Author Topic: Sudden death- any ideas? (Read 4058 times)

funkyfish · « **on:** December 23, 2012, 07:47:38 pm »

Just had my friend on the phone, she has lost a few goats this year very suddenly- any ideas what could cause it? I look after her lot when she works away so have got quite attached to them!

It started in the spring with an adult Pygmy. Absolutely fine one minuet and dead a few hours later.
Then 4 out of 8 bought in youngsters within days of each other- a couple had mild scour then dead- they were bottle fed but weaned ones.
Then an adult billy of about 4 years old- not kept any where near the others or ever graze where they had been. I found him fitting then he died before I could finish dialing the vets number.

Now a youngster kept in stable with others found dead this am. Stable has small yard out side for them to go into as well.
They are on course mix and haylage with a lick bucket.

All year round they have access to a lick bucket. Some have scoured some have not.
She home Post mortum one- and nothing obvious.

All wormed and vaccinated.

Any ideas?

plumseverywhere · « **Reply #1 on:** December 23, 2012, 08:04:35 pm »

Is there anyway that these goats could be accessing something toxic in their grazing? There are some plants/trees that can cause very sudden death (eg. rhodedendren ?sp) really sad for you and your friend, how horrible $:-\$

I did read a link saying that even with vaccination we cannot always be 100% of preventing clostridial disease, I wonder if your friend might consider having a vet PM the latest goat to die. Better to find out once and for all what is causing these deaths (or at least try as hard as possible to) or it will keep happening.

Anke · « **Reply #2 on:** December 23, 2012, 09:04:17 pm »

What is she vaccinating with and how often? Both enterotoxeamia and pasteurella can cause sudden death, and there may not be that many external symptoms...
I have had a goat kid dying within less than 24 hours, only sign was some diarrhoea at lunchtime (but he was up and about all afternoon), by the evening I noticed that his pupils were not dilating as it got darker in the shed, but was sure he did see me. took him to the vet who didn't find anything wrong with him. Gave AB's and AI's - but he died next morning being in horrible pain and screaming. It was awful. And he had been vaccinated in the summer with a double shot of Lambivac... so this year it seems that there are more deaths (also heard similar for lambs/sheep) which point to clostridial and/or pasteurella (not sure if this one comes under clostridial) disease despite up-to-date vaccination.
Maybe our animals are just under enormous stress due to this constant bad weather, no sunshine to speak of etc etc - also possibly causing lack of vitamins, grass/hay quality is not very good... so many reasons/possibilities $:-\$
Not sure if PM on enterotox is usually conclusive, we only do a PM if a second animal dies under similar circumstances.
I have re-boostered all my goat kids with Lambivac and also given Ovipast+ to all my goats, including the adults. Not re-done the lambs and doing a head count every morning... so far all still there.

littlelugs · « **Reply #3 on:** December 23, 2012, 09:09:57 pm »

Sorry to hear about your friends luck.When we first moved to our place we lost two goats within 2wks of each other. The first was an old goat so we thought old age.
However the second was only a youngster it was then that we had a pm done- it came back as fluke with both goats there was no signs, no scours, no nothing.
We fluked the rest immediatley and

we havent had anymore problems in the last year or so. Due to the wet weather areas that previously have had no fluke are now teeming with fluke so i would always recommend fluking them we unfortunatley learned a hard/painful lesson.
Hope this can be of some help.

colliewoman · « **Reply #4 on:** December 23, 2012, 10:59:59 pm »

Clostridia can cause sudden death too, my lamb fitted whilst we were at the vets and died moments later. The vets said it is rife this year as one strain is found in the earth, and it being so wet animals are dropping like flies with it

Vaccinate em if you haven't and revaccinate if you have. Good luck

wytsend · « **Reply #5 on:** December 24, 2012, 06:49:47 am »

Coccidiosis would be my first thoughts. Apparently there has been a dramatic rise this year in all manner of livestock thought to be weather related.
I always dose my kids at 4 wks old and then again at 6mths. Pregnant goats are done 3 weeks before kidding to reduce incidence in kids.
Symptoms of cocci is mostly sudden death........confirmation would need to be done by a Vet.
Trouble with Cocci ...is most of the damage is unseen with no outward symptoms.

earlybird · « **Reply #6 on:** December 24, 2012, 04:49:55 pm »

please, what do
you dose with wytsend

wytsend · « **Reply #7 on:** December 24, 2012, 05:25:33 pm »

Vecoxan....which you can buy without a prescription...from most agriculturalsuppliers. Not cheap, around £110 for 1 litre. But if it saves lives then it could said to be the right price. !!

earlybird · « **Reply #8 on:** December 24, 2012, 07:02:43 pm »

thanks, got some earlier this year with your advice when we had an outbreak with the young ones, still was not sure how often after the initial dose, good advice for the pregnant ones will be following that near due dates, cocci was the worst thing we have had to deal with so far, so heartbreaking, and the feeling of being absolutley helpless, the vecozan did help and im sure it was that that helped save some lives, thanks

funkyfish · « **Reply #9 on:** December 26, 2012, 08:48:55 pm »

Thanks for the good advice and suggestions- it now appears that not all the goaties were vaccinated last year which makes sense!

All (but those in kid) are now vaccinated- hopefully no more losses!