All the talk of fecal samples and doing your own floats got me looking for an inexpensive microscope... and I didn't really find one I could justify buying right now...
UNTIL
I was at the thrift store today, looking for costume goodies, and walking the isles. I spotted a Tasco 750X kiddy microscope! I took it out of the box, and tried it, and it WORKS! Best part of all? It was $3.00 so even if it turns out not to be that great for fecal floats, I didn't spend too much, or need to pay shipping to return it!! I'm pretty excited. lol
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I think things will be fine as long as those darn heavy monsoon winds don't blow crap on my property :-) We get really bad winds and sand storms ( like afganhistan and Iraq and Arizona does). The lady that I got the two new goats, never immunized or de-wormed her goats... I've learned so much that at least it's in my head if indeed problems do occur I won't be blind sided on what to do. You guys have been so helpful and I'm so appreciative.
Patty made some very good points. I didn't have any parasite issues for the first couple years I had goats. Sounds like you had clean pastures when you got the goats. They don't share parasites with any of the animals you mentioned.
As the days go by, I'm getting less and less confused. I'm just the type of person that needs to know details in order to make a rational decisions. When there too many conflicting details on the same subject, confusion sets in. More so there aren't people in my area to assist..
I guess there is no definite way of "seeing" the eggs float.
I've been here since 1997. A year before that, the man that owned this passed away. He had animals here. I think one steer and maybe some chickens and a dog.. don't know what else. He had pens all over the place mostly behind me, not in the 1/2 acre.. So since 1996-to present there have been no livestock/animals over in the 1/2 acre except maybe stray cats pooping over there (my dogs find that)... I found just a couple of cluster poops, not many. I wonder if raisins cause that or what foods would. I haven't been giving them anything but raisins at treats..
It is possible there were no eggs to see. When I first got my does, I had my cat/dog vet do a fecal. She only found one egg. For about the first year that I had my goats, I only ever found one or two eggs on a slide when I did fecals. Finally, this past spring, I started to find larger numbers of eggs. I would have to assume that when the vet only found one, there was only one to find. Also, knowing the management style of the herd my girls came from, I would say there could have been only that one.
Also, sometimes there are worms present, but they're in a sort of hibernation. I can't remember the word for that right now, but essentially, the parasites are in the host, but not active. They're not shedding worms at that time, so nothing would show up in the fecal. The good news it that if they're not active, they're also not causing further damage to the goat.
I have to say I think your goats look good, and I haven't read anything describing any symptoms that make me think they're in any danger. Your land looks fairly dry and sparse in the pics, so that would also help to limit the parasites that could get into your goats. It sounds like you haven't had the goats too long, and that can also help limit the parasite load. If your land was parasite free when you put the goats there, it MIGHT take a while for the load to build up, maybe even a couple of years before you might see a problem that needs your attention.
I don't know if any of this is helping to ease your mind, or just making you more confused. I guess I'm rambling as I try to help you out, since there are so many variables that play a part in the parasite problem. Sorry I can't do a better, more clear job of laying things out for you.
In the end what I hope you get from this is, I hope you can relax and not stress about this. I really do think that you'll do fine, and most likely detect any problems in plenty of time to deal with them. It's quite possible that you don't have a problem right now, which would be good news for you! :)
That's what I thought at least one.
Yes it is a higher end one. Celestron Mirco 360 biological microscope. http://www.highpointscientific.com/product/CEL-44125/Celestron-Micr... I strained it in a very tightly meshed strainer and the liquid was brown but under the microscope, I could see the circles like black tire rings -- air ... and very very little debris. I don't think that the eggs floated. I did it with a slip cover and then with out a slip cover.. using a epson salt solution with the same results and a karo syrup solution, same result. I ordered a fecal float today and if I have the same outcome, then I have the cleaned goats in the world LOL
I would think that you'd see at least a couple eggs on a goat or two. Zero parasites is next to impossible. Does your microscope have high enough magnification? If not, the eggs would just look like little dots. If there was a lot of debris, that might have limited your ability to see the eggs. My daughter used to strain the smooshed poop and liquid through a milk filter that she had shaped into a cone -- NOT using it in the milk filtering funnel! Made it very easy to see eggs because there was nothing else in the liquid.
Trish said:
I just did fecals, on three of the goats and used the epson salt and then again with the karo syrup method. There were no worms, parasites etc. That doesn't sound right. I ordered a fecal float. I don't think the eggs floated. There are supposed to at least "some" eggs... I think..?
That's kind of what I thought, Margaret!! lol
That's cool Rachel! Happy for you! I don't know anything about doing the fecals but if I found that deal, I would jump on it too and learn to do them!