Pepper is an older goat, who has birthed numerous times. I bought her pregnant last January, she had one boy this May. I sold her kid one month ago, at 5 months of age. Her milk supply so low, less than 6 oz. a day. She is pooping solid long poops, like a dog. She eats very well, alflafa, pelleted grain, crab apples, carrots, brassicas, grass, bushes, cider vinegar and sunflower seeds, the same as the rest of the herd. Ive been bringing her warm water to drink alone. She does not want it. I do not see her drink. I have not wormed her yet, but am thinking about it. Her eyelids look pink though. Any ideas of what her feces and lack of milk might be trying to tell me?
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There is no need to dry her up or stop drinking her milk at this point. All goats have worms. The problem is that the worms are probably overloading her system right now.
If you deworm her, she should bounce back very quickly. I've seen does increase their supply within a couple days of being dewormed. Milk withdrawal with Safeguard is annoying. The withdrawal time in cows is zero, but for some weird reason, the manufacturer has not done testing on goats. Purdue says 4 days milk withdrawal, so after you give her the dewormer, you just need to dump the milk for four days.
Thanks for the replies, I guess I meant it was late, in the fact that I had not done enough to pump up her system to prevent the worms. I am only worried about using the Safeguard in terms of milking. It is not clear for me if there is a wormer, natural or chemical, that will work and eventually be able to use her milk again. I have stopped drinking her milk, but am still taking the little she has out, to keep her from drying up. Any advice on whether I should just dry her up anyway, for her own health? Or is worming her enough, while I pump and dump until the lag time is through?
PS. The woman is wrong about goats only getting worms if they are copper deficient. It has been proven to help CONTROL the counts, but ANY goat can get worms. There are many MANY factors that contribute to worm load, and copper is only one piece of the puzzle.
It is only too late if the goat is dead. If you have Safeguard, you can give it a try. Although a copper-deficient goat will have a much harder time with parasites than one who is not deficient, it is not the only thing that matters. I personally prefer copper oxide wire particles (COWP) instead of copper sulfate because there is less of a risk of toxicity with the copper oxide. COWP is sold under the trade name Copasure. You can buy goat-sized boluses if you only have a few goats, or you can buy cattle boluses and break them up into smaller goat-sized doses, which is a pain if you don't have a lot of goats, but it is also a little cheaper.
I was reading a recipe for a natural dewormer by a lady who believes worms can only get to a goats system if they are copper deficient. I have Safeguard in the cupboard. But her recipe says this:
use a teaspoon of dolomite, half a teaspoon of copper sulfate and a teaspoon of vitamin C powder. Put this dry straight into the mouth from a film container.
But she is from Australia and soil is different everywhere.
How do you worm your goats if its already too late?
Thanks Deborah, I will worm her. I milk my mommas only in the morning, after a night of separation from their kids. I let them graze together in the daytime. Once I gave him away though, her supply drastically dropped. As you say, perhaps he was not drinking much anyway. I saw that your book is out, I am really looking forward to it as a Christmas present from family. Seems it will be answers to many questions for me. But thank you SO much for this insight today. Take care
"Pink" does not say much about her eyelids. The difference between light and dark pink is the difference between death and life. A low milk supply coupled with poop like that is often caused by worms. I'm assuming you've been milking her every day before selling her buck. If you have not been milking her every day before selling him, then he may not have been nursing much any longer.