# Albon dosage for goats



## moday (Mar 28, 2008)

Anyone have a recommended dosage for Albon to treat coccidian in a small goat herd? Got 11 animals. Would like to know the dosage to treat a single animal as well as a preventive dosage in the water bucket. Terrible weather in SE Michigan, wet and cold, think the coccidia is rampid as the animals don't want to go outside on pasture. thanks, Moday


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## Caprice Acres (Mar 6, 2005)

Adults, especially on a herd wide basis, should not need direct treatment for coccidiosis except if you're doing it as part of a control program for the kids - and then, a feed through like rumensin is usually a more economical and legal (labeled) option. In 15+ years raising goats, I've never once treated an adult for clinical coccidiosis - they often have high loads, without clinical disease. I have used rumensin to reduce the shed rates of the adults so the environment is less contaminated for the highly susceptible young stock - started about 6-8wks prior to kidding and fed through till weaning at least. Clinical coccidiosis of adults is possible, it's just less common and more of an individual, highly compromised (think secondary infection) disease. PERHAPS if the environment was so loaded and completely filthy, perhaps it could cause more clinical disease in a herd of adults but that being said, I'd be careful diagnosing a herd as needing treatment for coccidia because adults can have quite convincing loads without any associated coccidiosis. 

Feeding animals up off the ground, in feeders they cannot stand in or defecate into is important. Goats can and will go outside in MI - ours do.  If they are catered to, they will not leave housing, however. I like to feed hay outside all year round, as well as provide water outside. Planning where to put the hay and water is important to prevent horrendous mud pits. We like to move hay or put it at the top of a small hill for drainage, and the water is in a lower-trafficked area so it isn't being churned up constantly. It's also in a well draining area to reduce mud accumulation and thus reduce desire to drink. The only thing they are provided indoors is minerals/baking soda. This promotes outdoor time which is conducive for cleaner barns (less urination/defecation indoors, less hay mess) and better health for the animals overall (ventilation, exercise, less 'confinement' even if by choice)

As for dose, it will depend the concentration of the product you're using. There is oral solutions, injectables, and powders. All have different amounts of drug per ml, so must be dosed appropriately by body weight. Personally for a herd level, I'd probably go with a product like Corid or a feed through, as use of an antibiotic in a whole herd situation (especially off label sulfonamides) is not recommended. 

https://www.dairygoatinfo.com/threads/coccidia-different-cocci-meds-and-doses.21499/


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