[crocee]

A friend down the road from me has cattle and uses Sustain III Calf Boluses for his calves when they get ill. He also has goats and said he uses the same bolus when he has a cocci problem in adults. Is this stuff safe for goats? He said he has used this each time hes had a cocci outbreak and not had a problem. IF it was safe it sure would be an easier way to give the nasty tasting sulfa meds. He told me he gave 1 pill every other day since its timed release for 3 days in calves. His goats do look good and I haven't seen or heard and sick goats at his place.

This is the Bolus he uses.

http://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?pgguid=2e87c28f-7b6a-11d5-a192-00b0d0204ae5?ccd=ink003

med info
http://valleyvet.naccvp.com/view_label.php?u=country&p=msds&prodnum=1399037 (pop up)

 

[NubianSoaps.com]

It's just a sulfa. You would rarely see cocci in a healthy adult goat, but I suppose if you could find a good dosage for them it would be a good way to treat them. Seen them? Calf bolus's are huge, not sure how you could use them for prevention in kids, which is how you want to be using your cocci treatments....preventatively, never having to use something as actual treatment.

The thing to do with anecdotal info like this is to ask him if he fecal samples, was it really cocci, because the reason we do tell new folks to use sulfa's for diarrhea even in calves is that the list of problems it 'cures' is very very long.

So like anything, fecal, figure out a dosage and give it, fecal again and count to see if it actually worked on the cocci. Vicki

 

[crocee]

Vicki,
I fecal my goats all the time. Every time one acts even a little off I am out there collecting poop to examine. I am not sure I would know what cocci looks like though as I haven't had a problem with it. I will ask him if he does the fecals himself or if he has a vet do them or if he does them at all. And no I have never looked at a Sustain bolus before. The Copasure boluses are huge and I can't imagine trying to stuff that thing down my goats throats whole. Its a good thing those have to be redone into smaller dose amounts.

 

[Tracy in Idaho]

The Copasure boluses fit down their throats just fine

I waste nothing -- I use those Copasure capsules!

Tracy

 

[goatkid]

The calf boluses are huge. We've used them in the past as uterine boluses, but have never given them orally. I just get liqiud sulfa from my vet and drench the kids with a syringe.

 

[NubianSoaps.com]

Yeah but Tracy, you've had goat awhile and you aren't using them on kids. Few adult goats would ever need these sulfa boluses for cocci, so then we would have folks ramming them down 3 week old kids, or whittling them down to fit Vicki

 

[Narrow Chance]

I'm with you Vicki.. it's not feasable to cram down one of those bolous. They are far from HUGH. Bigger than the Copperure bolouses. (did I spell that right? )
The Sustain III is for cows. They have a smaller one.. Sustain II for calves.. and even that is big.

I have and do use the calf and cow sustain. I get the Sustain III only because they are about the same price as the calf ones and contain more sulfa.
I will say.. I only use them for coccidia breakthrew in my kids. It happens a lot here in the humid wet south.. especially after a few days rain. When fecals are loaded with coccidia.. the preventative just won't do it sometimes. I use or did use Sulmet this past year. The year before it was Corrid. Who knows what it will be this year.. but fecals will tell me if it either is working.

 

[crocee]

When I asked this question I was actually referring to adult goats. I couldn't even imagine trying to get one down a babies throat. What brought this on was a way previous post I saw in some forum where an adult goat died from cocci. I realize this is a management issue but thought that maybe if it worked it would be easier and longer lasting. One bolus every other day sounded much better than a boat load of Sulmet/Corid/Amprol every day.

 

[Narrow Chance]

Andi... Sorry if we didn't answer your question.
Yes.. you 'can' give Sustain to an adult goat. IF she had coccidia.
Some coccidia is normal.. but adult goats should have built up a resistance to getting an overload. But.. it does happen.. and sometimes management has nothing to do with it.
If you are going to use the Sustain.. crush it, then mix with Snowcone syrup.
To get the accurate dose... however much the bolous is for the weight for a cow.. triple it for a goat. Say the one bolous will treat a 300 # cow (not sure this moment what it treats. the container will say) . Then that bolous would treat a 100# goat.
For a 50# goat.. it would be half. For inbetween.. I use Rett's ******* measure.
Crush the bolous.. mix with syrup. Measure in a drench syringe. If it's not to a increment I can half or quarter.. (say it is 14cc )I add more snowcone syrup to make it so. (20cc) I empty back in a container.. then mix well. Put back in syringe.
Now say.. I have 20 cc.. that 20 cc's will treat a 300# cow.. or one 100# goat.
For a 50# goat.. I half it.. and give 10cc's. Saving the rest for the next treatment.
if it's a 75# goat.. I give 15cc.
I use a feeding tube syringe.. so it does not clog up the tip and is easy to fill.
The above weight is just guesstimate.. I don't knwo what the weight at the moment on either the Sustain II or III.

 

[NubianSoaps.com]

But if you crush it your back to everyday dosing at least, since it is no longer sustain released. Vicki

 

[crocee]

Thanks for the explanation and easing my fears that this guy was poisoning his goats.
That's still a lot of trouble. Should I ever have a adult cocci problem I guess I will attempt to get a couple Baycox pills from the vet. MUCH More expensive but much easier.

 

[Tracy in Idaho]

No, I don't think I'd try and shove one of these solid ones down them (though I've done a lot of calves!) The copasure are just gelatin, so they're a little "softer" ...and they do fit

I'd be more curious to know why he's having cocci problems in adult goats??? Is he running them with the calves?

 

[crocee]

They do run with the cattle at times. Other times they are in seperate fields.

 

[funkeila000]

I'm with you Vicki.. it's not feasable to cram down one of those bolous. They are far from HUGH. Bigger than the Copperure bolouses. (did I spell that right? )
The Sustain III is for cows. They have a smaller one.. Sustain II for calves.. and even that is big.

I have and do use the calf and cow sustain. I get the Sustain III only because they are about the same price as the calf ones and contain more sulfa.
I will say.. I only use them for coccidia breakthrew in my kids. It happens a lot here in the humid wet south.. especially after a few days rain. When fecals are loaded with coccidia.. the preventative just won't do it sometimes. I use or did use Sulmet this past year. The year before it was Corrid. Who knows what it will be this year.. but fecals will tell me if it either is working.

 

[funkeila000]

If you take the small calf size and break it into quarters, then you just give a kid 2 of the quarters genrally