Coccidiosis without scours in adult?

[bbredmom]

Has anyone had this happen? My six year old doe went down hard and fast Monday, and was dead in three hours. No previous symptoms, just been wormed with zimectrin gold.

I sent her in for a necropsy, and the only thing bak so far was watery blood in her organs, and a large number of coccidia in her fecals. But she mad extremely normal poo, even mentioned in the necropsy.

 

[OneFineAcre]

I had that happen to a kid this summer, but never an adult.
She was fine that morning, and dead that afternoon. We had a necropsy done as well. With ours the necropsy stated there were formed berries in the rectum as well.

When they initially opened her up they found blood in her intestines. They assumed it was barberpole worms. Pathologist even told us they had seen a lot of goats that summer killed by barberpoles.

But, they found 0 count of barberpoles.

With ours they confirmed heavy load of coccidia in lining of intestine. So, you should wait until the final results.

I thought ours was strange, but with you having an adult animal even stranger.


Sorry for your loss.

 

[Southern by choice]

I agree with One Fine, wait for the final results as it is odd for an adult.

Sorry about your girl.

 

[elevan]

I'm sorry for your loss. A 6 year old with a heavy load of coccidia is unusual...they've usually developed a good immunity by the time they are adults.

 

[bbredmom]

Thanks everyone, we've had a rough year here of similar deaths. Sometimes the goat will be lethargic, but most of the time we just find them dead. This is the second necropsy we've had done. The last one showed no significant parasite loads at all, but again with the watery blood and solid stools. He did have sucking lice (which no one else had) and no fat.

Her prelim report is as follows:

Gross examination: This 6 year old, female goat is in good postmortem condition and is necropsied 17 December 2013. The sclera and mucous membranes exhibit moderate pallor, and the blood within the large vessels is watery.

The carcass is well-muscled, and the subcutaneous and abdominal adipose stores are moderately scant butadequate. The thorax contains negative pressure. The cranial lung lobes are firm, ooze fluid on the cut surface and float just below the formalin. Diffusely, the lungs are dark pink and mildly rubbery. The rumen contains approximately 6 liters of grassy ingesta. Multifocally, the mucosa of the abomasum exhibits mild hyperemia. The small intestine contains small amounts of tan, mucoid digesta. The cecum contains approximately 1 liter of brown-green, pasty
digesta. Multifocally, there is mild hyperemia of the cecal mucosa. The colon contains a moderate amount of solid, moist fecal pellets. The tongue, trachea, esophagus, thyroid, heart, diaphragm, liver, gallbladder, pancreas, spleen, kidneys, adrenal glands, urinary bladder, uterus, ovaries, mammary glands and brain are all grossly unremarkable.

Comments: The cause of death is not evident upon gross examination. Histopathology, fecal examination, aerobic cultures and viral tests are pending and may provide further insight into this case.

Mycobacterium paratuberculosis PCR Ginger Feces Negative

Ehrlichia/Anaplasma PCR Ginger Spleen Negative

Fecal Flotation Ginger Feces * POSITIVE *

Eimeria (many)
Strongyles (moderate)

Fecal - Direct Smear Ginger Feces None Observed

I'm going to call tomorrow and ask if they will be getting me more exact numbers on the fecals.

Its just been a crappy year

 

[ksalvagno]

While adults usually don't have a problem with coccidia, it can happen. It should never be ruled out just because they are an adult. And you can have a very high coccidia amount without diarrhea in either kids or adults.

Sorry about losing your girl.

 

[20kidsonhill]

I have heard of several cases of cocci in adults this fall, Way later in the year than you normally would hear about it. Very sorry for such a tough year. We also had a couple tough losses and are looking forward to a better year next year.

 

[bbredmom]

The state vet just called me to go over the results (they are super nice down there) and said she eliminated pneumonia and enterotoxemia. She also doesn't feel it was barberpole worms because while there was slight anemia, the worm load and anemia levels were not high enough. She's going to look at the tissues and bacterial cultures today and tomorrow.

So should I treat the others for cocci? I just ran fecals like two weeks ago and didn't see anything, but now I am completely paranoid. I have never had parasote problems until this year, and truly not until I bought the goat that just died.

 

[elevan]

A lot can change in 2 weeks. I'd have fecals run again and decide whether or not to treat for coccidia based on those results. Are you doing the fecals yourself or having a vet do them? Coccidia requires a slighter longer float time than other parasites to show up.

 

[bbredmom]

I've been doing them myself and having the vet randomly verify my results (so far pretty good, yay biology degree finally paying off) so i will run them again this week.