goiter in kids

[vkoff]

I have newborn kids with goiter what is the fastest way to treat this problem.These are 4-h goats they are treated like royalty they have free choice of good green hay 1-1 mineral, trace mineralized salt and are fed 1 to 1.5 pounds of grain daily .they have been dewormed and gland vac regularly

[cakadu]

Yes, the kids sound like they've gotten the best. How old are they?

What they might be lacking, however, is iodine. My experiences with goats - we had about 350 at one time - is that if you give the kids cobalt iodized salt - the type we get from the co-op is generally blue - that helps to clear up the problem. Give the loose salt to them free choice along with the mineral and they will eat what they need.

Good luck!

[cakadu]

There was something niggling at me, so I went and checked my goat medicne book. What shape are the kids in? Are they standing or weak? Were they born with all their hair or were they hairless or had a fine hair coat?

What breed are they as some breeds - Boer in particular - are more susceptible to goiter than other breeds.

If the kids were just born, then it would be a lack of iodine on mom's part.

According to the book, the actual dietary iodine requirement for goats is 0.8mg/kg dry matter for lactating females and 0.2 mg/kg for the rest of the herd.

The other thing the book says is that if the deficiency is not too bad, then the kids should recover.

I hope the outcome is good.

[vkoff]

the kids were born on sunday (the 17th) with this condition even before their first suck. They were born with a full hair coat. They are Boer goats. Condition as newborn was about 7 out of 10. Once nursed within the hour they both progessed well. The first day they were both really good. By the 2nd day the one born with the larger goiters started going down hill FAST and we lost her that evening after working with her for 6 hours. The 2nd kid is with her mother, all appears well but her goiters in our opinion have gone from a pea size to what feels like a shelled hazel nut size. We spoke to a vet last night and he suggested giving injectable sellinium and A and D vitamins to the mother as these are required to synthesize iodine absorption. Another person we spoke to said her friend had a similar problem and the treatment was lugois iodine spread on the web of the tail. In our attempt to find this type of iodine we got nowhere. I wonder if 2 and 1/2% iodine tincture is too strong?

Another vet that we spoke to on Monday stated that enlarged(thyroids) goiters can be a defiency of iodine or too much iodine! But he felt that because they were on block salt that maybe they were not getting enough or that something in their feed was blocking the absorption of iodine.

[cakadu]

Sorry to hear about the one you lost. It's always hard to loose one, especially when you work on it for so long. In the goat medicine book it says that putting tincture of iodine on is fine, so I would go ahead and try that. At this stage, you've got nothing to loose.

I would have to agree that the blocks are likely not giving the goats what they need. Because a goat's tongue is not as rough as a cows, they have a more difficult time getting the amount that we need. If at all possible, I would suggest moving to loose salt and mineral fed free choice and that should help to alleviate the problem. While loose is a bit more of a pain to handle, it is more readily available to the goats.

What we found works really well is hanging those little plastic pig feeders you can buy at UFA, Co-op etc. on the wall of the barn with the salt and mineral in it.

It sounds like the second kid is doing okay and I hope she makes it.