Pneumonia in Baby Goats: Causes and Natural Treatment

Baby goats are especially prone to pneumonia in cold, wet weather.

Pneumonia is a serious health issue when affecting baby goats. It can develop quickly and, if left untreated, could lead to death.

What Causes Pneumonia in Baby Goats

From what we have experienced kids that were single or twins are less prone to pneumonia than triplets or quadruplets.

Pneumonia in baby goats usually results from a combination of factors that weaken their immune system or expose them to harmful pathogens. The main causes include:

• Bacterial infections

• Viral infections

• Environmental stress

• Poor colostrum intake

• low milk intake due to bigger siblings pushing

  the littler ones away

• Parasites and other diseases

• sudden changes in weather

• becoming chilled due to cold, wet conditions

Preventing Pneumonia

Prevention is always better than treatment. Since we have only had kids get pneumonia in cold weather, this year we planned for our does to kid in March instead of the typical January/February to try to avoid the risk of the babies getting chilled and sick.

Here are some steps you can take to prevent pneumonia:

• Ensure newborns receive adequate colostrum within the first 6 hours.

• Maintain clean, dry bedding.

• Avoid overcrowding and reduce stress.

• Make sure your goats do not have parasites

• separate and bottle feed the biggest kids (they are the most likely to survive on artificial feeding) if a doe has more kids than she can feed

• Keep newborns warm and out of the wind.

• Monitor goats regularly for early signs of illness.

• Give your does and kids immune system boosting herbs routinely in cold, wet or windy conditions

  

  
  

Early Signs of Pneumonia

Pneumonia is best caught early; in cold, wet weather the sickness quickly becomes fatal and kids who seemed fine in the morning could be dead by nightfall.

This kid is just cold, but if your kid/s stay hunched up all the time and do not want to play, you will want to check them for other signs of pneumonia.

Here are some warning signs that your kid/s are coming down with pneumonia:

• coughing

• hunched posture

• rapid or labored breathing

• coughing or nasal discharge

• loss of appetite and lethargy

• fever or chills

• weakness or inability to stand

• grinding teeth or unusual vocalizations

  

  This kid was starting to show symptoms of pneumonia (runny nose, hunched posture, losing interest in food)

later symptoms include:

• Lying flat on their sides

• "swimming" with their legs

• Arching their heads backwards and uncontrollably tossing around

• Weak crying/screams

• Stiffness and eventually death

Treatment

1. As soon as the early signs start to show themselves separate the kid from the rest of the heard and warm them completely, no shaking or shivering. You can warm them with a heat lamp, bring them inside, or wrap them in a towel that was run through the dryer for a few minutes.

2. Administer a couple drops of Oil of Oregano diluted in a teaspoon of olive oil

3. Give the kid a small amount of honey or molasses for energy

4. Continue giving oil of oregano every hour for the first day, and three times a day after that until the kid is back to normal

5. Keep the kid in a warm, dry environment until they perk up, you may need to start bottle feeding them if they do not get better within a day.

   

If the kid has already started to show the later signs of pneumonia, we have not found any natural remedies for curing this sickness.

You can check out or other blogs on goat kids here:

Floppy Kid Syndrome: Symptoms and Treatment

Goat Kids: What Can Go Wrong and What to Do

Bottle Feeding a Baby Goat