Health Management of Goats
Preventive medication is necessary in large flocks of goats. Vaccination, dipping, deworming regular screening are some of the routine health management practices which must be perform to keep flock healthy and viable.
This is the most important part of the organized farm routine activity. There is a well said phrase “Prevention is better than cure”. We will stick to this quote and design a herd health plan according to this.
Economic lossescaused by decreased production, cost of prevention, cost of treatment & possible death of infected animals.
Health and disease are difficult to define. A goat in an excellent health may still have parasites.
So we can say disease is defined as the state that prevents optimal productivity.
Physical examination:
General observation of each and every animal from a distance and record anything unusual.
For this you should have a history of the animal (like age sex breed weight vaccination etc etc).
Normal values of vital parameters of goats are:
| Vital parameter | Normal value |
| Rectal temperature | 39 – 40ºC |
| Heart rate | 70 – 90 beats/min (double in case of kids) |
| Respiratory rate | 12 – 20 breaths/min |
| Rumen contractions | 1-2 contractions/min |
| Rumen contraction duration | 10 – 15 sec |