Using Ponds As A Water Source?

One of the first times I put my kids on pasture last year, I was horrified to see them drinking out of the standing water in a hog wallow. They survived.
I read on another group recently how the dog of a city-to-country transplant got sick from drinking out of a puddle after the rain. How dogs should never drink out of anything but a clean, fresh water bowl. Well, my dogs do have water bowls, but they also drink out of whatever water happens to be available...clean or otherwise...I've never had one get sick, because they have robust immune systems from not being sheltered and coddled all their lives.
My point is, you can probably do just about anything, but if you make a big change in management, some of your animals aren't going to handle it very well.
My goats are on well water right now, but if that ever quits working in a prolonged power outtage, they will be drinking from the pond.
If you have a pond watering system, you may want to fence your animals away from it and only allow them in at specific times to drink, or pump water for them. Cows and pigs will wallow in the water and make it disgusting. Diseases and worms can spread through fecal contamination. Make sure your pond isn't catching runoff from some area that has a heavy load of fecal matter.
So that's my 2 cents, for what it's worth.
@Tanya I would be interested to see/hear more about how you manage your pond.

Tanya said:

Do you know that a goat, deer, buck actually have poopy, slimy, fishy ponds, lakes and rivers which are their natural water source in the wild? Just saying.

That said.. the water source must have the ability to naturaly drain out or be flooded with fresh water to be able to ensure it remains a fresh source.

My little pond is "flushed" once a week in summer because our rain does it naturaly and twice a week in winter.

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Do know that parasite deaths are one of the biggest problems that those wild creatures face? The ones that survive have been subject to natural selection... years and years of strengthening to be able to deal with that better, and even then they still constantly die of parasite problems.

We're not discussing WILD animals, we are discussing domesticated animals. Apples vs oranges.

I am glad your goat are fine with your well-taken-care of pond, so there's no harm in an agree to disagree here. I feel that domestic goats should preferably have a water source more intended for drinking if possible. if it's not possible, then I'd discuss other options. If you want to talk about some benefits that outweigh the risk of drinking pond water that would make it come out on top of clean drinking water, I'd be happy to hear.

I would fence off the pond so they can't get to it. We have a pond in one of our pastures and for years the goats had access to it (they also had waterers) until the last couple of years when it has been fenced off. I don't think they need access to it since they don't swim in it like cows.
If you have a lungworm or liver fluke problem in your area then drinking from a pond and eating plants around the edge of the pond can make it worse. Believe me you do not want lungworm, we have a problem with it here due to the warm, wet swampy climate and last year half our goats had it (we treated them). Our oldest goat got pneumonia due to an extremely high lungworm load.

Liver fluke:

Lungworm:

If you live in an area without lungworms or liver fluke, the goats are healthy (good immune systems) and it is a clean pond without ducks then I think it would be fine, but I would also have clean waterers available for them.