There have been a few issues brought up lately about checking eyelids that made me want to put out this community service bulletin.
FAMANCHA is valueable, but is one of three checks that you should be doing in your regular field checks. Not all common parasites cause anemic conditions, which why we check the eyes. Stated differently, your goat could be loaded with stomach worms and have great FAMANCHA scores.
To FAMANCHA you need to add body condition scoring and coat condition checks. They can all be done almost in one fluid motion. Catching the goat is the hardest part. These three tools are early indicators that a goat has a parasite problem so that you can rectify the problem early and easily. Don't be like me and wait until you have an visibly sick goat and are throwing "Hail Mary's" down field trying to save her.
While FAMANCHA is a sure fire instant indicator of baddies like liver flukes and barber pole, the other two tools are "relative change" indicators that do well for the rest of the usual suspects. For BCS and coat condition changes to be useful, you need to note the individual goats condition over time. For example, I have a goat that is normally Ms. Piggy that came out of kidding like a rail. A fecal showed she was pretty loaded, and probably was like that well before kidding but I missed it. Her FAMANCHA score was nice, by the way. My dairy goats always seem to hover around a BCS of 2, so they don't have much room for indicating a problem. But I've been making some diet changes that will hopefully help that. I depend on BCS as much as anything to tell me something is up, and getting just a little more weight on them will help me a lot.
Body condition scoring is easier than it sounds. You are basically gauging the bony-to-fat condition on a scale. 1 to 5 is a common one where 1 is skinny and 5 is obese. If you know your carcass, the backstrap is basically where you are feeling--along the flats of the spine, the spine itself, and also down the ribs. How you actually score isn't really that important. One person's 3 is another's 2. The important thing is that you can detect a change in condition.
Coat condition is pretty self explanatory. Silky and soft is good. Wire and course is not. Patchy is bad. Again, it is a relative change thing. I have goats that are very healthy but are rather unpleasant to touch. But I could still tell when they change. We tend to associate poor skin condition with lice and mites, but nutrition issues--which can be internal parasite driven--are also factors in skin/coat condition. But don't overlook the obvious. They'll have their share of external parasites.
The kicker about BCS and coat condition is that poor nutrition also leads to issues with them. Not just parasites. So it may not be the wisest thing to reach for the dewormer when you have an issue. I have occasional lax times when it comes to free choice minerals. "Oh, the bag is empty and I haven't gotten around to stealing one from the cows." Days turn into weeks turn into crummy health. Don't ask me how I know.
For the record, I'm no pro at this and have plenty of management blunders. Everyone has their own management resources, abilities, and philosophy, so I don't want to say what do to to rectify any of the above indications. Maybe some of the others here can chime in and amplify or correct what I've posted?
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