usually kicks it. Be very sanitary in your treatments. Scrub up well, and use disposable gloves, as this disease can be passed on to you! Last year an old farmer told us to try just flushing the eye using a needless syringe of penicillin right on the eye.....we tried it and it cleared up really quickly, and was a lot easier than a series of salves and shots.