Hello! I have two doelings and a wether that are now 15 weeks old. For the last two weeks I've been giving them all a little grain (Goat Chow) in the mornings and then taking them out to a fenced in pasture during the day. When I first got them I was feeding Chow morning and evenings, but since they are eating good in the pasture, I haven't been giving any grain in the evenings.
Yesterday I noticed one doeling's belly looked big when I walked them back to the barn. The left side seems larger than the right. Is this normal?
They also have kelp, baking soda and loose minerals in the barn and fresh water at all times in the barn and when out to browse the pasture.
*Concerned new goat mom*
Replies
You should not give them a dewormer unless you know they have an overload of worms. All goats have worms because they eat off the ground, and biodynamic farmers actually say that worms are necessary for a healthy digestive system in ruminants because they act like aerators in the rumen and keep it from getting compacted -- like earth worms in the soil. Anyway, overuse of dewormers has caused widespread resistance to them, and there are no new ones being researched for introduction down the road. USDA researchers say that producers in the southeast US lose 20% of their goats and sheep every year to barberpole worm (haemonchus contortus) now because of dewormer resistance. If you're in an area that has grassy pastures with lots of rain, barberpole is probably a problem in your part of the country. The good news is that it's pretty easy to know when it is causing a problem because it makes the goat anemic, and you can check their iron status by looking at the inside of their eyelid. It should be bright red, but dark pink is good also. White is definitely bad! Someone posted a link to a color chart about a month ago in another thread. I generally look at the whole picture -- eyelids, body condition, and poop (should be berries, not clumps). When in doubt, you can have a fecal done. A fecal can confirm worms, but it can't always rule them out 100% because the goat may not always be shedding eggs, and there is also the possibility of human error in collecting poop and doing fecals.
If ivermectin works, you should continue to use it until it no longer works. They used to say that you should rotate dewormers, but they learned that the practice simply creates the widespread resistance, rather than resistance to a single dewormer.
They were all wormed 5/20 with Ivermectin (oral). How long before I should worm again, and is it a good idea to use a different wormer?