Signs and Symptoms
- Essentially all sheep flocks are infected, but only some lambs will actually develop clinical symptoms of the disease.
- Detectable Symptoms include:
- Diarrhea (containing blood/mucus)
- Dehydration, fever, anemia, weight loss, loss of appetite
- Eating normally with little or no weight gain
- In extreme cases, death
- Intestinal signs of the infection in the ileum, cecum, and upper colon include:
- Thickened, inflamed, edematous
- Occasional mucosal hemorrhaging
- Thick, white, opaque patches containing a large number of oocysts from the parasite
- Symptoms can occur at different opportunities such as:
- Ewes passing parasite to progeny
- Stressful situations including unpleasant weather conditions, being handled by humans, and/or being transported to different locations.
- An oocyst count of over 10,000 in feces that have occurred in healthy lambs.
- An oocyst count of over 20,000 in diarrhea can be a characteristic of an infection.
- An infection may be accompanied by fly strike and secondary eneteric infection.
Lamb with diarrhea due to Coccidiosis