finally found out what is killing my goats.

[2468herdsrgr8]

This is very interesting because two weeks ago my friend had to put pony down and the vet suspected this sickness that horses can get ...exspecially if they live close to swamps ...or wet area's....its from snails and slugs....a week later the same vet put another horse down in our same area under the same symptons and this time the horse was sent to the local Agriculture University of Guelph for an Atopsy..still waiting to hear what the results are ...supposely there has been cases along the eastern states and some in eastern Canada ...
For the horses there is a vaccination I think called Potomax...(sounds like probably and spelled wrong...)
Pretty sad ....it devistated my friends to have a perfectly healthy pony and have it go down so fast ....with confusing symptons ...almost like it was posioned.... RIP Little Black Beauty

 

[bheila]

I highly suggest if it happens again (god forbid) that you give the goat some charcoal. The snails are poisonous, right?

 

[trestlecreek]

The snails carry the liver fluke.
Death would not be instant upon ingestion of the snail....

 

[ksalvagno]

I am so sorry for your loss. I hope your other goats will do fine now that you have given them Ivomec. Thanks for posting and letting the rest of us know about this.

 

[freemotion]

Thank goodness you found out....eventually. It is pretty rare, I think. I hope.

In CT a couple of years ago, someone I know lost a pet miniature donkey to snails when it was a wet year. It was a large boarding stable with a lot of very expensive show horses....no one else got sick. The donkey was let loose a little while each day to graze around the edges of the paddocks and down by a little brook. So it wasn't the whole farm, just a small area that wasn't even part of the normal pastures and paddocks....I hope yours is the same and you can figure out how you can still keep goats there. What agony.

 

[broke down ranch]

So sorry to hear you have lost so many....

I recently learned goats can get Meningeal Worms from eating snails and slugs. Is this what the vet said your goats had?

 

[wafflesmom]

So sorry for your loss. That's horrible about the snails!! Would have never thought about that.


I know how ya feel though about caring for them. Some friends/family said Grits was just a goat. I ignored them b/c my animals are more than animals. All my chickens will die of old age here.

 

[beefy]

ive never heard of poisonous snails but it may be liver flukes that are the problem. snails are hosts for them. you may want to worm everyone with valbazen just to be on the safe side. and limit grazing to the afternoons when there is no dew on the grass.

 

[beefy]

sorry just getting around to reading the whole post. if you are going to use the ivomec, make sure it is the ivomec plus. i use valbazen b/c i can mix it in food or water or drench it adn also b/c its a different type of wormer than the regular ivomec i use.

 

[beefy]

(the vomiting sounds more like a plant toxicity to me tho) --sounds like what happened when my goat ate azaleas.

flukes usually show more parasitic causes such as anemia and wasting and bottle jaw and diarrhea etc. if you lose another one i would have a necropsy done to check the liver for flukes vs toxins. it takes a while for flukes to kill, they wont die from flukes from eating a few snails in a days time. but if one or two have them they likely all do.