I have two kids and a doe that I have sold. I want to make sure I do everything I can to make the transition easiest for them. The kids (soon to be wethers) will be leaving a week after they are banded and the doe won't be leaving until September.
I have not given anyone a CD&T shot. My does were vaccinated when they were kids but I have not given them a booster since then (they are 2 yrs old). What do I need to do for the kids and does?
I wormed the does after they kidded and then again about a week ago. I used ivermectin plus the last time because there was a concern about liver flukes (their hay comes from a wet area of our state). Their fecals have always come back negative.
Please give me some advice and a timeline of what I should be doing.
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If the kids have been nursing until the day they leave, I don't worry much about coccidia. I do tell the new owner that if they get diarrhea within the first 24 hours, it's probably just stress and should only last a few hours. If they get diarrhea about three weeks after they get to their new home, that's probably coccidia. It has a 3-week life cycle, so if the stress of moving allows reproduction of whatever is in their system, it will show up as a problem at about 3 weeks. If they are concerned about that, they can buy a bag of medicated feed, and when it's all used up, they don't need to buy another one. In the case of wethers, they are usually fine on just pasture, browse, and grass hay by then.
Yeah if only there was a magic bullet! Since I do so little deworming and don't live anywhere around other goats I don't really know what works. All fecals have always come back negative. I guess I will send in one more before they leave to see if anything shows up that might guide me in the right direction. My inclination is to use ivermectin. I find it excessive to pull out the big guns when there is a small chance for parasites.
Do you do any preventative treatment for coccidia or recommend that the new owner do something?
I use one of the chemical dewormers. There is no magic bullet. You'll hear some people swearing that one is better than the others, sometimes Cydectin (moxidectin), but what works for them won't necessarily work for you, so you need to send the kids off with one that you know works on your farm. And you should not use Cydectin until nothing else works. It is the strongest, but once you've got a resistance to it, you're really in trouble.
Thank you Deborah. I will be able to give the kids their booster, they won't be leaving for another month. The doe also won't be leaving until the end of September so I could do a booster for her too. The kids are going to a first time goat owner, I haven't said anything about vaccines but want to give them everything they need.
I do not vaccinate my does, hence the questions.
I dewormed my does because they both had fairly pale eyelids and one had clumpy stools. Their color has really improved, their weight looks great, and no more clumpy stools. I am not an advocate for deworming excessively. This is the first year I have ever wormed them and won't be doing it again unless their fecals show a problem. I had always had them on herbs for preventative but ran out and never restocked. My goats are dry lotted so I haven't had a problem in the past. I definitely became overly worried with my does kidding for the first time.
What do you deworm the kids with when they leave? They are going to live on a horse farm. Luckily the two boys are going to live together so it will hopefully help them settle in faster.
I quit vaccinating about ten years ago, but if you are going to do it, you're really too late to get started and advertise the kids as fully vaccinated because you should do two shots, four weeks apart. If you want to vaccinate the does, the manufacturer of the vaccine says they get a yearly booster, and most people do it 2-4 weeks before the does are due to kid so that the kids get some passive immunity before birth.
If your does have had negative fecals, you should not be giving them any dewormer because of the inevitability of dewormer resistance. The more you use a dewormer, the closer you are moving to the day when that dewormer no longer works. So, you should only use it on a goat if that goat actually needs it, as verified by a fecal, FAMACHA score, and/or poor body condition.
The only exception to that rule is that it's a good idea to give a kid a dewormer when they are being sold because the stress of leaving mom and going to a new place can cause an increase in parasites in the kids.
Any suggestions? What do you do when kids leave home?