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Best goat sounds12/8/2023 ![]() ![]() If you find that a kid with other symptoms of pneumonia has a high fever, you can give him 1/4-1/2 of a baby aspirin. When this happens the kid may recover, but will be prone to further bouts of pneumonia, development of a chronic cough, and may not grow as well as healthy kids. Time is of the essence in treating pneumonia in kids because if it isn’t detected and treated early, their lungs may get damaged. This is easier to detect in bottle-fed kids for obvious reasons. The first sign is their loss of interest in nursing. They tend to lose weight, become lethargic, develop a runny nose and rapid breathing and run a moderate fever. Young kids are of particular concern because they can die quickly once they get pneumonia. Other factors that can lead to pneumonia include living conditions-overcrowding, lack of ventilation and lack of cleanliness stress-travel, being suddenly removed from their mother, or even chased by children or another condition that has injured the lungs-such as lungworms or a virus. This is one reason it is essential for newborns to receive goat colostrum. While newborn kids are exposed to the bacteria by their mothers and other goats, they also receive antibodies in colostrum, which helps to keep them healthy. The dosage is 2 ml subcutaneously (SQ) twice, two weeks apart. If you are interested, Colorado Serum Company makes a vaccine for this. I have never vaccinated my goats against pneumonia and have not found it to be a problem. Goatkeepers with larger herds sometimes vaccinate their goats against bacteria that cause pneumonia, but in small herds, it is uncommon enough that the cost and trouble may not be justified. (A caveat here: if you only have a few goats and they have never been separated, you may determine that it is too stressful on the sick goat to separate her from her family.) This serves two purposes: It keeps the other goats safe from getting the illness and it keeps the ill goat from getting bullied by others when he is down. When a goat does get sick, isolate her from others. Make sure they have a good diet, with adequate minerals and fresh water. Make sure that goats have proper shelter and can get out of the elements when they need to. )Īs with many health issues in goats, management is the key to preventing pneumonia. (Read the excellent article on Mycoplasma at. Mycoplasma pneumonia is highly contagious and can be spread to kids through milk. The drug of choice for treating mycoplasma-related pneumonia is tylosin, or Tylan. It also causes some of the same symptoms as CAEV, including inflammation of the joints, the udder, and the eye. It can cause a contagious caprine pleuropneumonia in goats. It is not a true virus and is not easily cured with antibiotics. Mycoplasma is a particularly frightening cause of pneumonia in goats. Treatment is 2X the cattle dose of Valbazen for three consecutive days, or 2X the cattle dose of Ivermectin for three consecutive days. A special fecal analysis, called a Baermann, must be done to definitively diagnose lungworms. Lungworms cause a dry cough, which is easily treated, although it may leave the goat with a chronic cough if they are severe enough. They are killed by hot water and hard freezes, but because they use snails and slugs in their development cycle, they thrive in cool, wet conditions. They are most common in the cooler months and are spread when larvae are coughed up, or when they are released in the feces and then mature. Lungworms can also chronically irritate the lungs, leading to pneumonia. ![]() Unfortunately, these cannot be cured and will eventually debilitate and kill a goat. The lentiviruses, which cause ovine progressive pneumonia (OPPV) and caprine arthritis encephalitis (CAEV), can lead to chronic pneumonia in goats. Viruses are common in goats and can sometimes increase susceptibility to respiratory infections by inflaming the throat and lungs. In goats, the most common bacteria that cause pneumonia are Mannheimia haemolytica and Pasteurella motocida. It is only when they have other stressors that they are unable to stop an overgrowth. Mammals normally have bacteria in their lungs. The most common cause of pneumonia is a bacterial infection. (If you have a stethoscope, use that.) If your goat has pneumonia, you may be able to hear crackles when she breathes. Next, put your head down to the goat’s side, back a little from the shoulder and listen to the lungs. ![]()
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