Gwen and I went to the fecal egg count training hosted by the Texas Agrilife Extension service and given by Doc Frank Craddock last week. We went out yesterday and got some samples from various goats and did the float thingy and looked under the microscope and didn't find many worms to speak of! WOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are relatively worm free! I guess all of our diligence in using pasture rotation, frequent FAMACHA checks, worming only when needed instead of blanket worming, and culling out the problem goats has worked for us. The hardest one is the culling both emotionally and financially. Emotionally cuz I'm the softy and Gwen has to wait till I'm off tugboatin' to call the meat buyer :cry: , and financially cuz you don't want to cull a high dollar goat just cuz she's wormy all of the time, but she is shedding larva that the other goats will pick up. We were thinking of doing the COWP think to treat for worms, but I guess we don't really need to. Now if we could just get our new barn baby, Pretty Girl, to adapt to the herd and grazing thing we will be doing good! She is coming along slowly, but surely!
I'm wanting to try doing my own fecals....right now I'm trying to wrangle my nephews microscope from him....gotta think of a good bribe though :wink:
Gwen got ours at the Hospital Gettin' rid of the used junk sale. A really good Nikon, they sold it cuz they upgraded and had these collecting dust on a shelf. You can also get them at a school district used equipment sale or such sales.
congrats ........that is wonderful news......so happy for you and your goaties....worm free....great job..... :wahoo: :thumbup:
That is GREAT. I am a FIRM believer of doing a fecal BEFORE doing any deworming program so you know what you are treating and IF you need to treat.
Congratulations on the results :thumb: , and that you have found an approach that works so well for you. Awesome to have the training available too.
