I have heard this, I read on the net...what have you tested to be true in your own farm? Take with a huge grain of salt anything that comes from folks who just pass on information...a univeristy study, someone who uses wormers and fecals, well yes, than pause and read. I would never think about moving to a lesser wormer from some info on the net, just what you don't need, a wormy just bred doe. Worm your does before you breed them, fecal each month, what you normally find is that most bred does rarely need wormings in the winter when bred. Even here in parasite heaven! But be ware, just because there are no eggs, doesn't mean blood sucking moms aren't laying in wait for kidding day!
.................................................. .
You need to take a deep breath. The worse thing you can do at this point is to now add a new product to your goats diet. Beet Pulp is very high in calories from sugar it is very high in roughage, you already are offering her free choice roughage (alfalfa pellets), why does she need more? I would not increase the oats...3 pounds is enough (and hopefully we are talking about a full sized dairy goat?), especially if they are whole oats and an actual weight of 3 pounds and not just a measure of 3 pounds...that's a lot of grain for a doe who is being milked once a day and giving 1/2 gallon. Going to once a day milking will give her extra calories to gain some weight. The dry period that your doe should be gaining weight in is not before she is bred (although alot of folks do dry their does up then) she is supposed to be milking while bred, and kidding after a dry period of about 50 days...huge difference between what she was bred to do and what normal folks do. Shows how resiliant goats are. Keep milking her if you need the milk, quit switching from this to this or adding this or that, each change takes her months to build beneficial bacteria in her gut to assimlate the new change.
And please worm her, what a perfect opportunity, worm her in the evening and then the next morning move her relatively worm free to her new pen.
"I've been pretty aggressive with herbal wormer " Is this a good thing? Is it working? What worms is the herbal wormer killing? Any? Why not just use a chemical wormer that works (Cydectin 1cc per 25 pounds given orally) once and be done with it, instead of using herbs over and over monthly? It simply makes no sense. We are having a paristologist at our meeting in November, I am hoping the info on the feed through wormer you are using is out and at the meeting, but in most feed through trials what was found out was that it works if used at labeled dosages, on goats with low worm burdens. Doesn't sound from the info you have given us that your goat has a low worm burden. Anything that would make your doe anemic needs to be handled quickly and thoroughly. As long as it took her to get out of shape it will take her longer to get back into shape. So why let them get that way at all?
Worm her, quit switching stuff around because of something new you read, give her a chance to build her blood levels back up to a healthier color under her eyelids, before you breed her (red cell or lixotinic work well, you can purchase them from jefferspet.com in the livestock section).....if you want to fret, fret over minerals
If you want to fix worm burdens so you don't have to chemical or herbal worm often fix you minerals. To increase the fat in her diet you could up the amount of BOSS, really an expensive fat, but with just one goat it is a very good one!
This tmie of year (unless shaved) a doe should be developing winter hair, it would be tough to see ribs under this new hair. Always feel of her ribs, if she is nothing but ribs and flesh than yes, she is too thin, but a dairy goat should be long and lean...she should be strong, and wide with lots of width throughout also. Many ill bred does are simply skeletally thin, no amount of grain will improve her width of skeleton. So check her ribs, try to get her slowly to have a good layer of flesh over her ribs, then breed her, perhaps in November if she is thin right now. No way you can improve her in just 2 weeks. Increasing her BOSS will also go a long way into flushing her, so although thin, she can ovulate more than 1 egg, and implant them. Just keep her diet excellent through lactation, dry her up at day 100, but keep her diet the same until she kids. If you do dry her before then you will have to back her off grain, increasing the grain slowly at day 100. Good luck with your doe. Vicki
