# Fluctuating weight on doe..what gives?



## hscottom87 (Mar 21, 2013)

My 6 mo old doe will be gaining weight great then bam! It's like overnight (no joke!!) she gets to looking skinny & it's like starting all over to get her nice & plump for the show ring. How can this happen so dang quick? Here's her 411: 
Dewormed recently w/ Valbazon & has nice pink eyelids
Poop is very healthy looking & shiny
Fed Purina Impulse w/ bull rations & boss added. Always keeping food in front of her. 
Been giving calf manna for few weeks.
Fresh cold water everyday
Gave big dose of probios when I dewormed.
Give her a shot of bcomplex about once a month

Is it her rumen causing such a drastic fluctuation? I'm stumped!


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## nancy d (Oct 5, 2007)

Sounds like you are on top of everything, could she be going through a growth spurt?
My 6 mo olds are suddenly not eating as much grain & the buck only nibbles, it could be the weather too.


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## 20kidsonhill (Feb 28, 2011)

can you explain it a little more. like she stays on feed just fine? are you sure she is eating a regular amount each day? 
How long is it taking you to put the weight/fullness back on her? 

Does she get any hay or browse?

calf manna can be over done and give them too much protein. Something to think about.


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## Little-Bits-N-Pieces (Apr 7, 2013)

I don't think it's the calf manna, some people creep feed their kids straight manna, no problems there.


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## 20kidsonhill (Feb 28, 2011)

But this doe is 6 months old, and calf manna is 25% protein, that is way above what a 6 month old should be getting. We top dress with a 30% protein ontop a 16.5% goat feed and we do have some problems with bloat and stomach problems if we get carried away with the 30% top dress. Just was talking to someone else also having problems with some scours. But is was just a thought. 
Kids from 0 to like 8 or 12 weeks can handle a 20% protein, but the older they get their protein requirements do go way down. 

You said you wormed her, but what about coccidiosis or something like tapeworms bothering her?


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## hscottom87 (Mar 21, 2013)

She stays on her feed fine. I have started locking her up & her companion goat in barn to finish 3 gallons of feed. Then they get let out to pasture. When the trough is empty I pour more in for them to come back to.It had taken me a couple months to get her plumped up the last time she did this. She gets free choice browse.


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## 20kidsonhill (Feb 28, 2011)

I would worm her more or do a couple fecals on her, especially when she drops the weight. 

Tapeworms need a white wormer
coccidiosis needs to be treated for 5 days in a row with a specific medication/treatment

you mentioned worming her, what do you use? what is your schedule with her?


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

I suspect worms or cooci.

You are feeding her properly.


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## hscottom87 (Mar 21, 2013)

Should I try ivermectin?


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## hscottom87 (Mar 21, 2013)

Can I treAt for cocci as precaution? What should I use?


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## 20kidsonhill (Feb 28, 2011)

you can use Corid, sulfa-dimethoxine, albone(I think that is from a vet), sulmet, and treat for 5 days at the treatment level on the package. They will come in already mixed liquid form or powder form. I find powder form to be cheaper to buy. 
ivermectin is okay, but it wont treat tapeworms, or liver flukes. Can't tell were you are from. But Southern states are in the liver fluke regions. Honestly, I think VAlbazen is a good choice for you to try. a bottle is like $40.00 and it goes a long ways. you can do 1 cc per 20 lbs for 3 days in a row, I see some are suggesting 1 cc per 10 lbs every 10 days for 3 treatments. But pretty much what it amounts to is we are all agreeing your problem is probably worms at this point. 

Lots of people treat for coccidiosis on a regular basis. I can tell mine will perk up after treating. And it has been a very wormy spring and summer for many folks. 

and you could still give her the ivermectin, to really cover all the basis.


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Well said 20kidsonhill


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## hscottom87 (Mar 21, 2013)

I'm from ne Oklahoma. I wish Valbazon came in smaller quantities. I only have 2 goats! Haha!


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## nancy d (Oct 5, 2007)

In that case you can just get a few doses from your vet all drawn up & ready to go.


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## 20kidsonhill (Feb 28, 2011)

After doing a lot of wormer, don't forget the probios to help her rumen get on track. 
Nancy has a great suggestion, that when needing smaller dosages or just a couple dosages getting some from your vet is a good idea.


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## hscottom87 (Mar 21, 2013)

Called the vet this morning about dewormer. They said that the worms are really tough to treat in our area & that they are finding that they have better results w/ cydectin vs valbozen. So much so that they decided to not keep valbazen in stock. Quoted me 25 cents a cc. $15 for the fecal. 
Thoughts?


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Do the fecal first and make sure they also include testing for coccidia. I would be making sure of what I'm treating before just throwing wormer at them. Won't help at all if you are giving the wrong wormer.


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## 20kidsonhill (Feb 28, 2011)

biggest thought is if it is liver flukes cydectin wont help at all, if it is barberpole worms, valbazen might not help much. I would ask your vet about this. If they can tell the difference in the fecal between the two eggs? 15 cc per cc sounds fair. it is like $69.00 for a small bottle of cydectin pour on . which cydectin was he talking about. There is sheep drench, pour on for cattle and injectable, all can be given orally. Or did he want you to give the cydectin injectable as an injection? Things to ask and think about.


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

I agree.


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## hscottom87 (Mar 21, 2013)

They found one little coccidia and 2 little worms (can't remember which off top of my head) so will go ahead & treat for coccidia & deworm. Hopefully this takes care of her fluctuating weight. She was fat as a tick yesterday, today not so much :/ Grrr!!


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## hscottom87 (Mar 21, 2013)

I have it wrote down at home. Whatever it was, he gave me dewormer specifically for it.


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## hscottom87 (Mar 21, 2013)

And thanks for recommending I ask vet for dewormer. The fecal cost me $15 & then dewormer & corid for 2 goats was less than $8!!


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## 20kidsonhill (Feb 28, 2011)

hscottom87 said:


> They found one little coccidia and 2 little worms (can't remember which off top of my head) so will go ahead & treat for coccidia & deworm. Hopefully this takes care of her fluctuating weight. She was fat as a tick yesterday, today not so much :/ Grrr!!


some probios would do her good to help her recover from the deworming.


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## hscottom87 (Mar 21, 2013)

Anyone know how long it will take her to plump up now that she is being treated? Fair time starts in 3 weeks.


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## 20kidsonhill (Feb 28, 2011)

if you get the worms under control, you should be able to do a lot with her in the 3 weeks time as long as she keeps eating. But not sure she will look as good as she could have. not sure how thin she is right now. Don't let her eat grass hay or pasture, keep her on goat grain/manna pro and a little alfalfa hay. Black sunflower seeds and or a flaxseed oil for gaining weight might also help. But making a lot of changes now may just upset her stomach. 
keep giving probios,
put out some baking soda.


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## hscottom87 (Mar 21, 2013)

She was starting to look better then she got skinny again. So frustrated!!


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## 20kidsonhill (Feb 28, 2011)

Very frustrating, sorry to hear that.


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## hscottom87 (Mar 21, 2013)

Maybe it's too soon since treatment & deworming. I think I'll run another fecal to vet?


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## 20kidsonhill (Feb 28, 2011)

I think another fecal is a good idea, that should really help the vet see if the wormer was working.


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## 20kidsonhill (Feb 28, 2011)

Still kind of has me confused how she can be going up and down so much in just a couple days time. Are you sure what you are seeing is not bloat? Her show feed may not be sitting well in her stomach. Did you say you were giving her a little grass hay with her show feed. a handful or two a day? And I know we discussed earlier that she was on a lot of protein.


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## 20kidsonhill (Feb 28, 2011)

you said, "Fed Purina Impulse w/ bull rations & boss added. Always keeping food in front of her."

What is w/bull rations?


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## hscottom87 (Mar 21, 2013)

This is the info on the bull rations. It's a loose feed.


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## hscottom87 (Mar 21, 2013)

She gets turned out into the small pasture everyday for browse. Not sure on bloat, but definitely makes sense as to why so sudden. All I know is she's far from show condition which is frustrating because we've been really trying to get her up to par. At 5 months old she was only 54 lbs. Her rate of gain hasn't even been a half pound a day.


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## 20kidsonhill (Feb 28, 2011)

If you tip the scales with too much protein it will act like the ATkins diet and actually cause them to loose weight. To get her to gain weight(if it is not a parasite problem) you want to lower the protein and up the fat. 
Some genetics do grow slower, Is this a bloodline you have raised before? Have other animals to compare to.


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## Little-Bits-N-Pieces (Apr 7, 2013)

Some don't gain half a pound a day, some only gain a 1/4 of a pound a day. Some lines mature really slow and others are pretty fast growers. In my opinion the slower ones, and the regular growing ones are the better ones. The ones that can get up to 100lbs in 3-4 months break down their joints and skeletal frames too soon. Thats a reason why you see a lot of boers with incredibley weak chines, and pasturns. They simply grew too fast, and its even worse when paired with bad conformation.

Too much protein can be too hot of a feed for them, but I havent noticed weight loss associated with high protein levels. They do make supplements that are 75% protein, or 50% fat so you may want to look into the fat developers.

As long as she is gaining, she is fine. But if she is really skinny and not really gaining, that's an issue.
But like I said, some grow really slow, and some are small framed, some are just genetically short and narrow meaning less size and mass to them.

It can mainly be broken down into four catagories.

1) Genetic makeup
2)Nutrition
3)Worms and Parasites
4) Disease or Virus

So maybe look further into the bloodline, see how her line grows and stacks up compared to other bloodlines.
Make double sure that she has no worms or parasites, disease, or viruses, and make sure she is eating enough


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## hscottom87 (Mar 21, 2013)

Update: It was suggested that her pen was too big. Allowing her too much variety, giving her the choice to be picky about how much feed she would intake. Plus burning extra calories by all the running she did. So just to test this theory, we stuck her in our 12x6 chain link dog pen. It's been 3 days & I can already see improvement.


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## SunnydaleBoers (Jul 28, 2012)

Hopefully that will get her up to par before the fair! I would be very interested to see pictures of her when she's in her good and bad phases though, just to compare (again, hopefully you're done with the bad!)


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## hscottom87 (Mar 21, 2013)

I will update back w/ pictures.


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