Nearly all goats are infested with lice, a small reddish louse, a goat
louse. Lice rarely kills the animal infested, but they do annoy the goat
greatly. Goats will not fatten readily, and the mohair is usually dead
(lusterless), if the animals are badly infested. It is an easy matter to
discover the lice. The goats scratch their bodies with their horns and
make the fleece appear a little ragged. On separating the mohair the
lice can easily be seen with the naked eye. The best means of ridding
the goats of this annoyance is with almost any of the sheep dips. A dip
which does not stain the mohair should be selected. The goats should be
dipped after shearing, as it does not take much dip then to penetrate to
the skin. One dipping will usually kill the lice, but the albuminous
coat covering the nits (eggs of the louse), are not easily penetrated,
and it is usually necessary to dip again within ten days, so that the
nits, which have hatched since the first dipping, will not have a chance
to mature and deposit more eggs. Goats can be dipped at almost any time,
but if in full fleece they will require a larger quantity of liquid, and
if the weather is very cold, there is some danger.
STOMACH WORMS.
Stomach worms affect goats, and in some instances their ravages prove
fatal. There are a variety of these worms, but the general effect on the
animal is about the same. They are usually worse in wet years. The goats
affected become thin and weak. They usually scour. Sometimes the worm,
or part of the worm, can be found in the feces. These same symptoms are
caused by starvation, so the two should not be confounded. There are
many drenches in use for the treatment of this trouble, and some of the
proprietary remedies have given some relief. Goats running on dry, high
land are rarely affected.
Verminous pneumonia of sheep may also occur in goats.
FOOT ROT.
Foot rot is a disease which affects both goats and sheep, if they are
kept on low wet land. It rarely proves fatal, and can be cured if the
cause is removed, but it sometimes causes a good deal of trouble. The
goats' feet swell between the toes and become so sore that the animals
are compelled to walk on their knees. It can be cured by carefully
trimming the feet and using solutions of blue stone. Goats should not be
put on wet land.
Sometimes the glands of the neck enlarge, a condition known as goitre.
This is sometimes fatal with kids, but usually cures itself. There is no
known remedy for it, but it is comparatively rare.
Anthrax, tuberculosis, pleuro-pneumonia and meningitis, will affect
goats, but these diseases are very rare. Some of the southern goats have
swollen ears, but what the cause of this trouble is no one has yet
determined.
POISONS.
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