Goat-Info.com
Disclaimer : I am not a vet. Although I may suggest medications, dosages, and treatments for animals, you should always have a vet, use a vet, and consult a vet.
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Cocci the baby killer Wednesday, October 19, 2011 |
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Cocci (Coccidia, Coccidosis) Opinion - Have you ever bought an adult goat that was just a hard keeper? Have you had baby goats that just didn't mature like the rest of your babies? Have you seen others goats that just are not as big as they maybe should be for their age? Of course some lines mature slower or faster than others, I know. However, my belief is that most of us in the goat world do not pay close enough attention to our #1 rival Cocci! In my opinion 90% of baby goats that "don't make it" die as a direct result of cocci. Most all "unthrifty"/ "hard keepers", are a direct result of cocci. You may be asking yourself, "why does he think that"? "Nearly everyone I know treats for cocci". And you may treat for cocci. The question here is if your cocci prevention program is working. In the article "Coccidosis in cattle - part 3" Dr. Jerry Bertoldo DVM states "Remember, if you are responding only to clinical cases, you are missing 95% of affected animals in need of cocci control". I agree with him 100%. You might be saying to yourself, "well that is in cattle", and you would be right. However, the long time booming cattle business is our #1 source of information. Goats simply have not been studied like cattle which are also a ruminant with many of the same issues to deal with. We as goat producers need to pay close attention to the cattle industry, they have a vast knowledgebase which we can learn much from.
Fact - How do I get cocci and what is the life cycle? Cocci is a single celled protozoa parasite that infects the intestinal tract. The egg or oocyst are ingested, soon after they have attached to the small intestinal wall and are preparing to reproduce. By the time cocci has reached the large intestine they have reproduced 2 times, and it is the 2nd generation that enters into the large intestine. It is the infection in the large intestine that actually produces clinical signs of coccidosis (hunching goat, diarrhea, bloody diarrhea, loss of appetite, etc..). Once in the large intestine cocci reproduces once again to form the oocyst (egg) that is then passed out and onto the ground (or water trough, feed trough). The oocyst goes through one last stage (sporulation) before once again being ready to infect another host. This sporulation with the proper conditions (warm and moist) may only take 24 hrs or less (longer for colder conditions). At this point obviously the cycle starts all over once again. Complicated right? The important points to take note of here are pretty simple. 1) Oocyst (eggs) are shed through feces onto the ground. I hear many people ask if it is ok to have chickens with my goats. Not in my opinion. Chickens have a tendency to roost on water buckets, feed troughs, and many other places a goat might lick after walking through fecal-contaminated dirt, effectively spreading the oocyst to a convenient location for a goat to ingest more oocyst. Don't feed your goats off the ground, keep water buckets clean, clean pens and stalls regularly. 2) By the time you actually see signs of cocci it is in the large intestine, and has already effectively infected the small intestine. In other words by the time you see it, your goats is full of cocci! Look back at the last paragraph of the "opinion" section...
Treatment - How do you treat for cocci? The best answer is a prevention program. Baby goats have to be 2-3 weeks old before they can start having clinical signs of cocci. At what age do you begin your prevention program if you have one? The next time you will see clinical signs would be about 3-4 weeks later (approximate life cycle of cocci). All goats carry cocci! Adults usually are not adversely affected by cocci, but in severe cases they can be. If you think your adults have a heavy load of cocci take a fecal sample to your vet. If your fecal testing shows an over load of cocci (over 200 per gram) steps will need to be taken quickly. Now that we have been over what it is, how you get it, and the severity of the issue, lets talk about medications and sanitation . There are two categories of medications that can be used, "stats" and "cidals". "Stats" are usually additives in feed such as Decoxx and Rumensin, these DO NOT KILL cocci. However, they do subdue the cocci. In other words they steal their energy effectively slowing them to a crawl, and weakening them. The "cidal(s)" (sulfa drugs such as Di-methox, SMZ-TMP and CoRid) are killers! This is not to say that they will kill all life stages, they won't nor is it necessary. The idea here is to leave some behind to help build a resistance kind of like a vaccine works. As far as sanitation goes there are only a couple of ways to kill cocci in the environment. Heat, sunlight, and ammonia. It pays to make sure the watering and feeding areas stay as dry as possible. Clean your baby areas(if you have them) regularly with ammonia. Most experts do not recommend babies staying in close proximity to adults if you are having cocci outbreaks in your young goats on a regular basis. So how do I use these medications? It is my practice to creep feed our babies here and they are fed a pellet with a coccistat in it. The use of the coccistat helps to keep the cocci loads as low as possible. We utilize a Deccox-M product in milk for our bottle babies to get them on therapeutic levels of coccistat right away. The babies also start the prevention program @ 10-14 days old (Di-methox 40% liquid administered @ 1cc/5lbs on the 1st day and then 1cc/10lbs for 4 more days) then this is repeated around 3 weeks later, this may vary depending upon the goat. Of course if you see clinical signs of cocci begin treatment ASAP. Here I reserve a drug like SMZ-TMP for a real emergency. It is quite effective and in my opinion should only be used when you really really need it.
Warnings - Not all coccistats are created equal! Do your homework. It is usually fatal to mix coccistats! Be sure you do your homework! Again if you somehow missed my disclaimer, I am not a vet, even though I recommend medications. Have a vet! Use a vet!
Closing Statements - I hope this article has been informative, and can help improve your production in your herd as well as the quality of the goats you produce. You may have the absolute best feeding program known to mankind, but if your cocci prevention program is lacking your goats nutritional intake will suffer greatly due to the scarring of the intestinal wall caused by cocci. Remember, you only get out of your goats what you put into them. |
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