One of my mama goats is looking unthrifty. She acts fine and is nursing three kids who follow her incessantly. We started her on grain again since she delivered three weeks ago. She had a rather bloated looking belly yesterday, but refilling the baking soda compartment on her mineral feeder has definitely helped. Then this morning she looked bloated again and it has, again, receded as the day has progressed. Her eyelids are pale pink, just a tad paler than the other does, but she has a history of needing extra deworming. She is the same goat I wrote about before. Our best milker, most friendly and sweet, but her health is the frailest.
I'm getting ready to do a fecal today, but thought I'd ask here about specific dewormers that are ok for nursing mamas. Also, do some does just seem to be more prone to parasites?
She eats just as much as the others and isn't bullied. She is still friendly and energetic (as energetic as the others... just with three babies fighting to get at her udder perpetually!). Also, is weight loss common for post birth mamas? The other mama who gave birth at the same time is thinner than usual but I wonder how much is the udder pulling things down to make the hips stand out more (if that makes sense).
Many Thanks!!
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I'm remembering that now. :-) Calm after the panic helps with memory.
Deborah Niemann-Boehle said:
The mouth is almost always pale in goats. That's why we check eyelids.
Color seemed to get better, then today worse. Poo has been similar... better, then back to somewhat clumpy today. Body condition is slowly getting better. We're taking another fecal into the vet tomorrow. I'm not confident in my FAMACHA skills, but I have the card, and we've been checking multiple times a day, and my husband and I often see 2 different levels of color (his optimism vs. my pessimism?) He's seeing 3, and I'm seeing between 4 & 5. We did agree that her mouth is pale, though. But that's what we're used to looking at for dogs and cats. Ugh. This is all just stressful.
Deborah Niemann-Boehle said:
The eyelids should start to get darker within a few days.
Okay, wasn't sure if the 2X rule applied to the goat specific Safeguard, but I did follow that protocol.
How soon after the deworming might we see improvement in a doe that has just kidded, given there is a lot more taxing her system than worms? In other words, how long before we know it hasn't worked?
Deborah Niemann-Boehle said:
A single dose of Safeguard at 2X the label dosage is all that's needed unless a goat has tapeworms in which case you do it for three days. But tapeworms don't cause anemia or poor body condition, and you can see them in the goat's poop. What you describe is barber pole worm symptoms, which only require a single dose. I haven't seen any research that has shown four days of Safeguard to be useful for anything. But do be sure to use 2X the dosage on the label.
If the breeder has been using Safeguard for a long time, it may simply not be working any longer because the worms have become resistant, so if it doesn't work, you might need to use something else.
Thank you for this post and the answers here! I just determined after watching my newest doe Maple for a week (2nd freshener, kidded with triplets 1 week ago today) that she needs to be dewormed. Her breeder still follows the Safeguard for 4 days directly after kidding protocol, but I followed the advice here and waited/watched condition. I will now Safeguard because we've had a few days of clumpy poo, body condition isn't good, and lower eyelids are very light pink. I had done the COWP dose recommended here + small sprinklings of Red Cell during pregnancy when I noticed pale pink eyelids and had a fecal come back negative. It now seems clear that deworming is necessary given all the signs + the weather and time of year for my area.
Just for complete disclosure on management in case I'm missing something, Maple gets 1.5 cup of sweet goat grain with a generous sprinkling of kelp & a small sprinkling of BOSS 2x per day, free choice baking soda, free choice Mana Pro goat mineral, 3-4 small flakes of alfalfa hay with her 1 regular flake of grass hay (free choice), light grass browsing in a large paddock (will switch to rotational woodland browsing once kids have some more size on them).
I am working toward multi-species rotational grazing with horses and poultry involved (we only have 2.5-ish acres of open grass pasture), and we have been doing rotational woodland browsing since last year on our almost 3-acre woodlot. I have not dewormed my goats since last spring, but Maple is new since February, so I've done fecals and watched condition more closely since adding her. Maple and her kids are in a large paddock that has essentially been rested since late December and held mostly horses before then. The grass is 2-4 inches long right now, and I have observed Maple browsing occasionally.
I hope I'm on the right track, and it's good to read the experiences of others.
Yay! You're welcome!
Oh good! Thanks for those articles! I was just poring over your book today, but I missed that part... probably because I was looking at every page in the index about weight loss. :) Thanks for your help!
And by the way... off topic, but I love the Poofy Organics makeup! I'm very very happy with it. So glad you introduced me to it. :)
You should not need to give a second dose. If you haven't seen much improvement in a week, and you give a second dose and still don't see an improvement, you are dealing with dewormer resistance. Here is an excerpt from Raising Goats Naturally that talks about that:
http://www.homegrownandhandmadethebook.com/2015/03/dewormer-resista...
And here is another excerpt that talks about preventing parasite problems:
http://www.homegrownandhandmadethebook.com/2015/04/internal-parasit...
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