Worming after goat doe or ewe delivers

The current recommendations are to to NEVER deworm on a schedule including after kidding/lambing. While there is a period of immune suppression after parturition, if you deworm everything around the same time you are eliminating refugia and selecting hard for resistant parasites to keep reproducing and contaminating your pastures where adults pick them up as new breeding worm populations in their gut - and where offspring pick them up to become infected with a more resistant population.

By far and away the #1 control of parasites should be management. Decrease the amount they are exposed to by having appropriate levels of grazing (changes with season and seasonal conditions - something commonly overlooked), rotating pastures, and cleanliness at feeders. Deworm ONLY when necessary, with an optimal dose and drug for the parasite of choice. Never deworm everything, or animals that don't require it. Deworming is a choice that should be made based on the whole picture: body condition, fecal consistency, fecal egg count, age, and famancha score.

Oodles and tons of good information on the website wormx.info - which is the american consortium of small ruminant parasite control.

Bear foot farm, I agree in doing so after birth. I have seen goats go down, and die from a worm overload on a friends farm. Who, by the way didn't worm after birth. The thought of losing a goat nursing her young ones due to not worming, is beyond acceptable in what we have witnessed. However, I just don't know if it is the same for the sheep or not? I do know worms can be a problem as can the resistance to wormers.

Great reminder Caprice Acres, I have followed and read the wormix site and watched videos and so on. Also, I agree the Famacha eye checks can be helpful and watching poop and taking fecals whenever there is a question! I have been the record keeper for this farm, and have been consistent in reinforcing the importance of it and keeping track of what we learn...who is weaker, and what we give if needed.

We have wormed only when needed, and watched to see results and follow up with fecals. Now, mind you we have small flocks of various animals, but are also trying to learn how to do this without getting carried away with overdoing anything!

Trying to stay natural and following those who are using some natural methods and proper grazing and pasturing.

Also, following those who ae using herbs, copper, garlic(They LOVE GARLIC!!!) The goats love pine trees/branches, and eat the needles...all of which, we are seeing if it affects them.

We have deer in the area and they are plentiful! ...So, worms are a worry due that alone! Also, we have been having so MUCH RAIN! Ugh, if it would just stop raining!

The first year I didn't deworm (last year, IIRC) after kidding was scary, but successful. I did deworm at least one that I recall, and two this year - month or two after kidding. The major sign I delt with was poor famancha score, clumpy poo, and poor milk production. My high producer on her last milk test gave a pittance (for her - 8.5 lbs). She was dewormed slightly before that test. This test that I'm doing today she looks to be producing around 12lbs if she produces what she did this morning again tonight. I probably would have caught it sooner if I didn't live an hour away in vet school while my dad takes care of them. But they were far from poor off, suffering mainly in production rather than health. Body conditions and general appearance all still great, no diarrhea. It can be done safely and IMO, the research is where I'd like to follow for my herd as it is more than just opinion - and while goat people have been so upset there hasn't been much research in goats, now that there does seem to be some, they're still often willing to go with what has been done or anecdotal advice it seems. Everyone is guilty of that, myself included.

Being on a good plane of nutrition does help prevent health problems in general, and helps them get over illnesses better when they are exposed. It doesn't matter if they're dam raised or bottle raised, it depends on nutrition and management. Much more is at play with young stock and parasites (and diseases in general) - some we have no power over or don't necessarily consider as playing a role. It is also the reason some don't have trouble with parasites when others do. Young stock are always more susceptible as natural resistance to parasites takes an immune system (of any age) about 6 months to mature. If they are raised with their dams, they are often exposed to much higher rates than if they are pulled at birth and raised in kid pens. Rotating pastures and cleanliness at feeders also play a huge role - feeding on the ground is a huge no-no, as are feeders that goats can climb in and mess in. Season differences year to year - really wet years vs dry years will play a large role in your worm problems year to year and can explain differences in parasite problems year to year.

There is a period of post-partum immunosuppression. It is less to do with 'hormones' and more to do with the inflammatory state of an animal after parturition. It means that post partum animals should be watched closely, but not that all will need to be dewormed. Deworm those that need it, with an appropriate dose of an effective dewormer, when they need it. I'm also personally trying to use dewormers in combination now, which is proven to be effective in large sheep producing countries like new zealand and australia. We don't have any dewormers labeled for combination use here in the US however.

Remember, the goal is to CONTROL worms not eliminate them. MOST of your parasites are in just a small percentage of your herd, which are shedding large numbers and contributing most to the herds' problem. Identifying and culling problem animals is beneficial.

It's a good idea to do a fecal before giving any wormers. I bought a Highschool microscope on Ebay a couple months ago and have been doing our own fecals. We only worm a goat if it has lots of worms. We've had to treat all kids for coccidiosis and stomach worms. The one kid that didn't have many worms last month ended up being loaded a month later so it's good to be able to keep check. One of our does was loaded after giving birth and it took more than one dose of Prohibit to treat her. She was loaded last year at the same time too.
It is not hard doing the testing yourself. I got a special slide with two green grids that you can do a count using a sample of 2 grams of feces.
I just read this about oil of Oregano and it sounds promising. I would be much less toxic on the goat I'd imagine. I don't like having to use Prohibit which is now the only thing that works on our resistant Stomach worms.
http://mofga.org/Publications/MaineOrganicFarmerGardener/Spring2010/Regano/tabid/1556/Default.aspx

Garlic is unproven to be an effective dewormer. It also flavors the milk something terrible if you have dairies and like to overdose it. Many, many anecdotal stories about its usefulness rarely supported by fecal egg counts or long term results - and may quickly change depending on management or change in management (such as would be needed during a drought or increase in pasture burden during the kid raising season or during herd expansion etc.

Alternative dewormers that are proven are lespedeza, high tannin diets, and copper oxide rods.

Management BY FAR AND AWAY plays the most role in parasite problems. Unfortunately for any of the anecdotal or 'studies' (loosely defined as, lol) regarding parasite dewormers, the variation in MANAGEMENT is not a controlled variable and therefore renders the results uninterpretable with any accuracy at all. Plants in any form are exceedingly variable in their concentration of active chemicals (if any) depending on the conditions during growth and/or harvest and storage, so just using 'garlic' doesn't mean you're getting a correct 'dose'. Few 'studies' seem to care to prove the levels of effective ingredient. And yes, all 'natural' products work the same as commercial dewormers - they have some sort of 'chemical' that has some sort of effect on the worms. And many natural forms of chemicals are actually highly toxic and commercially altered products are modified to become safer. (natural pyrethrins vs modified pyrethroids for example). There is no magic situation where 'garlic' goes to the worms and attacks them. In order for herbal treatments or 'natural' treatments to work, there must be a method of action.