Look what I have aquired!

They were given to me. Three Afican Pygmy goats. All nannies. The youngest is named Molly and she is between 5 and 7 months old. She was raised on a bottle so she is under your feet like a cat. The middle one is brown. Her name is Dusty and she is between 7 and 9 months old. The oldest is named Marble and I have no idea how old she is. She may also be bred. I have had them for about a month but have not felt well enough to post much so I didn't want to introduce them until I did. I am so glad to have them. They are lots of fun. Marble and Dusty are not tame but they are getting better, Mabrle a little quicker than Dusty. Dusty was a bit pot bellied and skinny looking on the topline when we got her so we wormed them immediately and it is amazing how quickly she came out of it. She looks really good now but i guess I need to have them tested anyway. I don't plan to get anymore for a while unless Marble is bred. If she is not I will wait and breed for spring kids. That will give me time to have them tested and get results.

Here is a pic of the first day they came home.

Perfect!! S glad you went for it, Cajun!!

They are adorable Cajun! I can't wait to hear about the antics they get up to with you. The mini goats are such fun. I love Dusty's colour - she is gorgeous. I am sure your tests will be fine. We alternate between Ivermectin and Safeguard for goat deworming to try to prevent parasite resistance. You might want to ask your vet about that. We also worm more frequently in summer in our climate (1 x month) and less in the winter (1 x 2 months)

I'm so excited for you!
Claire

We used the safegard pellets when we wormed them. I was wondering if it would be good or bad to give them a bit of the pellets in their feed on a semiregular basis like everyday wormer for horses. What do you think on the subject?

Dusty has really come out since worming her. Her topline has filled out, her hair is nice and she is energetic.

We let Molly out to roam around with us whle we work at the barn but the other 2 are not tame enough for that yet. Molly stands on the top of their crate/den and hollers until we let her out. If we are in the lot, she stands up there and looks at us through the cracks in between the boards and hollers for us to come in. She is a mess. I am really enjoying them. I am suprised how much DH likes them. Here he is holding her.

Cajun....our goat vet recommends not worming too frequently unless you have a known worm problem....like last year's drought for us...check into getting a "famacha" chart and look, as you do with horses, for how they shed, coat sheen etc. If you worry about your pasture, worm frequently, but our oldest goats (the ones that matured before the last 2 yrs drought) never have needed worming...so we do 'em once at the end of summer. But you don't want to build up a tolerance for any one med. If you feel the need to worm frequently, his suggestion was to rotate about 3 varieties so it is less likely they will build up a tolerance.
Know there are other opinions out there.....but my 2 cents...;)

http://www.new-ag.info/03-2/develop/dev04.html

We worm our horses every 3 months and alternate between 2 wormers. I guess as long as the goats look helthy they must be doing fine. They are gaining weight. Maybe too much, LOL. Their coats are sleek and shiny and they are energetic and inquisitive. They stay in the barn right now in a nice stall lined with sawdust and hay. We plan to fence them in a nice lot when it gets a bit cooler. I also want to rework all my chicken pens.

I agree with Grownut on all she said, but would just add that our vet suggested alternating only between 2 wormers because there are 3 main chemistry families and if you alternate between all 3, you will eventually build up resistant populations to all 3, and then you haven't got anything to fall back on. If you start to see resistance on the 2, then you always have a 3rd in your back pocket so to speak. Seemed like good advice to me. We also do FAMACHA and took the training on it. It's easy and seems to be a decent tool for most animals. Harder with the llamas - they don't like their eyelids touched and they either spit or kick.

Oops...maybe I missed that from our vet...wouldn't put it past me. Good to know...

This is what Dusty looked like the day I got her. She has really come along since the worming.

Completely different goatling there!! Way to go!

There is no known resistance to Ivermectin -YET - I think that's what they/we are all trying to prevent from happening like with the fenbenzadole, etc. I have a 3 way rotation adding Benzimidazole for the horses and Pyrantel then of course Ivermectin.

Tres cute Cajun! I'm sending your blankies today! Not in a hurry since it's not cold yet...

HEY - do chickens need worming?

This message was edited Jul 16, 2009 8:35 AM

Google Ivermectin resistance. It's out there. It's not widespread though, yet. There's a good study on foals in Texas showing Ivermectin-resistant worm populations.

I have never wormed my chickens. I am not even sure what I would use! A quick search looks as if people use Wazine. I am not sure I want to deworm them if I'm not having production problems like low egg counts, or overall health problems. I'd be interested to hear if anyone here on DG uses Wazine and what results they see!

I guess it had to happen! Drat.

I was just reading about how worm (I think it was blood worms?) eggs drop in horse manure, hatch and then crawl up the blades of grass to be digested by a host and I thought, whoa! My chicks love to eat grass! And they're in my horse's paddock....They look good, but are not laying yet, so.....

From a little research, it appears that the most common poultry parasites in terms of worms are:

Ascaridia galli (poultry roundworms)
Heterakis gallinae (cecal worms)
Capillaria annulata, Capillaria contorta and Capillaria obsignata (thread worms)
Tapeworms
Syngamus trachea (gapeworm)

See here for more info: http://msucares.com/poultry/diseases/disparas.htm

**GROWNUT!! If you don't already have it, that link would be good for the sticky reference thread!!

Other than tapeworms, I don't think any of these are also found in horses, although I could be wrong, because I don't know a lot about horses. A lot of intestinal worms are species specific or at least specific to a certain group of animals (i.e. equines only, ruminants only, etc.) I know that our donkeys are not susceptible to many sheep parasites and vice versa.

For chicken dewormers, Wazine only treats the roundworms. Also there is no good information I can find on withdrawal time before you can eat the eggs. It's at least 2 weeks (which is the slaughter withdrawal time)

This product: http://www.roosterboosterproducts.com/product/50101 treats the roundworms, cecal worms and capillary worms. I've never dewormed my chickens but I think I will order this one and give it a try.

So, overall, I suspect that your chickens are generally safe with regard to horse manure parasites, except possibly tapeworms, although you probably treat your horses for that.

This message was edited Jul 16, 2009 10:47 AM

This message was edited Jul 16, 2009 10:47 AM

Thanks! I do know that the tapes that horses get (yes they get Equimax 1x a year) are not the same in dogs or people.....Very odd that they cannot live in another host. My dogs can't get em from my horses and vice - versa. I have no idea why. Anyhoo. Interesting!

Rooster booster! Cute.

My chick starter says medicated, so I just had to look up what it's medicated with -A Coccidistat...what ever that is!? More googling.....

That's for coccidiosis, which is caused by coccidia, a parasite, but not a worm. It's a protozoan. Still yukky.

You can use Corid to get rid of it in older birds, and they also use that in other animals...cattle for sure.

Gasp! The ascarids are found in the chicken eggs as well.. I'm ordering too.

Ewwww! Really?! That's yukky.....I had no idea!!!

I just read that on your MSU link! I love runny and soft boiled, so....... but even if I did swallow one, unless it went zoonotic, I don't think it'd hurt me. Right? Riiiiiggght. Just yucky.

How about ducks? Do they need to be wormed too? Most of the info mentions chickens, turkeys and other birds....not sure if the 'other birds' could include ducks. I need to find an avian vet in my area before I get my little quackers anyway.

OK, not trying to freak anyone out, but ascarids are zoonotic: http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=18523 but only the one version of ascarids.

Chickens get Ascaris galli.....

I think I'll go with hard boiled and well done for awhile! LOL

This message was edited Jul 16, 2009 1:28 PM