# Can kids with coccidiosis ever be 100% healthy later?



## Melinda29 (Apr 19, 2016)

After years of goat keeping, I am dealing with my first ever kid who I *think* has coccidiosis (vet is coming soon to check her out). She started scouring the day after she got here, but never severely. She is hunched over, not very active, and not eating much. She also seems very small to me (14 pounds at 5 weeks old for a purebred Saanen) so maybe she was already infected when we bought her.

IF she does have cocci, I keep reading that the goat will be permanently scarred, never grow to 100% of what she should have because the scarring inhibits nutrient absorption, and will always be unthrifty. Is this true?

To answer the inevitible questions: I have already given her Vitamin B shot and proBios in her bottles. Her temp in normal and she had a CDT shot before coming here.

I'm just wondering if I get her treated quickly, is there still a chance she will get to be 100% of her full potential some day? Or is the damage done and she'll never be as good as she could have been?


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## Ranger1 (Sep 1, 2014)

How long have you had her? It really depends on how long you think she's had coccidia, though of course, there still is a CHANCE, no matter what. 
Yes, 14 pounds at 5 weeks old is small-I expect that from a two week old kid maybe, but not older than that, unless she was a premie or hard starter at birth.


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## Korita (Jan 11, 2018)

I’m curious as well. I got 2 bucklings from a guy that gets them from a dairy (one saanen and one alpine) and both got cocci. They are now about 4-5 months old and look more like pygmys in my opinion. My Laboer/Oberhasli kids that are only about 1.5 months old are about as tall as them. I didn’t know if this was due to the younger kids being dam raised vs bottle fed or what. But now I would like to know if the cocci is maybe a part of it. 

I hope your girl grows well!


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## goatblessings (Jan 6, 2015)

For me, the important part is to keep up with prevention and treating if necessary by running fecals every 3 weeks or so. Many times a one time treatment will not be sufficient. Also keep an eye on wormload. If the kids weren't horrible with the #, I would think that with good management they should grow fine. The important part is to keep this at bay while they are growing.


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## TooManyBoers (Oct 19, 2017)

Melinda29 said:


> After years of goat keeping, I am dealing with my first ever kid who I *think* has coccidiosis (vet is coming soon to check her out). She started scouring the day after she got here, but never severely. She is hunched over, not very active, and not eating much. She also seems very small to me (14 pounds at 5 weeks old for a purebred Saanen) so maybe she was already infected when we bought her.
> 
> IF she does have cocci, I keep reading that the goat will be permanently scarred, never grow to 100% of what she should have because the scarring inhibits nutrient absorption, and will always be unthrifty. Is this true?
> 
> ...


It probably depends on each individual but treating her quickly will definitely give her more chance. Arguably though she might be a little smaller even if you catch it early. If she's had it for a while she may always be somewhat small.


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## Damfino (Dec 29, 2013)

I've never dealt with cocci myself either, but I think as long as it's caught and treated when they are young, there's no reason why they won't grow to their genetic potential. As long as those growth plates are still there and the gut isn't permanently damaged, I can't see any reason why a healthy goat won't catch up as it matures.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

I’m sure it depends on how bad they have had it but also how much they are, I guess pampered, taken care of, after. Example here: my first ever cocci kid had it BAD. She was dinky, most people would have probably said knock that poor thing in the head. She was my girl, want gonna happen! So I treated her, put her up for a few months and gave extras. She is now 4. She is short, most people would probably look at her and wonder why I have her but she is also way better looking then some I have seen that didn’t have cocci. She seems to get thin when she has kids but she also has AMAZING kids. The first time I bred her I was super nervous about it but I couldn’t afford to keep 100 pets so I bred her and she pushed those huge kids out like they were nothing! Probably because although short she still was a decently wide doe with big hips.
Now the second one. I really pampered her! She was also dinky and nasty. She then became my sons sons doe to show for the fair so she got pampered some more. You can’t tell there was anything ever wrong with her, she also won 4th out of a class of almost 20 (I want to say 17 in the class) she didn’t get 4th because she was dinky or nasty simply because from her hips to pins were short which was going to be her no matter what happened in her life. She is still a fat turd and acrully is bigger then her twin who was good lol


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## Melinda29 (Apr 19, 2016)

Ranger1 said:


> How long have you had her? It really depends on how long you think she's had coccidia, though of course, there still is a CHANCE, no matter what.
> Yes, 14 pounds at 5 weeks old is small-I expect that from a two week old kid maybe, but not older than that, unless she was a premie or hard starter at birth.


I've had her one week today. I asked the questions from the breeders via email, but my husband picked her up. I probably wouldn't have taken her home if I had picked her up myself, as she seemed so tiny for a Saanen. The breeder has a dairy and her does have the udders and milk production I want, and she tests for the diseases I wanted tested, and she was in my state, so that's why I bought from her. But she has over 200 goats and is not very helpful at answering emails. It never occurred to me before buying this goat to ask if she had cocci prevention-I assumed that ALL reputable breeders do that. So I really have no idea how long she may have been fighting it.


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## Melinda29 (Apr 19, 2016)

Damfino said:


> I've never dealt with cocci myself either, but I think as long as it's caught and treated when they are young, there's no reason why they won't grow to their genetic potential. As long as those growth plates are still there and the gut isn't permanently damaged, I can't see any reason why a healthy goat won't catch up as it matures.


I thought that cocci permanently damages the gut. Does it not?


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

It all depends on if they were left too long, without treatment. If you are on it, the damage is minimal. 

You will find out soon after treatment, if they grow and gain weight, as to if it was left too long or not.

No growth, not much weight gain, tells you the goat will be stunted and scaring happened.


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Melinda29 said:


> I thought that cocci permanently damages the gut. Does it not?


 If the damage is severe, you are correct, they will not grow.

If it was less damage they can absorb some, but do not grow as well.


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## Melinda29 (Apr 19, 2016)

I gave her Sulfamethazine last night when I realized she might has coccidiosis, but the vet can’t come to run a fecal until this evening. Will a fecal still be accurate 24 hours after treating if it was cocci? Or did I just screw up any chance of getting an accurate diagnosis? And since I gave proBios powder in today’s bottles, did I just undo any affect the Sulfa might have had on the cocci?


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

I personally would rather treat it then worry about a unreliable fecal. I think even then there will still be eggs (is it called eggs with cocci?) in the stool to show for it since your not killing that your killing the next stage which is what is doing the harm. I have no clue on your second question though


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## Korita (Jan 11, 2018)

toth boer goats said:


> If the damage is severe, you are correct, they will not grow.
> 
> If it was less damage they can absorb some, but do not grow as well.


I don't mean to hijack your thread Melinda29 but you kind of asked the same question so I'm hoping you don't mind.

With hers being a doe, would she still breed successfully and would the kids have anything passed onto them from it such as stunted growth, low birth weight, production, etc? Then also, would that affect the kids a buck throws that had coccidia?


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

Unless the doe is very unthrifty over the cocci and can’t keep weight on
Like she should, it shouldn’t bother the kids she produces. Same thing with a buck. With any unthrifty and thin animal it’s going to effect breeding, raising kids and also sperm count.


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Jessica84 said it well, I agree.

Giving probios powder, at the same time, may of effected the med from doing it's full job.

When doing cocci treatment or prevention, I give the probiotics and fortified vit B complex the day after full treatment. Not during, unless a goat is acting off.
Usually, I don't and have never had an issue, not following up.

With giving any meds and giving probiotics, if you must give it, it is best to give it a few hours after or at better yet, at the end of the day. 
But IMO, it is not needed if the goat is acting OK.


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## NicoleV (Dec 12, 2015)

You can do your own fecal with just a cheap hobby level or school level microscope. Mine was less than $200 shipped and it has already paid for itself. You don't need a crazy lens either, I can see coccidia at the 10x level doing a fecal smear. There's a lot of resources online about how to do a fecal egg float as well. You don't need the fancy float solution either, you can just saturate the water with table sugar, or Epsom salt. 

Then you don't have to wait for a vet and you can check her poop every day if you wanted to! Lol, not that you would actually do that, but you know what I mean!


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## Audrey LeRoux (Apr 3, 2018)

So, I had this doe who had triplets (2b/1d) in March of 2016. one of the boys was pulled from the doe to put on a bottle and the other boy and the doe were left on. A few weeks later, my friend who was caring for them at the time (we had an extremely hard winter so I "boarded" the girls) informed me that the doe had a poopy butt. He would give her a series of Baytril to clear her up. Ok, fast forward to June. I went to go pick up the remaining goats I had over at his place and the doe kid was so sickly, I don't even have words to describe her. Her entire ass end was so caked in dried crap, and the flies were all over her. She looked like she should be dead. I immediately called my vet and made an appointment to bring her in the following day. 
At 3 months old, the twin buckling that was also left on the doe was over 70# and this 3 month old doe kid weighed only 17#!!! She was severely overrun with cocci. And she was dam raised so was wild beyond hell which made giving her antibiotics 3x a day an amazing experience. Once she got a clean bill of health, there was no way that I could sell her. How would I explain to someone that a 4 month old doe was the size of a month old kid. So, I ended up keeping her. She got good food and was given time to grow. She did catch up with her size. I ended up showing her last year as a dry yearling and she actually took home a Grand Champion. She really is a lovely doe and for her first year being bred, she gave me a beautiful triplets! 
I can't say that the situation would turn out that way for everyone, but it did for me thankfully. She should be dead. I put all my kids on a cocci prevention program with her in mind!


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## TooManyBoers (Oct 19, 2017)

Wow, what an amazing girl! I must say this is why I don’t trust other people with my tinies!  Two of mine got cocci pretty bad this year, a doeling and a buckling. The buckling looks like it hit him hard, he was gonna be sold as an unregistered (part bred) breeding Male but now he’s not thriving as much as he was.  Touchwood though the doe is doing ok, so hopefully she can still be one of my breeders!


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