# Worming : Lungworm: How to deal with it (updated 3/05)~Sue Reith



## Sondra

Thank you Sue for allowing us to post your articles

>>Im new to the goat business. I bought 3 nannies and a small buck. One of the females just kidded with a great little buck. My question is that my nannies seem to cough a good bit. I hear that some coughing is 
normal. My older buck coughs some too, but not a whole lot. How do I tell if theres something wrong or is it normal? Thanks for any help yall can give.<<

What you're describing is Lungworm. This article below should be sufficient to guide you in how to deal with it... Let me know if I can be of further help with this...

Sue Reith 
Carmelita Herd 
Bainbridge Island WA 
[email protected]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Sue Reith" [email protected] 
Sent: Thursday, July 20, 2000 8:29 AM 
Subject: Lungworm: How to deal with it (updated 3/05)

A goat owner writes:

>>My doe looks and acts completely healthy. The only problem is that she has this dry cough that won't seem to go away. She has no discharge. Her temp is fine, her rumen function is great, her eyes and coat are healthy, she just has this cough that sometimes can last for 7 or 8 coughs. I have wormed her with Ivomec, Safe guard, and Hoegers herbal wormer. She is still coughing. My sister is a vet tech and said that she house sat for some people with fainters. They had one that coughed constantly and nothing was wrong with it. The breeder also has one that coughs all the time. Nothing wrong with that one either. So I am thinking that she is just a coughing goat.<<

Sue Reith responds:

A continuous dry cough in a goat is most certainly indicative of lungworm. You are entirely right in wanting to treat it. The fact that those other people's herds are coughing a dry cough doesn't mean it's all right! It simply means they have lungworm! Eventually the lungworm, untreated, will scar the lung tissue, and the animal will begin to have bouts of pneumonia due to the irritation as well. It can be treated for the pneumonia a couple of times with penicillin but eventually the lungs will become irreversibly damaged and the goat will die. Ivermectin, Safeguard and Hoeggers' Herbal Wormer are not effective against lungworm (Ivermectin is labeled for the use in lungworm and is used effecitively by those on the forum, thank you DGI). It is easily treated with injectable Levamisole, which the AASRP research has shown is the most effective approach. Since the lungworm eggs are partially embryonated as they pass out through the bowel of the host, they are heavier than other species of worm eggs, thus they sink to the bottom of the slide, below the normal field of visibility, and cannot be detected during fecal flotation. Therefore, the only reliable test for lungworm is a Baermann's test, which is difficult to perform and very expensive. The best thing you can do is treat with the Levamisole, and if the coughing stops you know that's what it was! (VBG)

Levamisole, BTW, is an excellent all around general wormer as well as being effective against lungworm. You need to treat the animal 3 times in a row, injecting the levamisole subcutaneously (under the skin) and the shots should be spaced about 10 days apart. That is because only the adult lungworm will be killed by the wormer, and the larva and egg stages will remain. Treating 3 times in a row as mentioned will get all 3 stages as they arrive at adulthood, just before they start laying eggs of their own. You will notice that after the first treatment the animal will stop coughing. But if you quit then the other 2 stages will still be there and you have not eliminated the problem. You can usually get levamisol (some brand names are Levasol, Tramisol, et al) at a feed store. But you can get it thru a catalog more cheaply. If you want that information just let me know and I will send it to you. Levamisole is not a prescription item.

One additional caveat... In the past few years we've apparently had an as-yet unnamed virus going around, spread usually from goat show to goat show via the show circuit... For lack of a better name, or an ID either, t's been labeled the "ick", and its only symptom, as with lungworm, is a 'dry cough'. The way one determines which is which is by treating with Levamisole. If the cough disappears, that's that. If not, it may be that so-called 'Ick' virus, which, like all viruses, will have to run its course... To speed that up, and to prevent secondary bacterial infections from getting a foot hold in the weakened goat's system, BoSe should be given at frequent intervals to stimulate the victim's immune system, which BTW, is the only way to get rid of a viral infection.

(2005 Addendum: The 100ml bottle of Levamisole is not apparently being produced any more, the alternative being a 500ml bottle, or levamisole goat and sheep boluses... If you can find a 100ml bottle of Levamisole, grab it! If not, Levamisole is also a good, broad spectrum general wormer, not just for lungworms but for most other worms as well, notable exceptions to that being Liver fluke, tapeworm, pinworms... Levamisole should be dosed at 2cc/100 lbs. Doubling or tripling the dose in goats is not necessary, and in fact if done during pregnancy can reportedly cause abortion.)

(While I urge you to share this information with other individual goat owners, please do not reproduce the article for publication without my specific permission. Thank you. Sue Reith.)

Sue Reith 
Carmelita Toggs 
Bainbridge Island WA 
[email protected]


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