Swollen head disease in goats, sheep

MY experience over the years in livestock production is that one cannot know everything about different health conditions that befall animals.

The reason being that some health conditions are rare in occurrence but when they do, the farmer is left stressed and in most cases with no clue what to do.

Sadly, the extension officer may not be able to help because the condition is rare and he/she has not had an encounter with other animals suffering the same health condition.

However, such rare occurring health conditions provide for valuable lessons in animal health management.

One such important condition is the swollen head disease in goats or sheep.

It is not a very rare condition but it is also not that very common especially among smallholder goat or sheep producers.

Swollen head is an acute, infectious disease caused by Clostridium novyi, characterised by a nongaseous, nonhemorrhagic, edematous swelling of the head, face, and neck of young rams or bucks.

This infection is initiated in young rams or bucks by fighting or continual butting of one another.

The bruised and battered subcutaneous tissues provide conditions suitable for growth of pathogenic clostridia.

Head butting by rams routinely leads to head wounds around the base of the horn, leaving the animal exposed to a bacterial infection caused by Clostridium novyi.

This may cause severe swelling on the ram’s head, which can descend into the animal’s neck and chest. At times a watery discharge seeping from the head wounds is also noticeable.

This can be treated by injecting and animal with broad spectrum antibiotic.

However, because the swelling can descend from the head to the neck, the head swelling syndrome can easily be confused with the bottle jaw.
Bottle jaw is the swelling of the area around the lower jaw and the neck as a result of worm infestation in the animal.

This is usually caused by infestation of either wireworms or liver fluke within the animal.

This is controlled by simply dosing the animal. So, while head butting is a common occurrence among young rams and bucks, it actually predisposes them to swollen head condition after an infection is introduced into their system via the bruises and wounds from their usually friendly play.

So, next time you have a ram or buck with a swollen head, just give it a jab of a broad spectrum antibiotic like penicillin.

On a slightly different but equally important animal health management matter, I feel it is important for me to reiterate to farmers the importance of correctly carrying out whatever procedures you are doing on your animals.

I have seen farmers recklessly conducting some procedures on their animals simply because they do not understand the down side of wrongly doing the procedure. One such procedure is drenching or dosing.

Drenching is oral administration of any treatment drug, except for tablets. Usually it is the oral administration of anthelmintic to control internal worm infestation in your animals.

Now it’s the how part that gets me worried most of the times.

The dosing chemical is supposed to be introduced into the mouth of the animal and the animal allowed to swallow.

Half the time the dosing chemical is just shoved down the throat of the animal and the head of the animal is tilted so high it cannot even swallow properly.

This can result in the animal choking and the dosing chemical directed to the lungs along the respiratory path instead of into the rumen via the oesophagus.

As a result, the animal may develop what is called drench pneumonia which can be difficult to treat and can even result in the animal death.

The head should be held firmly but not so high as to impede swallowing.

If the animal being treated begins to choke or cough, the procedure must be stopped and the head released. Wait a few minutes for the animal to recover before continuing.

Lastly let me take this opportunity to wish livestock farmers and followers of this column a happy festive season. Please enjoy responsibly.

Uyabonga umntakaMaKhumalo.

Mhlupheki Dube is a livestock specialist and farmer. He writes in his own capacity. Feed back [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>. Cell 007851275