Coccidia in lambs

[Robyn8]

I posted this in another string, but wasn't sure if anyone would see it.

I have 3 adult sheep, 2 adult goats, and 4 4H lambs. They are all housed together on pasture with the 4H lambs separated at night and for feeding. 1 of the 4H lambs has loose stool. Fecal showed coccidia at +++ (great than 51 egg count). Everyone else's stool seems fine. Everyone is eating, drinking, and acting normally. The lambs get a medicated feed, but I am not sure if the one with coccidia was on medicated feed prior to coming to us 2 weeks ago. Should I just treat the one with loose stool, or everyone, or just the lambs?

What should I treat with? I have toltrazuil on hand because I used it last summer when our current adult sheep were babies and had coccidia. I was scared to use Corid because we had already had a goat with Polio that summer and I read Corid can cause Polio. But since these are market lambs, I know Corid is probably a better choice for meat withdrawl. I read toltrazuil has a 40 day withdrawl and the fair is well over 100 days away, so it should still be ok, right?

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

 

[Rammy]

@Baymule @Mike CHS @Sheepshape

 

[Baymule]

I haven't had this problem, so will be watching with interest.

 

[Mike CHS]

We use Corid at the first sign. We do our own fecals but when we see the signs we don't bother and assume they need Corid. We haven't had many losses but the couple we did have were because we didn't treat.

 

[babsbag]

Toltrazuril seems to work sometimes and not others but it works better for prevention than for treatment. If you don't want to use Corid get some DiMethox 40% injectable and give it orally. It is a long dose...10 days to stop the life cycle but only 5 days for prevention. I would treat the one and do preventative dose on the others. 1 cc /5 lbs. first day 1 cc /10 lbs. next 4 days. (9 days for the one)

 

[Sheepshape]

Over here (and trade names are often different, so I'll use the generics) we use tolrazuril and diclazuril. All young animals need to be treated, though the adults probably don't as they were exposed last year and have some resistance.

Having had this awful disease kill animals some years back, my advice to you is TREAT. Once an animal gets coccidiosis, the gut may never recover fully.

Coccidiosis is faecal-oral transmission and singularly the best way of preventing spread is to move feeding dishes, troughs/feeders daily and change pasture regularly, so animals are not grazing contaminated material.

Good Luck.

 

[Robyn8]

Thank you for all the advice! I will treat all the lambs and report back on how they are doings. The one with loose stool isn’t that bad yet. Actually I think it had firmed up a bit even without treating so I think I am catching it early on. And maybe part of the issue is diet change as I wasn’t able to get them on the same grain the farmer had them on.

 

[Robyn8]

I treated my lambs with Toltrazuril about a month ago and their poop firmed up. I just noticed today one has diarrhea again. She’s still eating and drinking and acting normal. I’m assuming it’s coccidia again since that’s what showed up on my fecal a month ago. I treated everyone with Prohibit a week ago because I had a lot of coughing so I suspected lungworm. Should I treat with Corid now? I’d rather not treat everyone because I’m paranoid about polio. We had a goat kid get polio last summer. If I don’t want to put the corid in the water can I just give the lamb an oral dose?

 

[mystang89]

On the bottle of Corrid there should be directions for a drench. I assume that is how @Mike CHS treats when he finds one with it?

Also, not sure if you've seen it but this has to do with corid and possible reasons for goat polio. Also says what to do if you are worried about it.

 

[Robyn8]

On the bottle of Corrid there should be directions for a drench. I assume that is how @Mike CHS treats when he finds one with it?

Also, not sure if you've seen it but this has to do with corid and possible reasons for goat polio. Also says what to do if you are worried about it.

Could you attach the link again? It didn’t show up. Thanks!!