How to Treat Dehydration in a Goat

A dehydrated goat is a goat in serious danger. Dehydration can lead to death very quickly. Dehydration can be caused by several things including lack of water, scours (diarrhea), too much heat... Scours are probably the most common cause. If they have scours, you will need to clear this up as you attempt to fix the dehydration or all the fluids you give them will simply leave the body almost as quickly as you administer them.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. 
    
   Water!

   Remove the cause of the dehydration. If your goat has scours, remove all milk, grain and other concentrates. Give them only hay to eat. Fresh grass can also cause scours if they are not accustomed to it. For scours, you will want to give them probios, yogurt or some other type of beneficial bacteria. Giving a kid black tea or charcoal tea with activated charcoal in it in place of their regular bottle of milk will also help remove toxins created by the scours. There is an good article listed on the left that explains in detail how to treat scours.

2. 
    
   Honey one of the ingredients for electrolytes

   Mix up the following electrolyte solution:
   
   2 tsp salt
   1 tsp baking soda
   8 TBLS honey
   4 qt WARM water
   Mix all above ingredients thoroughly, and feed instead of plain water. Be sure to follow the directions exactly as an imbalance will cause harm. If the goat you are treating is a kid and does not drink from a bucket yet, or if the goat is so dehydrated that they no longer want water, you can offer it in a bottle or drench them with some of it.

3. 
    
   Lactated Ringers

   If the goat does not improve quickly, you may need to contact your vet for lactated ringers, an injected electrolyte solution.

Tips & Warnings

• An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure - prevent dehydration:
• Keep fresh water available to the goats at all times
• Provide shelter for them to get out of the hot sun,
• Prevent them from getting scours by limiting the amount of grain they get and don't let them gorge themselves on wet grass.
• While treating a goat yourself is great, don't hesitate to call the vet if you are at all unsure of being able to handle the problem. Lactated Ringers can save a goats life.

Resources

• Fiasco Farm article on Cocci - a common cause of scours