Herbal Herbal dewormer for goats

[meandk0610]

I wasn't sure if I should label this Herbs or Livestock...

I'm trying to figure out an herbal dewormer that I could grow for my goats. It would be nice if I could also feed it to the chickens, ducks, dogs, and possibly humans, but goats are currently the prime audience.

Does anyone have any experience using herbal dewormers on livestock? Dosages? Efficacy?

 

[Lynx]

Although I have never grown my own, I have used commercially available herbal wormers with great success. I've used by Molly's herbal wormer and Fir Meadow's. If you're going to go this route, I suggest making sure your goats have a very light worm load to begin with. Use a chemical wormer, if necessary, to get the worms under control. And then be meticulous about dosing with the wormer every week. Also, check your goats' eyelids each time you give the wormer. Pale eyelids can be an indication that the herbal wormer is not working, and needs to be supplemented.

 

[10-22]

I have been around a lot of livestock for most of my life and make the following recommendation at the risk of hurt feelings.

If you want to get serious on getting rid of parasites, there is one way to do it. I would recommend Valbazen or Ivomec or even Safe-Guard.

I have seen people use diatomaceous earth, tobacco and other assorted "cures" but in the long run, you would be better off buying a half gallon of Ivomec and calling it a day. A gallon or half gallon of Ivomec will last you almost forever with a small herd and you don't have to "guess" if the tobacco cure given at the height of the full moon gets rid of your worm problem.

They will take care of your worm problem as well as liver flukes and those nasty stomach worms. You probably don't want to use Valbazen on does while they are pregnant. However,I have overheard people putting commercial wormer in the same category as antibiotics at the feed store. They are not.

You can pick a gallon of generic Ivomec up rather cheaply, it covers a lot of animals and it will last a long time as well. Again, I don't want top downplay herbal remedy's and if they work for you in a controlled atmosphere with a small herd, you are doing something right and I wish everyone well, that has positive experiences.

However, parasites are a very serious matter and the above wormers will save you a lot of grief.

Also, there is more then one type of worm in livestock. There are liver flukes,stomach worms, lungworm and intestinal worms. The above mentioned wormers will take care of most of them.

 

[TurtleSpeed]

meandk ..
Most people that use herbal wormers use Ivomec first and follow up with herbal wormer for the next dose. Personally, I use Ivomec topically on my goats and leave it at that. If you are going to go the herbal route you should consider learning to do fecal counts on slides under a microscope to keep tabs on things. I would love to do only herbal wormers on my goats but I honestly don't think they do a good job of controlling parasites by themsleves. There is much information on the web written by experienced goats owners covering both sides of the topic.

At the other extreme I have neighbors that never, ever worm their goats and swear their goats don't get worms.

 

[West]

We use a combo of wormwood that we grow and the goats nibble on it fresh wile keeping the bush trimmed and DE mixed into their feed.

Seems to work.

 

[coloradohermit]

When we had goats, I did have good luck with tobacco, feeding them each a cigarette a month. And tobacco is easy to grow.

 

[naturallysweet]

I have been around a lot of livestock for most of my life and make the following recommendation at the risk of hurt feelings.

If you want to get serious on getting rid of parasites, there is one way to do it. I would recommend Valbazen or Ivomec or even Safe-Guard.

I have seen people use diatomaceous earth, tobacco and other assorted "cures" but in the long run, you would be better off buying a half gallon of Ivomec and calling it a day. A gallon or half gallon of Ivomec will last you almost forever with a small herd and you don't have to "guess" if the tobacco cure given at the height of the full moon gets rid of your worm problem.

They will take care of your worm problem as well as liver flukes and those nasty stomach worms. You probably don't want to use Valbazen on does while they are pregnant. However,I have overheard people putting commercial wormer in the same category as antibiotics at the feed store. They are not.

You can pick a gallon of generic Ivomec up rather cheaply, it covers a lot of animals and it will last a long time as well. Again, I don't want top downplay herbal remedy's and if they work for you in a controlled atmosphere with a small herd, you are doing something right and I wish everyone well, that has positive experiences.

However, parasites are a very serious matter and the above wormers will save you a lot of grief.

Also, there is more then one type of worm in livestock. There are liver flukes,stomach worms, lungworm and intestinal worms. The above mentioned wormers will take care of most of them.

Safeguard is completely worthless to worming goats in most of the US, and many to most goats have Ivomec resistant worms.

Those who use chemical wormers only have made those two worthless for everyone.

I give Ivomec after kidding and then a couple of weeks later. The rest of the year it's tobacco, pumpkin seeds, pine tree needles,and black walnut leaves.

 

[summerthyme]

Remember that there are many management choices you can make that can reduce- if not solve- the worm problem in most animals. Rotating pastures frequently, never letting (or forcing) them to eat either manure contaminated grass, or to eat it down tight to the dirt, and feeding hay in racks or feeders, instead of on the ground, makes a huge difference.

If you have a fairly clean herd, and you want to buy a new animal, if at all possible, insist on them being wormed 1 week before you bring them home (with ivomec) and then worm them again 3 weeks later at home. That should get rid of most of the life stages of any susceptible worms.

DE for "worming" goats bothers me especially because I have had so much evidence given to me by a qualified friend that it does NOT work. He's the head pathologist for a major state veterinary lab in a mid eastern state. He told me that of all the goats he's necropsied (thousands), 95% died FROM worms. Not "with" them... the parasite load was the cause of death! And he said "at least half" had a history of either chronic or slug feeding of DE as their "worming" method.

And no, that's not an exaggeration... you can explain it partly because if people are "worming" their goats with DE, they *assume* they can't have parasites. So when they begin to sicken or weaken, they're "sure" it can't be worms. And then they die and they take them to the path lab to find out what "disease" caused it.

Also, NS is correct that it's vital to not overuse wormers, and to rotate between classes of wormers (INCLUDING herbals) frequently, or none of them will work.

And last... folks in the UP are going to have a whole lot LESS trouble with worms in most species than people who live down in the humid south, where the winter temps never get cold enough to break the life cycle of some species. Pasture rotation, and if possible, allowing goats to browse rather than graze, are vital in the warmer climates.

Summerthyme

 

[TurtleSpeed]

And last... folks in the UP are going to have a whole lot LESS trouble with worms in most species than people who live down in the humid south, where the winter temps never get cold enough to break the life cycle of some species. Pasture rotation, and if possible, allowing goats to browse rather than graze, are vital in the warmer climates.

SUMMERTHYME I was waiting for you to chime in since you have a wealth of knowledge. I came to farm animals late in life and still have much to learn. Yes, the cold weather can be a big help in keeping worm loads down. Copper deficiency is what I have to constantly stay on top of.

It's interesting to read what has been tried with the herbals and other treatments. I have a doe that kidded two weeks ago (she threw four doelings) and I'll be worming her this week but am thinking of trying the herbal route next time.
NATURALLYSWEET would you elaborate on the pine needles, pumpkin seeds, etc. that you use? Do you grow pumpkin and save the seed or buy pumpkin seeds at the store? And what about the black walnut leaves? I doubt that is something I can find unless they can be purchased.