Veterinary Viewpoints: Top 10 Things You Need to Know about Goat Pneumonia - Oklahoma State University
Tuesday, October 19, 2021
Media Contact: Derinda Blakeney, APR | OSU College of Veterinary Medicine | 405-744-6740 | derinda@okstate.edu
Respiratory disease is a common problem with goats. I recently surveyed a large group of veterinarians with a special interest in goats and asked them what they most wanted goat producers to understand about pneumonia in goats. Here are their answers:
1. Environment matters. Dust, the weather, overcrowding, travel, new animal introductions, stress, parasites and nutrition all play a role in an animal's susceptibility to respiratory disease. Protein and trace mineral nutrition are the foundation of disease control. Animals need high-quality feeds and a loose trace mineral. It's amazing how animals can come through a disease challenge if their nutrition is on point. You have no control over the weather, and travel and the purchase of new animals may just be a fact of life for your enterprise, but you do have the ability to limit the risk of pneumonia that these things bring. Shelter, quarantine of new animals and a sustainable parasite control plan can all be protective against pneumonia.
2. It's all about timing. Veterinarians get lots of requests for "better" antibiotics. In fact, the success of treatment is tied much more closely to the timing of treatment than the drug used. Bacteria can double in number every 15-30 minutes while damaging the lungs. Observe your animals daily and understand their normal rhythms. Then, when they are first "off," you'll more easily recognize it and, most importantly, take appropriate action.
3. Get in the habit of taking temperatures on all sick animals. The normal range for rectal temperature in goats is 101.5-103.5o. Keep a digital thermometer in your house or barn labelled for animals. When you observe an animal that is just not acting right, taking their temperature is a good place to start. Now, a lot of things besides pneumonia can cause a fever, so that's not the final word, but this is important information to give your veterinarian when you call.
4. Please don't give a bunch of drugs and then call. Often owners will give two or three different drugs over the course of a day or two and then call for help. This causes several problems. First, some antibiotics can actually interfere with another's ability to kill the bacteria. So the drugs that have already been given can limit other treatment options. Further, antibiotics need time to work. Not giving a drug time to work before giving another is not much different than giving two at the same time.
5. Antibiotic use is not straightforward. Not only can giving two drugs at the same time cause them to be ineffective, but there are other issues with antibiotic use that must be considered. Antibiotics have effects everywhere in the body, not just on the lung tissue. This matters because when animals are already not eating well from being sick, overuse of antibiotics can kill the healthy bacteria in their rumen, making the situation worse.
Only one drug — Naxcel — is labelled for respiratory disease in goats. All other antibiotics used are off-label and must be given under the direction of a veterinarian. When these drugs are used off-label, the withdrawal time listed on the bottle no longer applies; it will be longer. When you use these medications without the guidance of a veterinarian to provide these extended withdrawals, drug residues occur and are identified in edible products. And it's not just antibiotics. Other misused drugs show up, too. Recently, a list of the most common violative residues in goats was published and included a dewormer (moxidectin or Cydectin), an anti-inflammatory (flunixin or Banamine and its generics) and antibiotics ciprofloxacin, enrofloxacin (both from Baytril use), oxytetracycline (Liquamycin LA-200 and its generics) and penicillin. It's important to note that all use of Baytril in goats is illegal. When drugs are misused, not only are there legal ramifications, but they become less effective over time.
6. Lungworms are extremely rare. For this reason, don't assume that an animal who doesn't respond to antibiotics for apparent pneumonia has lungworms and needs to be dewormed. Especially in the South, the risk of Hemonchus resistance to dewormers is much, much higher than the risk of lungworms and using dewormers this way will accelerate the rate of failure of deworming drugs.
7. There is little to no evidence to support using cattle vaccines in goats. There can be a temptation to use the cattle respiratory disease vaccines in goats to prevent pneumonia. Although goats get some of the same bacteria and viruses as cattle, they are different strains and currently, there is no evidence that cattle vaccines are protective against pneumonia in goats.
8. Breathing fast or hard does not equal pneumonia. Here are a couple of examples: Let's look at a 5-month-old Angora wether with a temperature of 104.6o and a respiratory rate of 78 breaths per minute and a 6-month-old Boer wether with a temperature of 105o and a respiratory rate of 100 breaths per minute. Neither are eating, and both have a lack of rumen (stomach) motility. All of these are signs of pneumonia and based on these parameters, both had been treated for pneumonia before coming to see me. After my examination, I determined that the Angora had copper toxicity, and the Boer had grain overload. The delay in proper diagnosis causes animals to needlessly suffer and even It is very important that ill animals receive a complete evaluation by a veterinarian in order to get a timely and accurate diagnosis.
9. Coughing is an unreliable symptom. Coughing animals don't necessarily have pneumonia, and animals with pneumonia don't necessarily cough. When someone calls me with a goat that is coughing and they want antibiotics for him, I always ask if he is sick and if he has a fever. Most animals who are simply coughing but are acting otherwise healthy do not need antibiotics. They should be monitored closely. On the other side of things, not all animals who have pneumonia cough.
10. Please be careful with advice from the internet. Folks in online groups genuinely mean well, but often offer incomplete answers. There are nuances to a recommended treatment that might make it inappropriate in certain situations. Often the responses are knee-jerk or oversimplified and leave out important details. The second problem is that it becomes clear that the advisor didn't read the entire question posted. They often respond to the first keyword they see without fully considering the whole situation. I strongly encourage establishing a daylight relationship with a veterinarian in your area. When a goat producer calls me for advice and all I've ever done for them is a 2 a.m. emergency C-section, we don't have a relationship and shared knowledge that allows me to dispense advice or drugs. If, however, I have seen a number of animals for this producer and been to his or her facility and seen firsthand how they operate, I am in a much better position to help them over the phone when needed.
About the author: Dr. Meredyth Jones is an associate professor in food animal medicine and surgery at Oklahoma State University's College of Veterinary Medicine. A Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (Large Animal), she also owns Large Animal Consulting & Education.
Veterinary Viewpoints is provided by the faculty of the OSU Veterinary Medical Hospital. Certified by the American Animal Hospital Association, the hospital is open to the public providing routine and specialized care for all species and 24-hour emergency care, 365 days a year. Call 405-744-7000 for an appointment or more information.
OSU's College of Veterinary Medicine is one of 30 accredited veterinary colleges in the United States and the only veterinary college in Oklahoma. The college's Boren Veterinary Medical Hospital is open to the public and provides routine and specialized care for small and large animals. The hospital offers 24-hour emergency care and is certified by the American Animal Hospital Association. For more information, visit https://vetmed.okstate.edu or call 405-744-7000.
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