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.
     
• Diagnosis:
  • 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