Putting weight on Goats and Wormers

[ONThorsegirl]

Hi everyone, I was wondering who to put weight on goats? Or anyone have or know of sites that show body condition scores of Goats, I know you can find them for sheep and cattle, but goats?

Is Sheep Ivomec Drench good for goats? Can you use Valbazen?

Melissa

[hoofinitnorth]

Traditional body condition scoring for goats scale of 1-9 (similar to Henneke scale for horses):
http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/an_sci/exte...oat/MG-BCS.htm

Body condition scoring for goats scale of 1-5 with link to pictorial examples:
http://www2.luresext.edu/GOATS/research/bcshowto.html

Body condition scoring for meat goats scale of 1-5: http://bedford.extension.psu.edu/agr...%20Scoring.htm

Alternative resource scale of 1-5:
http://kinne.net/bcs.htm

Body condition scoring for meat goats scale of 1-5: http://bedford.extension.psu.edu/agr...%20Scoring.htm



Putting weight on starts with lots of high quality hay, plenty of clean, fresh water, shelter adequate to provide warmth, shade, and protection from wind and rain/snow, and good management. Before deworming, have a fecal (or two) done to see what, if anything, needs treatment. Check the teeth and be sure they are able to chew adequately. Also, consult a vet and get some ideas on basic nutrition and health for any skinny goats. They may have something else going on (such as a metabolic challenge or a more temporary illness) that you can't diagnose without their help as you may need to run blood work or have some imaging done on internal organs.

I am not familiar enough with the wormers you mentioned to help you there.

[Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians]

The oral forum of ivermectin is so low in the sheep drench you are having to give goats way too much of it. Ivermectin is more concentrated in the pouron or in the injectable, both which are used orally...and they are cheaper.

Valbazen depends...it's safe after the first trimester or implantation period, but it isn't safe if you worms you are treating are resistant to benzasoles. Remember that for years the only wormers that were availabel before Ivermectin were only benzasoles...thiabensazole (TBZ) and it was never a very good wormer anyway. People used to use arsenic! Valbazen is my choice for baby goat wormings, but my babies do not live in pens that have adult goats or adult larve in them, and baby worming here is about tapes. So know what worms you have and what wormer works in your area on those worms. vicki