By Umar Nsubuga
Mary Nassuna, a goat farmer lost a goat recently, it was the harvesting season and they ate plenty of maize seeds.
“A number of them developed a bulging stomach, but I was lucky only one died. Please educate me, why does maize kill goats. Is there anything I can do to make maize safer?” she askes.
Muhammad Kiyemba, a veterinary doctor says chloroquine is a medicine made to heal the sick but if you swallow 50 tablets at once you certainly die.
“A pinch of salt makes your sauce tasty and rich, but a palmful would poison you. So, it is improper for you to make a sweeping statement that maize kills,” he says adding that maize, or even bran, is nutritious. It has plenty of carbohydrates and some protein. However, goats cannot digest large amounts of maize.
“Unlike a human being who can have a full meal of maize, goats are better at digesting grass. They can still eat maize, but these should be in limited amounts,” he explains.
He says goats do not know how much maize they can eat without getting problems. So, if you allow them to eat without restrictions, they can kill themselves.
“Maize, unlike grass, has plenty of starch. In the goat’s stomach, this starch ferments and produces large amounts of lactic acid within a short period,” he explains.
Because it is in excessive amounts, this acid poisons the goat. The affected goat gets a full stomach, cries a lot, and becomes restless and reluctant to eat. It may defecate sticky masses rather than the usual pellets, or even develop diarrhoea, he says.
In the long run, he says it develops a disease called acidosis making it weak, staggers, collapses and dies if not treated. The disease is deadly and, therefore, should be handled as an emergency.
“Once a goat eats plenty of grain, call a veterinarian even before it develops the symptoms,” he advises.
To prevent the disease;
-Minimise the amount of grain fed to goats
-Keep your animals secure so they do not escape and eat grain without your knowledge
-Store grains securely so that goats do not have easy access.
