# Help! My 2 1/2 month old billy has bad scours!



## billyandtimmyplace (Mar 21, 2012)

Buckley, my 2 1/2 month old billy boar goat has bad scours.  He was fine at 7pm last night, but this morning about 7am we checked on him and the other goats and he had scours all over the backside of him and on the bedding.  The other goats are fine.  We have 2 other wethers in the same pen as him and 6 girls (the same age) in the pen next to him.

I do not know what I should be doing for him since he is not a newborn.  He has not had access to grass since Sunday night due to all the rain in western missouri.  It has stopped raining for now but the forecast is for more rain the next couple of days. He has hay in a feeder and water.

Is there anything I should be doing?  I am new to keeping goats and very concerned about him.


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## ksalvagno (Mar 21, 2012)

My guess would be coccidia. I would get DiMethox 40% and start him on that right away. Give orally at 1cc per 5 lbs the first day and then 1cc per 10 lbs for the next 4 days after that.


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## 20kidsonhill (Mar 21, 2012)

either take a fecal in to a vet this morning, or start treating him, "TODAY."

sulfa-dimethoxine is your best bet, but if you can't find it, I would get whatever your feed store has, or get a vet to give you a treatment. 

Corid, Sulmet or Albon all will work. I beleive Albon is a RX from the vet.  

none of them will say for goats, they will say they are for chickens and cattle. I give them the strongest dosage that is recommended on the bottle for cattle for the 5 day treatment dosage. 

Corid comes in premixed liquid or a powder. 

You can also get him Spectam scour gaurd for pigs, it is red colored liquid. works well for bacterial scours, but you still need to treat with a medication for coccidiosis. 

Also at 2 1/2 months worms could be a problem, so I would consider a general wormer like safeguard or valbazene, along with the other treatments. 

Unless you do a fecal right away, all you are pretty much left with is the shotgun approach, and treat with a couple different things.


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## billyandtimmyplace (Mar 21, 2012)

I have been suspecting worms for a couple of days now.  His stomach has been getting bloated and he has not been as interested in food.  If it were to be worms is the treatment the same or do I need to try to worm him while he is scouring?


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## ksalvagno (Mar 21, 2012)

Treatment with DiMethox is the same. You could also give him Safeguard (liquid) at 1cc per 10 lbs once a day for 3 days. Then you are covering more than coccidia if you don't want to take a fecal to the vet. You can find small bottles of Safeguard that are labeled for goats at TSC but the dosage is incorrect on the bottle. The 1cc per 10 lbs is the correct dosage.


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## 20kidsonhill (Mar 21, 2012)

treatment for coccidiosis is a separate treatment from other types of worms that he may have,  The Sulfa-dimethoxine, albon, sulmet or Corid only treat for the coccidiosis. 

In addition to the coccidiosis treatment you will want to also do a parasite treatment with safeguard, like ksalvagno suggested, or valbazene. Although there are other options besides those two. they will treat for you more traditional types of internal worms. 



You can give all the treatments at the same time. 

coccidiosis is treated for 5 days in a row and depending on the other wormer you choose to do, may be 1 to 3 days of treatment. 

Safeguard comes in a small 125ml bottle for a little under $20, making it a good option if you only have a couple goats. Safeguard is known as Panacur for horses. 


Hope that makes sense. 

For a severally scouring kid

I often, 
give them a dose of sulfa-dimthoxine, orally
a dose of wormer(valbazene or synanthic), orally
a dose of spectam scour guard, orally.
and a penn G shot
all at the same time. 

I do all of them twice a day except the wormer. 
I just do the wormer one time, although you can give the valbazene wormer for 3 days in a row for tapeworm treatment.


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## billyandtimmyplace (Mar 21, 2012)

Thank you both! This has been very helpful to us. 
We are headed to the store right now to get treatment for him, and wormer for everyone. 
We were also wondering if he had to be separated, or if he isn't contagious?


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## 20kidsonhill (Mar 21, 2012)

billyandtimmyplace said:
			
		

> Thank you both! This has been very helpful to us.
> We are headed to the store right now to get treatment for him, and wormer for everyone.
> We were also wondering if he had to be separated, or if he isn't contagious?


I don't separate mine, but technically he is contaminating the bedding and barn with higher counts of coccidiosis or worms.


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## billyandtimmyplace (Mar 21, 2012)

20kidsonhill said:
			
		

> billyandtimmyplace said:
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I am glad we don't have to separate them, because we don't have anywhere else to put him!
also, how use Corid? do we pour or down the mouth?
We bought Corid and safeguard. Is that enough?


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## 20kidsonhill (Mar 21, 2012)

billyandtimmyplace said:
			
		

> 20kidsonhill said:
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That should work.  

Yes, you want to drench them with it , or pour it down their throat, using a syringe with no needle, or some type of drenching device. get it back in their mouth and drip it in, so they swallow it. 

Safeguard would be 3 x the label dosage for 3 days, or like mentioned 1 cc per 10 lbs. 

and the corid dosage that I use is .5 cc (1/2cc) per every 10 lbs of goat and I give it twice a day for 5 days. The safeguard I do one time a day. 



If the kid starts acting lethargic or weak legged, discontinue the corid, it can cause a thiamin deficiency. Although I have never had problems with it and have used corid on and off for years. 


good luck. If you don't have much experience with drenching it isn't easy. 

If you don't think you got enough in him, I would give more, both medications have a high safety margin for overdosing.


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## 20kidsonhill (Mar 21, 2012)

coccidiosis is one of those things that can keep coming back. it has a 21 day cycle, our vet recommends we retreat preventively every 28 days. We treat in the drinking water for 5 days. Sometimes I use Corid and sometimes I use Sulfa-dimethoxine. 

The dosage for Corid in the drinking water depends on how much water they are drinking. I normally work it backwards, to make sure I am atleast getting the right dosage into my herd by weight, ofcourse, I have no idea if one goat is getting more than another.  

Normally, it ends up being around 2 to 3 ounces of corid per every 5 gallons of drinking water for our herd. for 5 days straight, assuming they are not eating a lot of wet pasture grass and their water consumption is way down. Then I have to do it all by hand. 

You will hear a lot of debate about the use of Corid  and treating goats in the drinking water, compared to individually. But for larger farms they always put it in the water, because there is no way they are catching 40 or 50 or more goats a day for 5 days, unless they absolutely have to. 

We have close to 75 on the farm right now. 

By the way, I would treat all your goats.


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## billyandtimmyplace (Mar 21, 2012)

I waited till DH came home and we treated Buckley with the Corid. We treated him and all the rest of the goats with Safeguard for worming.  Everyone else seems fine.  Buckley still has the scours before the treatment and will hopefully be better soon.  Will continue to treat him.  
He is active and eating and drinking just fine, which makes me feel better that we have caught it early.  

Thanks to all who helped.  I am a newbie at all this (lived my entire life in the suburbs until 5 months ago), and I hope to gain enough experience and knowledge that one day I too can be helpful for others.


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## billyandtimmyplace (Mar 23, 2012)

Buckley is much better this morning. Scours are gone.  Poop is normal looking.  He is alert and active.
Thank you!


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## 20kidsonhill (Mar 23, 2012)

billyandtimmyplace said:
			
		

> Buckley is much better this morning. Scours are gone.  Poop is normal looking.  He is alert and active.
> Thank you!


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