When to Deworm After Kidding?

I personally never deworm after kidding or any time unless they actually have a worm load confirmed by fecal, which has only happened once on my farm in the last 4 years. Giving dewormer to goats or any animal unnecessarily can make them develop a resistance and so many people over use it. When that happens, if a goat ends up having a heavy load and needs dewormer, it may not work and the goat could die as a result. I've seen it a lot of times with some of my breeder friends that over medicate.

I use land of havilah parasite formula (totally natural herbal product) and put it in their water as a preventative every full moon, because that's easy to remember, or every week after kidding for 2 months (and I put it in their food the first 3 days after kidding and then once a week for a month). Since I've done this, I've only had one issue with worms in a doe after kidding.

farmerA said:

I personally never deworm after kidding or any time unless they actually have a worm load confirmed by fecal, which has only happened once on my farm in the last 4 years. Giving dewormer to goats or any animal unnecessarily can make them develop a resistance and so many people over use it. When that happens, if a goat ends up having a heavy load and needs dewormer, it may not work and the goat could die as a result. I've seen it a lot of times with some of my breeder friends that over medicate.

I use land of havilah parasite formula (totally natural herbal product) and put it in their water as a preventative every full moon, because that's easy to remember, or every week after kidding for 2 months (and I put it in their food the first 3 days after kidding and then once a week for a month). Since I've done this, I've only had one issue with worms in a doe after kidding.

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Thank you so much for taking the time to advocate stopping overuse of chemical dewormers. I fully agree that dewormer resistance is a real problem. I actually deal with dewormer resistance in my herd. Ivermectin and Valbazen do not work in my herd even though I've never overused them. I used Land of Havilah from the time that my does came to my farm but last year after they kidded it seemed like with the extra stress and the fact that the does kidded in spring instead of winter, the herbs alone stopped working. I tried treating with herbs alone which I did diligently, along with essential oils, but for some unknown reason it did not work to bring the worm load down. I had one doe that got severely thin and I want to try to do what I can to not have to be in that situation again. I switched to Fir Meadows herbs after last year to see if their mix would take care of the worms better, but the jury's still out.

This year I am kidding in cold weather, and I am going to deworm my does after they kid because I want to take as aggressive action with the worms as possible. I am going to do a fecal beforehand to be sure, but if their numbers aren't extremely low then I'm going to do it. The episode of the podcast "For the Love of Goats" titled "Worms During Kidding Season" convinced me that in the situation I'm in, I need to deworm after they kid. This is the ONLY time I would ever consider chemically deworming without being 100% sure they need it. Here's the transcript for that if you are interested. Worms During Kidding Season

But I again, I sincerely thank you for your concern. I understand that chemical dewormers are nothing to be trifled with.

MellonFriend said:

Thank you so much for taking the time to advocate stopping overuse of chemical dewormers. I fully agree that dewormer resistance is a real problem. I actually deal with dewormer resistance in my herd. Ivermectin and Valbazen do not work in my herd even though I've never overused them. I used Land of Havilah from the time that my does came to my farm but last year after they kidded it seemed like with the extra stress and the fact that the does kidded in spring instead of winter, the herbs alone stopped working. I tried treating with herbs alone which I did diligently, along with essential oils, but for some unknown reason it did not work to bring the worm load down. I had one doe that got severely thin and I want to try to do what I can to not have to be in that situation again. I switched to Fir Meadows herbs after last year to see if their mix would take care of the worms better, but the jury's still out.

This year I am kidding in cold weather, and I am going to deworm my does after they kid because I want to take as aggressive action with the worms as possible. I am going to do a fecal beforehand to be sure, but if their numbers aren't extremely low then I'm going to do it. The episode of the podcast "For the Love of Goats" titled "Worms During Kidding Season" convinced me that in the situation I'm in, I need to deworm after they kid. This is the ONLY time I would ever consider chemically deworming without being 100% sure they need it. Here's the transcript for that if you are interested. Worms During Kidding Season

But I again, I sincerely thank you for your concern. I understand that chemical dewormers are nothing to be trifled with.

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You're such a great goat human! I feel for you and your situation. Is it possible that they may have a deficiency that could be causing a higher worm load? I know that can be the case with external parasites and I'm battling that right now with a doe that always refuses to eat loose minerals, spits out boluses, etc. I've read that that can be the case for internal parasites too but I can't remember where I read it so I can't guarantee it was a reputable source. Dewormer resistance can be such a horrific thing! When I very first started with a Nigerian Dwarfs I had a vet who was very much against chemical dewormer except in the most dire of circumstances after fecals -- he shared some sad stories. In your case, I definitely don't blame you for wanting to go that route. In addition to using herbal parasite blends, have you ever tried putting apple cider vinegar in their water? That seems to help quite a bit as well, though definitely not a cure-all, especially with preexisting issues. Garlic helps a ton as well. Some of my girls will eat it whereas others completely avoid it though. I had a doe the year before last who seemed to have issues after kidding and I dosed her four or five times a day, every day for a week with land of havilah and that seemed to do the trick. She had the same problem last year and I decided to sell her. The buyer really wanted me to use chemical dewormer so they didn't have to deal with anything so I did and thankfully it worked. We used the Ivermectin horse paste and that's literally the only thing I have any experience with.

Thank you for the link, too. I'll definitely check it out.

I wish you the best of luck!

Aww, shucks, well you sound like a great goat human too. 😘

I do garlic whenever I give the herbs. I do the three days on, four days off method for the herbs. I tried ACV but not for very long because the girls really didn't like it. And as far as deficiency goes, I would doubt that's it because I think they are in a really good place with minerals. Lots of shinny coats and such. They eat their free choice minerals very well and I have a copper schedule that's been working. I think my biggest factor is that until very recently I had no way to rotate my pastures. Also my does came from a herd that already had resistance issues, so I think that's part of it. My bucks did not come from the same herd and they have rotatable pastures and I've only had to deworm one of them once. So I think that's pretty telling. Thanks for the ideas though. 🙂