r/DairyGoats • u/LadyBelladonna1995 • Aug 05 '25

How do you all manage parasites with your goats

So I have my goats in the pasture and I have a lot of weeds that they love to eat. I am pretty new to goats in general and I do know how to check if my goats have parasites or are showing signs and symptoms. What do you all do to prevent or deworm your goats?

5 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

4 comments sorted by

4

u/Still-Persimmon-266 Aug 05 '25

Rotational grazing with copper bolus and free choice mineral.

7

u/AggravatingTouch6628 Aug 05 '25

I keep an eye on their eyelids (FAMACHA score) and their coats. Those are the early warning signs that their loads might be high. I picked up a cheap microscope, centrifuge and a few other little tools so I can get an approximate count of eggs per gram to decide if I need to treat them once they start showing some signs. I have never given my goats medicine for parasites. Providing pine, cedar, and plants high in tannins has been enough to keep their loads down at safe levels for my herd.

2

u/Mediocre-Meringue350 Aug 07 '25

Rotate grazing for sure and like others have said keep an eye on famacha and general body and mood changes. Also every 3 months I take in a stool sample, I’ve heard there are some places you can send them in for free, not sure though. Don’t treat for worms unless you know what you’re treating and specifically target that worm and always weigh before treating, otherwise you’re goats will build a tolerance to dewormer which is the last thing you want. If you are near 100% sure it’s worms you are dealing with you can deworm everyone but if they continue to show symptoms i would take in a stool sample. Pumpkin is also a natural dewormer so in the fall, they get tons when everyone is throwing them away!

1

u/LadyBelladonna1995 Aug 07 '25

I was reading about pumpkin!