Anyone else notice any of their goats wasting away? Pics Added

misfitmorgan

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I have two alpine does i can not get weight or to keep their weight over the winter. The other of the two a 4yr old alpine started losing a lot of weight late last fall, her hair lost its shine and she has bald patches now along her rump. Her sister who is 2yrs old is now starting te same trend. They almost appear as though they just got done weaning twin kids but neither have had kids in over a year now.

We have 12 goats currently total. These two are the only ones that seem to be wasting away. We have not had any new herd members the only change we made was moving to a new farm late last summer. We did separate the older alpine at feeding time when we would give her separate grain and extra rations of grain. They have a mineral block and we wormed her 3 times in the past 4 months while the other goats have gone all winter without needing to be wormed. We also gave her some bose gel. After approximately a month of extra grain she did perk up and put on a tiny bit of weight maybe 5 lbs but then stopped and seems to have lost more weight again.

We treated the entire herd with corid twice, the herd will be getting wormed this month. They have 24/7 access to good grass hay. We added clover and alfalfa hay and even second cutting to her diet to try to get more weight it did not help. She was has not gotten pregnant in over a year even though she has been with our alpine buck almost that entire time. The first and only time she kidded for us she had twins.

The only thing i can think of is possibly lack of vitamin D or something of that nature. Our goats have been locked inside the barn almost 24/7 since december until about a week ago for various reasons. Since it warmed up outside we have been leaving the barn door open during the daytime. Anyone have any ideas on what might be going on?

Also we lost her mother to similar symptoms over the summer she was however 7-8yrs old and had been bred hard before we got her so we just figured that she was just worn out from so many kids and being heavily milked in between. They had free run to be outside as much as they wanted all summer and all the grass.weeds.twigs.leaves. etc they wanted to eat on 20 acres. So i dont think that was any vitamin d deficiency.
 

TAH

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Do you have free choice loose minerals? It could be because they haven't been out in the sun.
 

TAH

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It does not sound like johns. Have they been tested for CAE or CL?
 

Goatgirl47

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I also have an Alpine who is just too skinny. I've been trying for a few months to get her back in good condition, but she's stubborn. ;):mad:

We give our goats kelp in their feed and I've heard it helps bring a shine to their coat. Most of our goats have nice shiny coats now (probably because of the kelp!).

I agree with @Samantha drawz about running a fecal on them.
 

babsbag

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I am not trying to scare anyone but goats don't usually present diarrhea with Johne's. That is a cow symptom. The most common symptom in goats is wasting, it is called the wasting disease.

I would first start with the fecal, then make sure she has access to a good mineral that she is eating. Then I would have a blood draw done and test for Johne's, it is becoming more common in goats. Are the two that are skinny related or from the same herd? Unfortunately it is contagious and often no symptoms for many years, can't even test kids until they are over a year. (I think it might be 18 months but not sure about that). You can also have a mineral panel done by blood. It isn't as accurate as a liver biopsy for copper but you can't do one of those so blood test is better than no test.

She may need a copper bolus too, and a selenium injection; ;loose minerals may not be enough depending on where you live and how deficient your soil is in your area. I believe that zinc is important for coat condition. I don't think that minerals would affect weight as much as it will the coat, reproduction abilities, and growth rate in kids. Those loose minerals are critical, my herd of 20 goats eat 20 lbs a week.

Praying that this is fixable and not Johne's
 

misfitmorgan

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We have been worming the worse off one as i mentioned in the OP, it doesnt seem to make a difference we have wormed with a drench type, and a paste type, and a herbal type all from different makers and the next one is a pellet type.....but the problem i found is they are all the exact same active ingredient for goats(except herbal of course) Morantel Tartrate ...atleast that i can find. Could i use ivermec? i have not had a fecal done because we just got done paying out $800 in vet bills from the last 3 months and we are getting ready to send this years herd test in so that will be more...so i dont have money to have the vet out again right this minute but i am getting really worried about her.

Previous Owner supposedly tested for CAE and we didnt test last year, year before we did a herd test which was only 10% as instructed by the vet. Never saw any absesses at all on anyone so i would highly doubt CL beng the culprit. We are sending in blood to test for CAE in 2 weeks.
 

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