The ever popular question - worms

[Dhirly]

I was just wondering if anyone has had any luck with holistic remedies for worms in goats. I hate the thought of "poisoning" them. I have had my horses on a natural dewormer for over two years with great success but the goats don't like it of course. Kind of hard to use if they won't eat it! Any suggestions? I am going to have fecal tests before I try anything. They were just wormed with Cydectin on 10/31/04. I only have two 6 month old goatlets (for now!) so individual programs would be possible.

Thanks!!

Dhirly

[Jen H]

Here are my thoughts on the herbal wormers vs the chemical wormers.

If you choose the herbal wormers, you're giving your critters a constant low dose of substances toxic to the worms (wormwood is used alot for this). This constant exposure to the toxic substances just breeds worms that are resistant to those substances, and then you get a critter that's really sick with worms that are really hard to kill. So you end up having to use much more of the "chemical" wormer to get the problem under control than if you had just used the "chemical" wormer a couple of times a year as necessary. In addition, some of those toxic substances will be absorbed by the goat and get into the milk and meat - which means that you are eating these substances as well.

Chemical wormers have specific withdrawal times. For 2 weeks after using most of them you don't drink the milk or slaughter the animal in order to let the chemical pass out of their system. So you yourself are not ingesting these toxic chemicals. Chemical wormers are normally used only a couple times a year (this depends on what part of the country you live in and on your specific situation). The goats are not constantly exposed to the same toxic substance, so the worms don't build up the same kind of immunity - meaning that the worm problem in general is easier to deal with.

Just my $.02.

[desnri]

I'm a new goat owner and have chosen not to use chemical wormers. I have searched for herbal wormers to use and have found a website you might be interested in: fiascofarm.com. Molly has some good info in this site.

Rita

[Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians]

Just one little thing to add to Jen's wonderful post. Make sure that information you use on worming, cocci control, and mineral information in your goats comes from someone in your geographical location. You will notice that most folks with good experiences with herbal wormers, and those that sell it are from the frozen north. Herbal wormers without you knowing how to fecal can be a death sentence for those of us in the south. Vicki