---start---- sheep and goats 11/16 one thing she forgot to talk about before was plant toxicity. most common in east are rhododendron and azalea toxicity. yew is also common - yew bush is very fatal. causes sudden death from cardiac complications. with rhododendron, they vomit. this is the most common cause of vomiting in sheep and goats. tx depends on how much it is vomiting, how sick it is. if profuse, very sick - do rumenotomy and remove plant material. usually they didn't eat that much and all you do is give some dexamethasone and watch for vomiting to stop. usually just off feed a day or so, a bit depressed, oh, give a vitamin shot too. sometimes they vomit, stop, look fine, then vomit again -t hen you go to surgery. if you do this in the field under local, sometimes they vomit while you're operating so that's not good, they can aspirate, so now it's considered best to send them to surgery with general anesthesia and intubation to protect the airway. tubing and charcoal is common, hard to do in goats. most clients do not know about these plants being toxic. what you do is look around the facility on your first visit and point out the toxic plants to the owner. rule of thumb - do not let sheep and goats eat any ornamental plants. slide: rhododendron goats also like to eat Christmas trees. those are usually ok. seems safe. so, going back to the case we were working on... the sheep that was down, 3yr old ewe, had her lambs a few days ago and is lying down, anemic, etc. talked about giving blood 10ml/kg. this was in August. there were 2 ewes and five lambs on pasture. lambs were weaning age. how do you explain why this happened to ewe and not lambs? ewe had haemonchus; she's lactating so she's susceptible...lambs are nursing so they don't have it b/c they haven't grazed enough to be so heavily parasitized. case: 5 month old pygmy goat buck client calls, buck has had diarrhea for four days, eating well, not growing well. well managed herd, 35 goats in herd, buck living in pen with 10 other animals mostly adults. vaccinations/deworming up to date no new goats in. dewormers are rotated diet free choice hay, 1/2 pound/head/day grain and minerals (goat chow) no one else is sick size of pen? less than 1/4 acre - small pen. ddx: parasite? well, he's not grazing but could get it from eating off the ground, from water but that isn't likely since not drinking from stream. BAR, mms slightly pale, TPR ok, H/L ok, rumen ok, round belly, rough haircoat, not growing well (small, rough haircoat, big round belly). HR 90-120 WNL btw (goat) dx: fecal exam, PCV, TS, blood selenium level while waiting for test results... tx: ivermectin, vitamin B, vit E/selenium, coccidiostat fecal: lots of eimeria. blood Se high normal, WBC normal, PCV 24, TS 4 (anemic, hypoproteinemic) tx: strongid PO, SMZ PO SIDE, probiocin SID (like yogurt) diarrhea didn't resolve over 2 wks. wt loss continued. was euthanized due to financial constraints. necropsy: tapeworms - usually we think of these as not causing problems but they obviously can. this case went on over about 4 wks...he was in the hospital, we did all kinds of tests. big bummer. what was the deal with the eimeria? they went down in number after we treated him. but normal goats often have coccidia in there. what works for tapeworms ? Albendazole (valbazen - cattle dewormer) 5 mo old alpine goat kid: you are the vet at the nat'l dairy goat show. you have to check incoming goats for signs of dz. one goat went down within ten minutes of arrival and looks really bad. recumbent, weak. lying on sternum, head stretched out. other goat kids her age ok. T 102, HR 120, RR 16 mm pale, no scleral injection, rumen motility normal, no nasal d/c or cough, dried feces near tail. owner is hysterical. was on the road about 3 days but stopped often. plenty of water and hay on the road. dewormed with ivermectin 4 wks ago currently too weak to stand no diet changes plan: get goat blood and give to patient you have to call a vet hospital get IV cath, infusion sets, heparin, bag to put blood in, filter, needle, syringe, panacur, strongid... ddx: haemonchus, abomasal ulcer, trauma we gave transfusion, strongid. this animal wouldn't make it to referral center. she died as we were putting cath in - took 40 minutes to get supplies. could euthanize w/nolvasan, btw spiral colon/terminal small intestine full of blood. she bled out into that part of her bowel. no blood anywhere else. what parasite makes them bleed into the bowel? coccidia parasite control: parasites are one of the most serious problems faced by producers h.contortus here is the most common nematode eimeria common in young goat kids and lambs eimeria a really common problem in kid rearing it's a dynamic situation and everything changes year to year with weather etc client education is important - teach them about susceptibility (lactating moms, young animals, drylot aniamls) and immunity; life cycles, prepatent periods (3 wks), environmental influences continual surveillance is needed by client and veterinarian. reality on most farms: limited pasture space so no safe pasture exists. pasture rotation is difficult to do. animals often graze heavily contaminated pastures. danger period occurs late in summer, early fall, when many clients forget to deworm. haemonchosis animals often come in really sick, PCV die, then die... ---break--- parasite program visit farm - look at: available pasture space how is feed delivered overall cleanliness of facility groupings of animals stocking rates in pens, pastures. goals: decrease production losses, minimize anthelmintic use (though resistance not a huge problem here) three approaches: tactical program: dewormings concentrated in danger times - late summer, early fall. this allows big buildup of larvae on pasture in spring. this method allows you to deworm animals "when they need it" - not a good program strategic program: Dr. Johnstone's method. dewormings are strategically performed in winter and spring. this prevents the spring buildup of larvae on pasture, but often fails during the danger period of late summer due to lack of clean pasture. remember - you deworm at lambing or a month before (which is in winter). then, the clean animals go out on pasture. then deworm while on pasture every 3 weeks, four times. from Mid-April to July. then move to safe pasture. this has stopped you from getting contamination on the first pasture, but do you have a second "safe" pasture? one that was plowed under, reseeded, and grazed by another species for two years or idled for two years? this is best in terms of using fewer drugs, but fails as noted. traditional program: animals are dewormed monthly throughout the grazing season. relies heavily on anthelmintics for control. this is what we do on problem farms. this works, we do this til november 1st. we want people to then deworm once midwinter, too. recommendations: sheep: stress pasture rotation monitor fecal egg counts (controversial)(doesn't tell you much ) consider dry lot confinement for market lambs being creep fed be flexible clients tend to tell you anthelmintics do not work - usually b/c they aren't giving enough. but if they are and you do fecal egg counts before and after (10 days after) you should see 85% suppression in fecal egg count if it is working. clients do tend to underdose, though. dairy goats: anthelmintics can't be used in lactating goats. so...monitor fecal egg counts. deworm does with ivermectin at drying off (and do not tell the milk inspector). discourage intensive grazing in lactating does. manage kids similar to lambs. companion animal owners: healthy adults in small nonbreeding groups do not need frequent deworming - once or twice a year is all. but if they bring a new animal in, they need to deworm. case: 7 yr old ramboulet wether. client calls b/c his pet wether is sick, not eating x 2 days. only sheep on farm. never sick before. no changes in life, diet - grass, hay, cookies, potato chips. vaccinated and wormed regularly (neighbor comes over once a year to do it) only sheep owner has ever had confined on long rope. has doghouse.no access to poison plants client takes him for walks. other pets? cats and dogs vaccinated for rabies and csomething. no mineral supplements PE: depressed, trying to get away. Sunday was seen by one of our vets who asked her to go see him b/c she couldn't figure it out. smells funny T 105.6, HR 60 wool on neck looks weird - different color. looking under wool didn't show anything. looking for bite, abscess, worms there were three maggots in the water bucket. there were a LOT of maggots on the neck. tx: shear, clean off maggots, kill maggots, antibiotics given where he lives (suburb) - suggest flyspray, suggest keeping him sheared (usually shears once a year) we had to hospitalize this sheep - had maggots all the way down his back - like a foot and a half patch of maggots and dead skin. clip, scrub, remove maggots, apply screw bomb spray but not too much b/c can kill them. why did this happen? could have been a bite wound. could have been abrasion from a collar. dirty wool from diarrhea. other. he didn't have a bite wound. didn't have diarrhea on his neck. collar was ok. owner was bathing this sheep once weekly, btw - probably his skin never dried out. that could have contributed to the problem. sheep grazing really nice grass also get fly strike. out west, people will dip the sheep a few times in the summer - can make them swim or put them under sprinklers or something. case: - not writing this down- ----end----