dewormer question

[Christina R.]

I'm doing fall maintainance with the animals and ran up against a question. I knew the injectable ivomec needed to be administered about a month before the cow is rebred. When we read the label for the exact amount of time ahead, the vet and I noticed that it can' t be used in dairy cattle (probably because a milk withdrawal time hasn't been established). The vet said he knew of some oral dewormwers that we could probably use. He was going to look into it. Meanwhile, what do you guys have for ideas? Is pour on ivomec safe? What else do you use? I was going to breed her back in about 3 weeks, but will have to wait until the beginning of Nov. now. Since I have a closed herd of one cow and one calf besides the goats and chickens, am I worrying about deworming for nothing or should I definitely deworm? Thanks for your input.

[uncle Will in In.]

Adult cattle seem to get along well even though they haven't been wormed. If it upsets you system to worm her, I'd skip it.

[opus]

Lot of variables concerning worming. If you cant use ivomec injectable, I doubt you can use it pour-on. Safeguard is an excellent product to use that is safe.

Oh....1 cow, not too sure I would worry about it much. I just re-read and noticed that.

Does she look wormy? What BCS is she?

[Christina R.]

She doesn't look wormy and never has had worms. I thought it was a standard part of the fall maintainance program (shots, etc.). The vet said we could do a fecal if we wanted to be extra sure. The vet is a good friend of ours, so he sees her fairly regularly when he's visiting us. He has always said her BCS is great. Some former small scale dairy farmers have always said she looks great.


I guess I'll skip the wormer this time and look for Safeguard if a problem arises.

[opus]

I dont think I would worry too much about worms, maybe lice as time goes on. Shots will depend on your area and what is prevelant, lepto and such.

In the industry, people tend to get over excited with shot, just like they do with vaccinations with kids. I cowboyed on an outift where they were drug happy. If the cow wasnt sick, give it a shot so it will get sick...then we can treat it.

Anyways..........

[landlord]

I used a drench for my cattle named, Valbazen. I also drenched my sheep with it. For the cattle, I mixed it with just a little feed the steer is fed. I tested it a bit to make sure they would eat it and then fed them individually. The steer unfortuanately was not receptive to the idea and did eventually clean up his feed. But the cows and heifers did slick their feed right up.

Granted, they will get another worming for lice and internal parasites but I am apprehensive due to their gestation is 7 months along now.