Ohio Goat Health!

Goat Health Discussions

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A place for producers to write in and mention what management practices have worked best for them ...this page is just starting out, check inor write in as new topics are added. Write in if you have an excellent tip on prevention, etc. Herbal/nutritional remedies welcomed as well.

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List of Topics

***Warning: Please seek the advice of your veterinarian. Listed below are tips from farms and ranches on what has worked for them in managing their livestock or what has been prescribed for them to use. This page is designed for informational purposes only, it is not meant to prescribe any treatment to any livestock and for advice and prescription please consult your veterinarian. This is not meant to be used as a substitute for your veterinarian.***

Foot rot or Foot scald

The best route is prevention, help your goats avoid wet and moist areas. If it is wet and muddy out, place them in a dry barn where they don't have access to the moisture on their feet. If the straw in the barn is becoming damp, refresh this with new dry straw or clean out the damp straw. Lime can also be added to help according to a tip below. There is also a vaccine for livestock to prevent foot rot, that might be worthwhile for those farms that have a constant problem with livestock contracting foot rot. According to sources, copper deficient animals are more prone/susceptible to foot rot. One farm, after treating an animal for foot rot, boluses only one time yearly with one 12.5 gram Copasure bolus to help prevent them from becoming reinfected. They say not to overuse Copasure and given one yearly or every six months is about the limit for that product as copper can be dangerous in too high of levels. Or sometimes they divide down the doses in gelatin caps. More on Copasure in another section.

Trim down to expose the rotten area of the hoof and then taking a bottle full of water and rinsing out the hoof. A bottle with a tip of some sort like an old mustard bottle or ketchup bottle with the pointy tips would work also filled with water. That helps to reach those hard to reach places where it is rotten. Then after rinsing, they take something like LA-200 or Biomycin-200, Agrimycin 200 and pull it up in a syringe and then pull the needle off of the syringe and push the medicine all over the exposed rotten hoof area with the needle less syringe - they say that can also reach the hard to reach places in the hoof. After this, they take Hoof n' Heal and brush it over all of the goats feet to help prevent reinfection.

One farm said they used a disinfectant and Kopertox on the goat's hooves that have foot rot. First, they suggested trimming out 'til the rotted area is located and exposed as much as possible, then rinsing with a disinfectant rotten areas out. They then coat the area with Kopertox. Kopertox has also proven to be difficult to find these days, but still can be ordered online.

Another farm mentioned that scattering lime down around the barn where the goats walk ... helps dry the feet and is a disinfectant. They mentioned this more as a preventative and not a cure. This is a relatively inexpensive product and can be found at many feed mills. Be careful in the scattering of this as it can be harmful to the lungs of the goats, etc. Maybe placing the goats into another area while scattering this about is a fine idea until all the dust settles.

Goat Polio

Prevention of Goat Polio can be difficult at times as it doesn't typically affect a large group of animals but just certain individuals within the herd. It more typically occurs in animals younger than a year but also in rarer instances can occur in adults. It is caused by a thiamin imbalance and can be caused by using products that contain amprolium (co-rid) as they inhibit thiamin production. Also, it can be caused from certain hays that contain something (some say it is a mold, a vet said it was a bacteria) that inhibit thiamin production. Some animals might also develop Goat Polio after eating a larger amount of grain, an overload. Some symptoms are the lack of coordination, stargazing, some will cry, some might develop blindness, convulsions, spinning cirlces and the inability to walk in more extreme cases. Not all symptoms are present each time a goat develops goat polio. This sometimes has been confused with listeriosis.

One farm wrote: We once had a batch of alfalfa that caused our kids to develop goat polio and it took us some time to figure out the cause. Each morning we would go out and discover some young kids stargazing and crying. We were thankful that we had caught it early and gave each of them 5 cc's of thiamin and it was gone by evening. We discovered that if we catch that early, it can typically be eliminated early. Somehow this hay did not affect the adults negatively and they never displayed signs of goat polio from that batch of hay. Actually we have only had two older animals ever show symptoms of goat polio. One was from a doe that would have extremely strong heat cycles (she was very fertile). She would stand outside the barn and cry and cry for the bucks non-stop. She wouldn't even hardly come in to eat. Then when her heat cycle stopped she must have came in and overate on grain and developed a more extreme case of goat polio. She had become blind and it took about a week to get her past this after using thiamin treatments. Then we had one develop it more recently and the hay is again suspect but we are not sure of the cause as we have over 100 goats and she is the only one that has contracted this. She went into what almost appeared like seizures and could not walk at initial onset, she was blind for almost a week. The onset was quick as she appeared normal that morning and was down by that afternoon. She was treated initially with 12 cc's of thiamin injected and was standing by morning and then again 5 cc's a couple more times. She has also recovered fully. If the case is more extreme ... it is more recommended to give under the skin than orally drenched. We have given it on occasions orally with great results in moderate cases of goat polio. We stall them when they become blind and make sure to place the feed and water in front of them so that they can discover it easily.

Thiamin is a prescription product from the vet but it is not very expensive and is nice to keep on hand just in case. The doses we administered contained 500 mg per 1 cc. We typically give larger doses of thiamin - 5 to 7 cc's when initially discovering a goat with this and then continue administering in smaller doses (2 cc's) until improvement. Sometimes administering this as often as twice a day. For prevention, extra amounts of thiamin can be added to the feed.

Farms that do not have a bottle of thiamin on hand have purchased B1 from the store in the vitamin section and taken the pills home and dissolved them in water to create a solution that could be given orally to goats with goat polio. Typically B1 in the stores contain 100mg per pill and so it does take a large amount of pills dissolved in water to work the comparative dose from the liquid thiamin obtained from a veterinarian.

**Tip: B1 has seemed to lessen vertigo in people. So if heights make an individual dizzy or even just walking across solid ground - this can subside by taking B1 ... it has worked for some people anyway. I guess they figured if it helps a goat stop spinning it might help them also.

Copper In Goats