Skip to main content

Featured

Kids: Coccidia

Coccidia are a protozoan internal parasite, that most goats have, in small numbers. In adults, this is generally not a problem, but if kids get an overload of coccidia, it can cause diarrhea, intestinal scarring, and ultimately death, if not treated.  The first line of prevention for coccidia in kids is to keep their areas clean. This may seem like an unreasonable expectation--it's a barn, for all love--but what this means is essentially making sure the kids have minimal access to poop--they pick up coccidia from mouthing poop, soiled straw, etc. This can mean cleaning out the pen every day, or it can mean adding a new layer of straw once or twice a day, or even both. A good criteria (picked up from Deborah at the Thrifty Homesteader) is that you should be willing to sit down in the stall. Then, it's clean enough for kids. If you're not willing to sit down (while wearing "barn" pants. Not wearing a fancy dress, for instance) it's not clean enough for kids.  In...
2 comments
Read more
Labels

Deworming & Parasites

Sorry I took an unannounced hiatus for Christmas! I'm back for more informational posts. :)

In terms of understanding various goat parasites, I do not have the necessary knowledge to be an expert. However, I do know of some people who are, so I will recommend these pages:

Identify & Control Goat Internal Parasites (betterhensandgardens.com)

Gastrointestinal Parasites of Sheep and Goats - Digestive System - Merck Veterinary Manual (merckvetmanual.com)

If you want to look at a deep dive into parasite types.

In this post, we'll be mostly talking about the control of internal parasites. External parasites (mites, fleas, etc.) are occasionally problems, but they're not nearly as common. 

All goats have a baseline level of parasites in their digestive system. Problems only happen when the parasite levels get higher than the goat can support, which can lead to anemia, digestive system damage, and other issues that one really, really doesn't want. Left untreated, a parasite overload can lead to death. 

Many people chose to deworm their goats, especially in larger herds, with commercial dewormers. We don't take that route, but if you wish to, I suggest checking out these links:

Deworming Goats - The Thrifty Homesteader

Dewormer resistance in goats - The Thrifty Homesteader

And this link as well, which discusses control of parasites without constantly deworming.

Internal parasites in goats: Preventing infection - The Thrifty Homesteader


What we do for deworming, though, is use THIS natural dewormer from Land of Havilah Herbals. For each of our adult Nigeran Dwarfs, we give 1/2 tsp once per week, generally mixed into olive oil. Our goats really like it, although sometimes it takes awhile to convince new kids that it's actually delicious. Given that we give so little, even though it's a tad expensive, each bag lasts at least a year. 

For times of higher stress, i.e. kidding, we would give a dose more often, i.e. every day, or every other day. 

We also give Copper Oxide Wire Particles (COWP), which are used for copper supplementation, every three months. While this is mainly for copper supplementation in our herd, some studies also show that it can be effective in reducing worm load. (More info HERE.) So that's part of our integrated pest management.

As of this year, we have had no problems with parasites. (Coccidia, on the other hand, is another story, and will be talked about in a later post.) 

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment