I am brand new and no very little about goats. My human kids are in 4H and wanted goats. We purchased 3 wethers about who are about 5 months old. The first two months were so easy and now worms! Tapeworm in their stool which is diharrea. I am worming them with safeguard and giving them scour. What else if anything should i be doing??? I am also terribly paranoid that my kids have been exposed to tapeworms. Anyone hear of someone getting tapeworms from goats? I am in freakout mode and appreciate any information
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Deborah,
Thanks so much for your reply. The medicine is called Specto Guard Scour Chek and I guess it's suppose to get their poop back to normal??? And yes you hit the nail on the head when you say it's worse for my mental health! I do not consider myself to be a wimp but I've been cleaning up some pretty disgusting things over the last 2 days (and I've got three human kids :) Yesterday I could only eat "crunchy" pretzels all day! I did worm them for 3 days in a row and was told by another goat person to wait one week give them 1 dose, wait another week and give them one more dose. She said that will more than cover the lifecycle of the worms and they should be OK. Do you feed your goats any "natural" foods to help prevent worms?? I've read things like cinnamon, and parsley help. Also should I just simply stick to a regular worming regiment every 8 weeks? The breeder told me to worm "as needed". I don't feel confident enough yet in my goat knowledge to pick up on when they may be getting wormy. I didn't notice until they had diarrhea. Also since I live in Florida I imagine worms might be more common? Thanks so much for your help. I compared this to having your first baby...you learn as you go and hope everyone comes out OK in the end! LOL Glad your son is OK :)
The odds of tapeworm transmission to humans is pretty slim. I haven't personally heard of it happening, although supposedly jockeys used to purposely infect themselves with tapeworms to keep their weight down, so it is possible. When you say your children are in 4-H, I assume that means they are past the stage of putting everything in their mouths. One of my children ate cat poop as a toddler and suffered no ill effects. He is now a healthy adult!
To treat tapes with Safeguard, most people say you need to treat for 3 days in a row. "Scour" normally means diarrhea in livestock, so I'm not sure what you mean when you say you're giving them scour?
Tapes are not usually a big deal unless it is a really big load. I know a vet who raises kiko goats, and she says that tapeworms are worse for the mental health of the breeder than the physical health of the goat. They do freak me out too, simply because they look so disgusting!