Organic treatment for worms.

[Faith Farm]

Two of my 18 month old heifers are showing signs of worms.
Their rumps and tails are covered with dung. What is an
Organic treatment for worms? thanks
Paul

[agmantoo]

Where did you get the info that manure on the rear was associated with parasites?

[furholler]

I've read that Kaopectate (sp) works for scours. Also back off on feed a bit. For worms, I've used D.E. on pigs and goats, seemed to work. I'm no expert, just sharing what I've learned.

[Faith Farm]

An older local farmer mentioned it to me and I read a book
by a beef farmer Alan Nation "Stocker Cattle". He said the dung
build up on the tail indicates worms and manure on each side of the butt
indicates coccidiosis. I read agricultural D.E. works but I wanted to get other opinions.
These signs have just recently appeared on two heifers which came from
another farm 1 mile from here late summer. My other heifers are from another rancher
late spring. I had 24 other head here up to early fall. We had no signs of worms or any
thing else and all were wormed this year.
Paul

[Paula]

For a cow's tail to become covered with poo, they have to have bad diarrhea. Has to shoot straight out to cover the tail. Your cows need to be checked by a vet. There are several things that can cause what you're describing, the worst of which is Johnes, which is considered fatal and can remain in your soil to contaminate your other cows for up to a year.
We're very naturally oriented when it comes to animal feeding and care, for instance our cows are only grass and hay fed. No unnecessary meds. But we've had cows with Johnes on this place before we knew better, and now have a previously healthy registered Jersey who has to go to the sale barn because of it. Thank goodness it's just our 14 acre place that's contaminated and not the 180 acre farm where the main herd is. If I were you, knowing what I know now I would isolate the two, take them to the vet, and keep them isolated till test results come back.
Don't mean to be all gloom and doom, and it's probably something else that can be fixed. Young cows actually don't usually show signs of Johnes till the stress of their first freshening. I'm just very cautious because I've been through the worst case scenario.
It's awful.

[Paula]

BTW, older stock usually don't have problems with coccidia. It's usually youngsters.
Maybe BVD (more common this time of year,) some plant they got into, bad hay, etc.
I'd get them to the vet and not take a chance with my herd though... well worth the price of a vet visit when you consider what you could lose.

[Faith Farm]

Thanks Paula, agmantoo and furholler for your concern.
I'll call the vet in the AM and seperate the two then I'll call the fellow
I bought them from this past summer. They are the only one's from a totally
different herd. I noticed another heifer tonight with bright red blood spots on
her upper tail. They all are very bright eyed and frisky. Nothing other than
these signs appear to be abnormal. Boy o boy. I had another herd coming
over from a 25 acre paddock next door next week. That won't be happening now. Thanks

[jeffreyc256]

I have heard that tobacco is the old natural wormer, something like a couple of pouches of red man or something like that. You can also try and inturrupt the life cycle of certain worms by rotational grazing. the worms come out in dung and either are eaten or climb back up legs of grazing animals. By rotating on fresh pasture every few days you start to inturrupt the worm life cycle

[Ken Scharabok]

Joel Salatin swears by adding a bit a Shaklee Basic H to the drinking water and sprinking some DE on their feed he has completely eliminated the need to worm on his farm. However, at that time he had a closed herd, now I believe he brings in yearlings to fatten out on his forages.

Shaklee goes out of their way to say their product is not sold as a dewormer, nor is there any scientific findings to support it doing so. Same for basically DE. Results vs coincidence sometimes cannot be separated.

So you go with a cattle dewormer in the spring. Something like 10cc to 800-1200 pounds of cow. What is the big deal? If you don't like under the hide injections, there are protein blocks with the dewormer added to them available, so they work directly in the digestive system.

I had one cow with severe manure buildup on her tail. Her problem is she would simply dump while laying down. If it was a bit loose, it caked up on her tail.

[Shazza]

I have heard that a garlic/bran mix given at certain times to coincide with full moons etc is an excellent way to worm your cattle.... I have never tried it though....I can suss out the article that was in one of our Dexter Bulletins a while back, if you want me too.

[Valmai]

----ty backsides is not generally a sign of worms. Are their poos normal or runny? Do they have a pot belly? Could you do a FEC? Have you changed their diets? Have you moved them on to very lush pasture recently? You want answers and all I give is questions...

[agmantoo]

Dirty backsides are a result of loose bowels, not an indication of worms! Every cow I have has crap on their rear at this time as a result of eating frost bitten clover excessively. Problems from worms are indicated by dull eyes, poor hair coats, swollen bellies, knots on the neck, unthrifty growth/gains, etc. Some breeds of cattle have a natural resistance to many types of parasites. Have you ever asked yourself this question, who worms all those cattle wandering around in India? It is not necessary to worm all the cattle in the herd either. Twice a year I run my herd through the corral to treat and I only treat those individuals that have symptoms of parasites. This saves money and does not destroy the dung beatle population.

[Faith Farm]

Good news!
This morning I called the girls in from the back 20 and who comes
running up first? You guessed it, the two I was concerned about.
They were jumping and twisting all the way to the feed bunk.
To my great relief the dunged butt of one was completely clear and the other was almost gone. My buddy ol Don came over to examine them for me
and said not to worry. They were laying in their own crap and said my girls
are in great shape showing no signs of any of the discussed ailments.
Don is a 70+ old beef farmer who grew up on the next farm over. He has
run cattle his hole life and still has a 100+ head herd. He has experienced
almost every kind of situation over the years including a lightning strike
which killed 13 beautiful cows. He was hit also and survived.
We will keep a closer eye on them for the next several days.
Thanks again, Paul

[Faith Farm]

One MOOO thing.
I did recently open another paddock for them down near the pond which
is fenced out but the vegetation is healthy. A few days later is when these symptoms appeared. That was my first thought, new grass, something strange in the field, I'm not sure. Yesterday and today I walked the fields
and could not find runny manure any where although it has rained the last
few days rather heavily. Well, I prayed over these girls today specifically
for a healing and a good cleaning out if need be. The Lord will take care of
the rest.