Plzzzz help

Tinamarie

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I have 2- 4month old ND withers. This morning I noticed 1 was having diarrhea through our the night. But continued to eat and drink normally. This morning the one with diarrhea was acting strange. As if he was hearing or seeing something . Will stop eating or drinking(even grazing) ,look up or stare for a minute makes the spitting noise,then go bk to what ever he was doing. Also will stomp his foot as though it was "asleep"(us humans) Also rubbing his nose on what ever ge can,fence wall floor and even the grass. Ears are low . . He is drinking water ,and chews his cud off and on but the appetite has slowed down some. I'm new at this,he isn't crying as if he was in pain or anything. They have free access to hay minerals and baking soda. DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT IM MISSING??
 

Wehner Homestead

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I’m not super experienced in goats yet but 1) @BlessedWithGoats had a very good point about checking the temp. Never hurts to see if that’s a factor. 2) When mine did this they had lice. You can’t see them but they’ll lose the hair where their ears connect to their head and chew at their legs along with everything you mentioned. Treat with a permethrin solution. (I can’t recall exactly but if you search it and @Southern by choice at the same time, she gives the correct parameters.) 3) Have your Goats been wormed or had a fecal done recently? 4) Are they current on their cd&t?

I’ll pop back in if I think of something else and others may weigh in during the interim.
 

Wehner Homestead

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Oh! What type of hay? Wethers easily get urinary calculus (shortened to UC) often and alfalfa isn’t good for them. Neither is grain. There’s more detail in several threads.
 

Southern by choice

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Did you take his temperature?
If not you need to and let us know what it is.
Has the diarrhea stopped? Did he change hay or feed? What color?
When was his last fecal check?
Is he on a coccidia prevention program, or medicated feed?

Mites sounds pretty likely.
I have listed this many times so you can do a search and find the mixture and treatment.


If he is stargazing, starting to stare into space, tilt of head, stumbling (even slight) then he needs thiamine.

Wethers easily get urinary calculus (shortened to UC) often and alfalfa isn’t good for them
Not correct. Alfalfa is GOOD for them. It raises the calcium. You want a 2:1 up to 4:1 ratio of Calcium to Phosphorus. It is too much Phosphorus that causes Urinary Calculi, not calcium.

I find this to be the best article on UC.
http://www.ansc.purdue.edu/SP/MG/Documents/SLIDES/Urinary calculi.pdf
 

Wehner Homestead

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Hmmm...not sure where I got that alfalfa isn’t good for wethers. Must be associating it with feed. (We also don’t have wethers so not something that I have to worry about quite as much.)
 

Southern by choice

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I found the link for treatment-
https://www.backyardherds.com/threa...t-with-lice-how-do-i-treat.37794/#post-549750


@Wehner Homestead this is a myth that seems to still go round and round.

All our bucks get alfalfa/orchard when we can get it... the rest of the time orchard. They also get feed. Balanced feed, not overfed, with ammonium chloride in the feed and a 2:1 Ca:p ratio.
Goats wethered too soon, overfed grain, or imbalanced Ca:p is the primary cause.
Some put salt out to entice bucks/wethers to drink more. We have never needed it.
 

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