# Pot Bellied looking kid



## chels24 (Jun 15, 2011)

Every year for the past three years I've had one kid that doesn't grow like the rest. They all start out the same size, but at about 8 weeks they just slow down. Different years, different mothers, different fathers and different feed. I've checked for worms and they come back clean. The kids all have the same thing in common though, they all grow slower and they all look like they have pot bellies.  I just don't get what I'm doing wrong. Can someone please give me some advice. 
The pictures show a couple kids as an example. The red one in the first pic is the brother to the two traditional ones and a couple weeks older than the black one, but you can see how he's a couple inches shorter. It's hard to see how round her belly is in the second pic, but you can see the roundness on the bottom.


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## ksalvagno (Jun 15, 2011)

Do you treat for coccidia?


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## Ariel301 (Jun 15, 2011)

I've been going through the same thing, but here, it's ALL the kids. At weaning time, they'd have healthy appetites, but would get pot bellied, stop growing, get anemic, and just never do right. It's coccidiosis for me, and probably also a good deal of mineral deficiency, once I began treating for both, my kids have taken off and look great now. Regular dewormers (except Safeguard, apparently) won't kill cocci, you have to get something made for that specifically.


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## chels24 (Jun 15, 2011)

I do treat for coccidia and the fecals have come back negative. All the kids have bright eyelids and none of them have ever been sick.


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## currycomb (Jun 15, 2011)

might be a mineral deficiantcie (sp)


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## elevan (Jun 15, 2011)

You may find this helpful:
http://goatbeat.net/index.php?action=printpage;topic=5739.0


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## chels24 (Jun 15, 2011)

That's a great link, thank you! It makes sense that it could be a mineral deficiency because all the kids that have had this problem were the ones that got pushed around. They have mineral out, but the other goats may not be letting them eat it. The article said to give them calf manna and I might try that after I put out a couple more mineral feeders.


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## Ariel301 (Jun 15, 2011)

If they're testing negative for cocci, my next guess would be mineral deficiency. I have had trouble getting good hay for the last year or so, and my goats all got really bad looking and lost a lot of weight. I started giving them Purina goat mineral instead of the one I was using before, and that combined with some better hay has really made a difference in my animals. I put a pan of the mineral in the pen, and the kids have all been eating more than double what the bag says to give them, I think they know they need it!


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