[maybelle]

I was just wondering what people use to worm their goats. I spoke to someone and they said you have to take them to the vets and they have to be injected.

[Anke]

No it depends on the wormer you use. If their droppings are on the loose side, its best to have them tested and from that you know which worms are present. Than the vet can advise on which wormer, and you can either drench them or inject them yourself. If they are milking only Panacur (white drench) is allowed with a 7 day withdrawal period for human consumption.

It also depends a bit on if you keep sheep on the same land and what their background re worms is.

It is (in my opinion) necessary that any goatkeeper can inject in an emergency, if you don't know it is best to get the vet (or an experienced goatkeeper) to show you. It gets easier, although I find goats make more of a fuss than sheep....

[maybelle]

Thanks anke for your advice. I rung the vet and he recommended a product called dectamax. I was just wondering if they had got to go to the vets or whether they could be wormed at home. They were wormed regularly in the past. The only problem I have is they are going to be on the same area all year round, should I fence off half their paddock? New to keeping goats so I am still learning.

[ballingall]

Ours only have acess to the one field as well. So what we do is rest the field every year for about 6 weeks. During those 6 weeks we have nothing on the field at all, we generally rest it from early December to mid or late January. The goats don't normally get out at all during this time, but we can take them for walks if need be. We worm fairly regularly, and get their dung sampled if we suspect any issues. We also generally keep two types of wormer (there are 3 basic types or families of wormer, a clear one, a white one, and a yellow one).

I also agree with everything Anke says above!


Beth

[Hermit]

You can worm at home using a drench just like a sheep. You do need to speak to the vet though as there is not a licenced goat wormer and he will recommend a suitable sheep one for your goats. We are using Combinex on our vets advice but that will change  for next time so an immunity is not built up.We were advised against using the milk for a  week after worming as well.

[maybelle]

Thanks all for the advice. Its sounds like with the horse wormers I use a resistance issue rotating every so often. The vet did say there wasnt a licenced goat wormer. I have got to ring the vet back on monday, I will talk to him regarding worming them. Would it be best to split their paddock in half and keep them in one side for a few weeks ?

[Anke]

Forgot to say that the dose for goats is between 1.5 and 1.8 times the sheep dose, so they need a higher dose. The vet might not know this.

You can get the weight of a goat from her girth measurement, there are tables in most of the goat vet books. If you send me the measurement (and breed) I can look up what her weight should be.

I have about 3/4 of an acre fenced off for the goats, but have now let the cattle graze it down for a few days. Then will rest if for as long as possible (at least until the cowpats have disappeared...) and take the goats for walks into the orchard (on the lead as my trees are still very young). Hopefully that will allow any worm eggs etc to be eaten off and the field will be clear for next spring.

If your field is quite big it would be good if you could fence (I use electric tape, like the horses one) off one half and alternate, but best would be to have some cattle and or horses graze it down every so often. But not sheep, they have the same parasites as goats.

[maybelle]

Their paddock isnt huge but it could be split. The only problem is I dont have any cows, and the gate isnt big enough to get my horse through 
Thanks for offering to work out the weight will get back to you with the measurement 

[Cinderhills]

I use Levacide (drench for goats, injection for sheep for some reason) but there is a withdrawl period but we don't milk ours.   I too have to get their correct weight so I think I will invest in a goat vet book on Amazon.

Anke - what is the title of the book you have?

[Anke]

Hi, I use Peter Dunn's "Goatkeeper's veterinary book", but actually it doesn't have a weight chart in it... However it doesn't have a weight chart in it, but I think the mighty tome of John Matthews "Diseases of the Goat" has (it is nearly 40 quid and on my Xmas list...)

I have got two weight vs girths tables, one taken from P Oldfield's "goatkeepign without the nonsense", a very short and general intro to goatkeeping and the other was sent to me by a goatkeeper. I will try and attach the xcel file here, but not sure if it works.

[Cinderhills]

Thanks Anke, you're a star.  What is the weight referring to in the last column?  It's slightly different to the one in the middle column.

[Anke]

I have two lists of girth vs weight - the two right hand side columns are the slightly different weights. Just so that you can see the two are very similar. I have used one for my kids (and weighed the kids on my bathroom scales as well), and it corresponds reasonably well. I think it works better for adults, but I have not weighed my adults, as I don't have any sheep scales (yet!).

[Isla]

Hello.  Hope someone sees this post on an old thread!

I'm just trying to make sense of the BGS site information:

Safe grazing is pasture that was not grazed by goats or sheep in the second half of the previous year or pasture ungrazed until mid-July when over wintered larvae have died off.  Delay grazing animals until over wintered larvae on the pasture have died off mid-July.  If safe grazing is available in the spring, worm in the spring at kidding time, worm again in June and move onto safe pasture.  If no safe pasture is available, worm in the spring at kidding time, then worm every 3 weeks from spring to autumn.

Paddock has been empty since August 2015 (previous owners had horses).  So I guess that makes it safe grazing?  As it's now June, should I worm the goats?  The goats have no symptoms and their stools are firm.

[Isla]

I get FEC worm counts done (poo samples to the vet, they'll probably send off to the lab for analysis).  Depending on the results of the counts will depend on whether or not you worm and with which product.  Mine get tested for liver and rumen fluke, cocci and worms all from the same sample.

Thank you.  How often do you get worm counts done?

[Bluff]

We only have one field and worm via a drench (Noramectin (?)) as required. Meaning when they have kidded, when they have abnormal poop and when we first turn them out. Field is rested usually end of nov to beg of Feb as a minimum to save poaching.
We also have a v high cocci burden for some reason so kids are routinely given baycox once or twice when they turn out with their mum.
We use the drench as an opportunity to administer copper bolus as well.