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How to Help a Buck with Diarrhea and Weight Loss

Joined Jun 2010
10 Posts | 0+
Linesville, PA
I have a buck that has terrible diarrhea. He's losing weight continuously. I've wormed him multiple times with Ivermectin. I've darted him with Draxxin and have given him a dose of Vitamin B. Nothing seems to be working. He got beat up by another buck pretty bad despite cutting their antlers cut off. It seems to have come on shortly after that. Not that this might have anything to do with what's going on. Does anyone have any ideas of what might be going on and what I can try to get him better?

I also want to mention that I have numerous wild turkeys in my pen who are constantly crapping in my feeders.

Thanks for any input!

Wayne
 
Hi Wayne, did you by chance run a fecal on the buck? If its chronic diarrhea, could be a lot of things. But 2 things come to mind. First, giardia, which is a protozoal. It doesn't show up on conventional fecals, you have to run a diarrhea panel to find it typically, and you need a specific drug to treat it. If its giardia, we've had great luck with metronidazole.

Johnes disease is another one characterized by chronic diarrhea and loss of body condition. You can run a few tests on this one. If it is johnes you won't have many treatment options.

Either way, it could be contagious to other deer in your herd, so be careful.