Goat coughs: causes and home treatments, prevention

Today, many people move from the city to the countryside and start housekeeping. Therefore, goat breeding has become a popular activity, because they are much easier to care for than cows. But content errors and inattention lead to problems. For example, if a goat starts coughing, it could be for a variety of reasons, all of which the breeder needs to know about.

Possible Causes of Cough in Goats

An animal may cough with the development of diseases, poor care, or under the influence of other factors. Cough is a reflex that allows you to protect the bronchi and lungs of a goat from irritants. So it arises:

in case of accidental inhalation of dust;
in a fetal female, when the fetus begins to press on the diaphragm;
if the pet choked on hay or branches;
with helminthic invasions.

Cough, in the first three cases, passes quickly, when infected with worms, it is necessary to give medicine to the entire livestock. For prophylactic purposes, anthelmintics are used quarterly.

Containment Breach

It's more difficult if the cough is due to illness or content errors. One or more animals can suffer from a cold, the development of various kinds of pneumonia threatens to affect the entire livestock. There are many prerequisites for the development of a cold:

cold and strong drafts in the goat house;
walking animals in frost or dew;
water too cold to drink;
walking in rainy or windy weather in spring and autumn.

Cold animal sneezes and coughs, if left untreated, nasal discharge begins, the disease can develop into bronchial pneumonia. Drafts should be eliminated, animals should be provided with thick bedding. Goats should not be in a damp, dark and cold room. A balanced diet, the presence of vitamins (fish oil, bone meal), allow you to get a he althy livestock.

Important: adults and young animals should be kept separately. Walk according to weather conditions. Contact your veterinarian for sneezing and coughing.

Water too cold

The goat needs free access to drinking water. Lack of fluid causes a decrease in milk yield and other problems. In the autumn-winter period and early spring, animals can catch a cold by consuming too cold water. If the goat is coughing but eating well, no discharge from the nose and no fever, cold water may be causing the cough.In winter and in the off-season, it is better to warm it up.

Wrong walking

The goat needs to move and run a lot. In the absence of walking, the animal withers, becomes lethargic, gives less milk, and obesity may develop. However, walking goats in too windy, rainy weather or with a significant drop in temperature, leaving them without shelter for a long time, should not be. The goat has a cold and cough and needs treatment.

Infectious diseases

Cough is often a sign of infectious diseases. That is why, if the animal coughs heavily, eats poorly, it should be placed in a separate enclosure and a veterinarian should be called, who will clarify the cause and prescribe treatment.

Pleuropneumonia

Transmitted by airborne droplets, develops as a result of cold and dampness, crowding, weakness of animals. It is characterized by an increase in temperature up to 42 ° C, the occurrence of shortness of breath, trembling and dry cough.Then the duration of the cough increases, it becomes wet, then mucus begins to come out of the nose, sometimes containing blood. 7-10 days after the onset of the disease, the animal dies.

The disease is treated with antibiotics (for example, "Tetracycline"), has a high mortality rate. In case of mass infection, quarantine measures are taken.

Broncho-pneumonia

Most often due to content errors. Animals have a temperature, become lethargic, cough, lose their appetite. There is a flow of mucus from the nose. Treatment is with antibiotics and expectorants. The goat is separated from the herd, transferred to a dry warm room, provided with warm drink and good food.

Echinococcosis

A disease caused by worms. Cestodes are localized in the lungs and liver, forming blisters that grow over time and compress the infected organ. Discovered upon opening. Echinococcosis can cause coughing if cestodes enter the animal's lungs.

The main source of infection is the feces of dogs, less often - cats. Sick goats become lethargic, their productivity decreases, and their appetite decreases. In order to prevent animal diseases, all dogs on the farm should be systematically anthelmintic, they should not be allowed into the barn and places of slaughter. Carefully check the condition of the internal organs of livestock after slaughter. Treatment of goats is ineffective and is not carried out. Sick animals are sent for slaughter.

Dictyocaulosis

Caused by nematodes that parasitize the lungs of artiodactyls. Signs are weakness, lack of appetite, cough, diarrhea. Goats become infected with parasites in the pasture, when consuming water from open reservoirs or puddles. It is treated with anthelmintic drugs ("Alben", "Albendazole", "Monizel"). It is given to all livestock in case of infection and 1 time per quarter for preventive purposes. Goats are anthelmintic from 3 months.Tissue goats - after 1 month of pregnancy.

Prevention measures

Good housing conditions, nutrition, veterinary care and preventive measures make it possible to raise and maintain he althy livestock.

If coughing, isolate the animal and seek veterinary care. Left untreated, the animal can die, and eating infected or helminth-infected milk or meat is dangerous to humans.