Learning how to spot selenium deficiency in goats is so important. Use this guide to learn the cause, symptoms, disease and vitamin deficiency-related conditions so your goat herd can thrive.
Why Selenium Is Important
If you want to raise healthy, happy goats, then selenium is a much-needed micronutrient. It helps develop your goats’ brain cells and protects the healthy cell membranes from oxidation.
Selenium also benefits your goats’ thyroid function, prevents cell wall damage, and supports their immune system.
Without enough selenium, your goats can have a lot of issues, most commonly White Muscle Disease, also known as nutritional myopathy of calves. The common cause of this disease is selenium and/or Vitamin E deficiency, and it causes muscle weakness and leg stiffness.
Paying close attention to selenium levels on our farm is a simple way we protect our goats from avoidable issues.
It’s important to note that I am not an accredited veterinarian. This post is not intended to diagnose or treat but is for informational purposes only. Please contact your animal care professional before introducing a new remedy into their wellness routine.
What Causes Selenium Deficiency in Goats
Selenium is an essential nutrient found present in the soil and transferred to both animals and humans through the plants grown in that soil.
Because selenium enters our food chain through plants, and its levels depend on the variety of rocks in your region, it is unevenly distributed over the earth’s surface.
The average selenium concentration is much higher in sedimentary rocks, like shales and coal than in igneous rocks, like granite, basalt and pumice.
This causes selenium levels to be high in the US in parts of Wyoming, Idaho, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and the North and South Dakotas. While selenium levels are low in parts of the Pacific Northwest, the Great Lakes and down the Southern East Coast.
Since most goats primarily depend on foraging or hay for their main food source, the selenium levels in the soil that food is grown in can cause a selenium deficiency in goats and other livestock.
To keep this deficiency from happening to your goats, you need to know the selenium levels of your soil.
You can get this information by contacting your local extension agent or sending the soil off for testing. Since levels can vary greatly, even in a small region, testing for selenium in the soil is best!
Testing your soil using the is quick and easy. It includes instructions for registering your specific kit with a code on their website. If you want to order a Redmond Soil Testing Kit, you can use our code .
Symptoms of Selenium Deficiency
Symptoms of selenium-deficient goats will show up differently depending on the goats’ age.
Selenium Deficiency in Goat Kids
Signs of selenium deficiency in goat kids will usually show as White Muscle Disease. Signs of this disease can include the kids’ legs being too weak to support their weight and them being unable to walk. The muscles of the legs might be hard to the touch.
Sometimes the ankles will bend back, a sign that your goat most likely has White Muscle Disease. The kids could also be too weak to suckle, struggle with coughing or aspiration of milk and have a weak immune system.
Selenium Deficiency in Adult Goats
Selenium deficiency in adult goats is usually seen as reproductive issues.
The goat might have a hard time getting pregnant or have miscarriages or stillborn kids. If they give birth, the kids will likely be very weak. Retained placenta can also be a common sign of selenium deficiency.
Here’s a guide to birthing a goat to help you give your pregnant doe and her kid the great care they deserve.
Selenium Toxicity
Selenium toxicity is a result of the goats receiving too much selenium. Like selenium deficiency, a toxic level of selenium can also lead to nasty side effects and even cause death in your goats.
The symptoms of selenium toxicity will also show themselves in reproductive issues. Sometimes your goats will struggle with nausea and vomiting, discoloration and brittleness of the nails, hair loss, spasms, a foul breath odor and even respiratory failure.
How to Treat Selenium Deficiency in Goats
Although selenium deficiency or toxicity can cause a lot of issues for goats, on the plus side, it’s pretty easy to prevent and treat it.
Prevention
To help prevent selenium deficiency in the first place, it’s important to offer selenium to your goats at all times. Choose a mineral mix specifically balanced for goats to make sure they are getting what they need.
We keep a loose mineral mix as a vitamin E and selenium supplementation in our goats’ pens so they can access it whenever they want. And don’t worry about them over-eating it; they only take what their bodies need.
Treatment
When it comes to treating selenium deficiency, there are two options; selenium/Vitamin E gel or an injectable selenium solution. Picking one can depend on if you are looking for prevention or need to treat deficiency symptoms quickly.
Injectable solutions act fast, while the gel is a great preventative option. We will give our goats a dose of the gel before the birthing season to head off any symptoms in our new kids.
You can buy Selenium/Vitamin E Gel online or at your local farm supply store, and you can usually find it for under $10 a dose.
Injectable selenium comes in many different brands, but you can only get it with a prescription from your vet. BoSe brand is most commonly prescribed. Be careful, though, when you give the injections since selenium deficiency, and toxicity share a lot of the same symptoms.
It’s always best to research or consult your vet on the amounts of selenium to give your goats!
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On the Farm
Here’s Mr. Smeegle being up to no good! Thankfully he’s a good boy, but man does he get into some interesting situations!
