Coughing in Goats

Coughing usually indicates one of 4 things:

--Choking on food. Some goats may be eager eaters, crowd together and fuss and stew; they tend to choke and cough and snort and sneeze and have an awful time. --Vitamin A deficiency (See "Deficiencies" section).
--Allergies, dust, etc. Change feed, ignore for a while. There may be a lot of coughing during the late summer months as things tend to dry up and there is more dust in the environment.
--Respiratory infection: Will probably also have sniffles most of the time. Can be bacterial, fungal, viral. Look to see if there are other symptoms. Coughing at feeding time is usually related to choking. Rub front of neck (brisket) and throat to see if you can elicit a cough by doing that. If she coughs again put your ear against the side of her ribs and try to listen to where any sounds are coming from. If it's an infection of the lungs, you will hear a watery rattling noise that is quite unmistakable.

I have a regular routine that I use for all our animals who develop respiratory infections. Day 1: LA200 at 4.5 ml IM per 100 lbs. Days 2, 3 and 4: LA200 at 2.25 ml IM per 100 lbs. If not all better, Days 5, 6 and 7: Tylan 200 at 4 ml IM per 100 lbs. If still not all better: Days 8, 9 and 10: Tylan 200 at 4 ml IM per 100 lbs (once per day) PLUS Penicillin Procaine G at 4 -5 ml IM per 100 lb twice per day 12 hours apart. If this doesn’t work, then either try sulfa boluses or consult with your vet about the possibility of a fungal infection. All of these remedies are accompanied by a liberal application of Vicks® around the nose and throat with a small amount placed on the back of the tongue. A good alternative to Vicks® is a product called VetRx® (nose drops) which can be obtained from online suppliers such as Jeffers.

If fungal, it takes a very special Rx from Vet. Nothing will help viral infections. Don’t be too hasty to doctor until you have a fairly good idea as to what you are dealing with But don't wait too long, because you then get to deal with pneumonia.

There is growing evidence that coughing in goats can be caused by one of the mycoplama organisims. For some brief comments on this topic, see our page on Mycoplasma. The above treatment regimens do not apply.