Goat Diseases, Symptoms, and their Treatment

Introduction to Goat Diseases and thier Prevention:

Today let us discuss about Goat Diseases and Control methods.

Goats are highly resistant animals and are resistant to many diseases. But overcrowding, poor sanitation and intensive rearing will lead to many diseases. Diseases in goat lead to low production rate, and increased mortality rate, which causes great loss in commercial goat farming business. Prevention measures and identification of diseases are most important.

Health management is very important in commercial goat farming, it is compulsory to follow vaccination schedule. Worms and parasites should be treated very carefully.

Read: Frequently Asked Questions about Goat Farming.

Bacterial Diseases in Goat Farming:

Anthrax: It is a highly contagious bacterial disease.

• Symptoms: Sudden death, high fever, blood from nose, anus and vagina.
• Prevention: Vaccination is compulsory in commercial goat farming. Follow the annual vaccination schedule in endemic areas. Keep the infected goat separately. Massive doses of penicillin 1/M can be the best one. Dead sheep should be disposed completely either buried or by burning.

Haemorrhagic Septicemia: It is a bacterial disease also called johne disease. This disease more observed in rainy season

• Symptoms: High Fever, breathing problems, cough, swollen lower jaw and sudden death.
• Prevention: Vaccination is available, vaccinate the animals before the rainy season every year.

Brucellosis: Brucellosis is a contagious bacterial disease, caused by a bacterium called Brucella.

• Symptoms: Abortion during the last stages of gestation and retention of placenta and metritis are major symptoms in female goat. In male goat you can observe infertility, swollen joints, and orchiditis.
• Prevention: there is no treatment for this disease, good sanitation and nutritious food will prevent this disease. The infected goat should be kept separately. The dead fetus and placenta and should be disposed completely.

Enterotoxaemia: it is a bacterial kidney disease caused due to a toxin of Clostridium perfringens type D.

• Symptoms: Sudden death of young animals, abdominal pain, unstable movement, and Mucous diarrhea.
• Prevention: Follow an annual vaccination schedule. Start vaccinating kids from the age 3 months. Consult the veterinarian for vaccination details. Vaccinate the goat before the monsoon begins. Don’t feed young grass.

Pneumonia:

• Symptoms: High Fever, breathing problems, mucous from the nose, serve cough, loss of appetite and weight gain.
• Prevention: This disease can be controlled by vaccination. Vaccination should be done annually. Supply clean water and the goat house should be well-ventilated. 

Foot rot: It is a contagious disease, caused by bacterium Dichelobacternodosus. There are two types of foot rot-virulent and benign.

• Symptoms: Wounds in the foot area, moisture, reddishness and hair loss between toes.

Type of foot rots:

Benign foot rot: you can observe U strains, including mild U5 strains.

Virulent foot rot: You can observe mild “S” strain and also hot U5 strains.

• Prevention: Treat infected foot with antiseptic solution. And keep them in a clean, dry house.

Mastitis:

Symptoms: high fever, swollen udder, abdominal pain, watery milk, loss of appetite, low milk production.

Treatment and Preventive: dip the infected goat in KMnO4 solution and remove milk carefully from the affected quarter. Treat the infected goat with antibiotic repeatedly and test the goat regularly. It disease can be prevented by maintaining good sanitation in the house and clean the udder with disinfectant regularly.

Bloat: this disease mainly affects due to use of Lucerne hay.

• Symptoms: the infected goat will be distressed, stamps its feet, blveats, urinate frequently, and walks  stilt.
• Prevention: Use dry hay or dry pasture while feeding fresh legumes. Goat feed should be a combination of dry pasture with leaves of legumes. To prevent bloat, sprinkle peanut oil  on the feed.

Cheesy Gland (CL): It is also called yolk boils caused due to.

It also called yolk boils, its scientific name is Caseous lymphadenitis is caused by the bacterium coryne and bacterium pseudotuberculosis.  This disease mainly infects the heads or mouth.

• Symptoms: You can observe swollen lumps under the jaw or on the neck.
• Treatment: Cheesy-gland vaccines are available: Glanvac, cheesyvax, cydectin, Eweguard, Guardian and Websters.

Viral Diseases in Goat:

Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD):

• Symptoms: High Fever, red lesions on foot and mouth, excess salivation, unstable walking.
• Prevention: Vaccination is available. Vaccination should be started at 3rd month and then for every 4-6 month interval.

Goat pox: Goat-pox it is a viral disease that is very common in goats. This disease mainly attacks male kids and ewes in milk.

• Symptoms: High Fever, mucous discharge from nose and mouth, respiratory problems, lesion on a hairy part such as lips, thigh udder etc.
• Treatment and Prevention: Annual Vaccination is compulsory in commercial goat farming business. Treat the infected goat carefully, wash the lesion with hydrogen peroxide and warm water. And use some antibiotic cream and medicines.

Endo-parasitic diseases in Goat:

Fluke infection :

• Symptoms: Emaciation, anemia, and edema in lower jaw.
• Prevention: Deworm the animal for every 6 months. Implement safety measure to control snails, avoid grazing in the early morning and late evening.

Tapeworm:

• Symptoms: Reduction in growth rate, high fever, and sudden death in kid.
• Treatment and Prevention: follow a deworm schedule and keep the house clean and dry.

Roundworm:

• Symptoms: High Fever, anemia, diarrhea, swollen lower jaw, and low growth rate.
• Treatment: Deworm the animal regularly.

Coccidiosis:

• Symptoms: Blood diarrhea, anemia, and kid mortality.
• Treatment: good sanitation in the house, clean the house with ammonia solution. Use some anticoccidial drugs as per the veterinarian  prescription.

Cystitis: it is a urinary bladder infection.

• Symptoms: swollen bladder, staining of perineum, frequent urination, pus and blood in the urine, depression, anorexia and dehydration.
• Treatment: treat this disease with antibiotics and  use warm water and hibitane or Dettol.

Contagious Ecthyma: this disease mainly affects the goat kids.

• Symptoms: Pustular and scabby lesions in the area near muzzle and lips.
• Prevention: this disease spread very fast, so the infected goat kids should be treated separately. The lesions are treated with antiseptic medicines. And antibiotic should giver to prevent  bacterial complications.

Ecto-parasitic infestation Diseases in Goat:

Tick:

• Symptoms: Reduced growth rate, lesion on the skin and wounds.
• Treatment: dip the goat in insecticidal solution and maintain good sanitation.

Lice:

• Symptoms: Reduced growth rate, lesion on the skin and wounds.
• Treatment: dip the goat in insecticidal solution and maintain good sanitation.

Hypocalcemia: This is also called milk fever. This disease infects during kidding.

• Symptoms: High fever, infected goats unable to stand, breathing problems, coma and may lead to death.
• Treatment: Treat the infected should be treated with calcium barogluconate with magnesium sulphate.

Mange (Sarcoptes, Demodatic and Psoroptes):

• Symptoms: scruffy dandruff on the skin, severe itching, hairlessness and the skin turns thick, hard and corrugated.
• Preventive: Skin scraping examination is essential. Clip hair and wash with warm water and soap. Dip the infected goat in antiseptic medicines.

Tetanus:

This disease mainly infected due to anaerobic bacterium called as Clostridium tetani. This disease occurs due absence of air wounds.

• Symptoms: Wounds occur in dehorning, disbudding, tattooing, castration, hoof trimming or grass seeds.
• Treatment: treat the wounds  with tetanus antitoxin or toxoid vaccine at 3-4 weeks, repeat 6-10 months after and then year.

Tuberculosis (M. Tuberculosis):

• Symptoms: Low fever of long duration, coughing, breathing problems, anemia, progressive emaciation and loss of body weight.
• Prevention: Consult veterinarian  and get your goat tested with tuberculin. The infected goat should be treated separately.

Eye Infections:

• Blepharitis: this is an eye inflammation. The main symptoms are ocular discharge from the eye, the infected eye should be washed with sodium sulphacetamid, twice in a
• Conjunctivitis: this is eye infection. The main symptoms are eyes get swollen and reddish. This disease can cured by washing the eye with normal saline solution.
• Pinkeye: Is a contagious eye disease. The symptoms are ocular discharge from both eyes. Wash infected eyes are washed with saline water and treat them with sulphacetamide or Terramycin aerosol drops.

Trace element deficiency:

Goats show some disease symptoms due to deficiency in trace elements like copper, boron, iodine, cobalt, magnesium, selenium and zinc.

Symptoms: high and low fever, low birth weight, improper growth, in activeness, low milk production, male progency and mal function of fat metabolism.

Treatment: The treatment is by adding trace elements, minerals in the diet.

Goat Diseases Control Tips:

• The house should have a proper drainage system.
• Sprinkling of copper sulphate near water resource will control many infections.
• Don’t make the goats to graze in the early morning and late evening.
• The goat house should be clean and feed fresh and clean drinking water.
• Infected and diseased animals should be kept separately.
• Dead animal should be disposed properly.
• Rotational grazing is recommended to control infections.

Disease Management Tips:

• Should be very alert on signs of illness like low feed intake, fever, abnormal discharge or unstable behavior.
• Consult the nearest veterinarian in case of any
• In case of contagious diseases, sick animals should be treated separately.
• De-worming of goats irrespective of age should be done periodically.
• Check the faeces of the animals to check the infection of internal parasites and treat them with suitable drugs.
• Feed the animals with clean and uncontaminated feed and water, which minimizes the health problems.
• Vaccination schedule should be followed.

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