Worm Control -Chemical, Natural or what?

Hi,

I would like to ask everyones opinion of worming. Since I started keeping goats in 2006 I have wormed with chemical wormers like probably everyone else and have had worm counts done but with the continuing issue of wormer resistance and greater awareness about the impact of chemicals on humans and animals I wanted to ask if anyone uses any kind of natural, herbal or organic wormers or even products like diatomaceous Earth or sulphur?

I have read a lot and heard from some people that sulphur and also garlic powder or granules are supposed to be good for promoting health and reducing worm and parasite burdens, anyone feed these and have found them usefull?


Verm-X for goats is also supposed to be very good, I was given a 6 months supply of the granules which I fed to my goats and the really liked it but I didn't do worm counts before or after so I can't say wether it made a difference? I didn't worm during that 6 months and I have no visible signs of increased worm burden or ill health. Anyone else use or tried Verm-X for goats?

Finally what chemical worming regieme does everyone implement? There is a lot of conflicting advice although the emerging picture is to worm only when needed and to have counts done, does everyone agree? How do you pick a wormer?

Look forward to everyones thoughts.

Daryl

We use chemical wormer, and tend to vary between a "Yellow" one and a "white" one (there may be different brands, but really they are only a 3 kinds of wormers. I know people who use, or have tried the natural alternatives, and I don't think I would want to solely rely on them. I know someone who uses garlic alone, and it obviously doesn't work on their animals. As it happens, the BGS journal arrived this week, and an article in there by someone who started keeping goats only a few years ago, stated she relied on sulphur initially only. Then she lost a few goats due to fluke, as she wasn't treating for that, and realised that sulphur alone was not enough!

I'd not heard of using Verm-X for goats, I've used it for the chickens, but would never have thought to try it on the goats.


Beth

Hi Beth,

I just read that article too and it terrified me! I agree about not relying on a single product especially a non proven natural remedy like garlic and sulphur however I imagine that using Garlic, Sulphur and conventional althementics would perhaps reduce the frequency you would have to dose with chemical wormers which can't be a bad thing for the goat in terms of althementic resistance or my pocket. The time of year worming takes place seems important, although a lot of the books say different things, do you have certain dates or events (e.g. before turning out in spring) that you always worm on or just when needed?

Daryl

Pregnancy holds worms at bay, I can't remember why now, but worms cannot affect them. However, what it means is that, as soon after the goat has kidded, the worms which have been stagnant, all become active again, so any goat that has kidded, we try and worm within a week to 10 days after kidding, and again 3 weeks after that to try and break the cycle. Aside from that, we don't have any particular time of year etc, just fairly regularly.

You may be right, in that both the person in the article, and the person I know relied on one of those things. Perhaps trying a routine of all three as a preventative would make a far better job.

Beth

Hi Everyone,

Thinking back to the previous discussion about worm control in Goats and chemical and natural treatments I received a SAC e-newsletter yesterday and there was an interesting article in it about using plants to protect livestock health (Link: http://www.sac.ac.uk/news/currentnews/10n12plantslivestockethiopia).

This got me thinking about plants that grow in Scotland and their beneficial effects on animal health. It is already recognised that plants such as Chicory, Sainfoin and Lotus; often referred to as Bioactive Forages have anti-parasitic properties but does anyone know any others? An obvious one is Willowbark as an astringent. Anybody grow or wildharvest and feed specific plants to their goats for their unique health properties?

If anyone is interested here is a short presentation on Chicory, Sainfoin and Lotus: http://www.sac.ac.uk/mainrep/pdfs/nutritionwormshoudijk.pdf

Anyone ever grown Chicory for goats, its something I think I will look into although I would never rely on one method of parasite control, especially a bioactive forage or herbal suppliment as althementics have a proven track record

Daryl

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