BARBER POLE WORMS! Lost 1 goat so far, and may lose the entire herd!

madcow

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We just lost Pepper, a 1-year-old doe. We had called the vet out to treat her when she went down. He said that barber pole worms are epidemic this year with all the wet weather we had earlier in the spring and summer here in Texas. Your goats can look perfectly healthy, bouncy, slick coats, eating, and within hours they can be gone, not just one at a time, but several. Once infested with barber pole worms they get to critical mass with hatching (females lay up to 10,000 eggs!) and once they reach that proportion they suck the blood out of the host so fast there isn't any way to survive the infestation and it will kill them in a matter of hours. We ran into a man at the feed store the same day this was diagnosed and he "had" a herd of 600 goats and within the last month he has lost 200, all to barber pole worms! They were dying so fast he couldn't keep up with burying them and he had been treating them for that parasite to no avail. Once one is diagnosed with this parasite you can be assured a large portion of your herd is infested, too. Once they go down with this parasite they rarely survive. Checking the eyelids for anemia is good, but even better is checking the gums, especially the toothless area above the front teeth for color as an indicator of anemia. The remainder of our goats looked perfectly healthy, but after looking at their gums I was horrified at how anemic they were! It was downright scary. I ran to TSC and got Cydectin and dosed them all and will do so again in 2 weeks and 4 weeks because of remaining eggs hatching out to start the cycle all again. I just pray that their blood counts stay level or improve meanwhile, but there isn't any guarantee that any of them will make it and I'm just holding my breath everyday that we caught it in time. My goats have a little advantage in that they are dry lotted and don't browse as much as pastured goats and that cuts down on the rate of infestation, but it seems they are still at a huge risk. I just pray that we caught it in time to save the rest! Scary stuff!
 

mysunwolf

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I'm sorry about your goat :( We have almost lost quite a few sheep to barber pole this year and are still struggling with getting them back to healthy after two weeks of battling the invisible beasts. Plus once they are wormy they get susceptible to every other health problem on earth... Hoping you can get the rest of your herd treated and that they will bounce back quickly!!
 

OneFineAcre

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Surprised you are having a problem if you are dry lotted
But that should help you get them under control
We moved last year and at the old place ours were 100% dry lot and had no problems
Heck we had goats with 0 worms of any kind
We moved and have grass and have had to manage this year
We haven't lossed any just had a few animals get high egg counts
Part of my plan includes more fencing to have dry lot areas
 

madcow

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The vet said that with barber pole worms goats that are dry lotted are at a higher incidence of getting them, in that if the eggs show up in the nanny berries they spread from there by staying within the lot. I've always been with the understanding too that dry lotted goats are healthier and get less worms. Our goats certainly look healthier than a friend's goats that are pastured less than a mile away. At this point I'm giving them extra feed and better hay in order for them to get the nutrition they need to bring their blood counts up as quickly as possible. So far they look good, but I'm not worrying any less. Nasty little critters! Will worm them with Cydectin every 10 days for 3 times just to ensure we have gotten them eradicated completely. Just make me anxious.
 

OneFineAcre

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The vet said that with barber pole worms goats that are dry lotted are at a higher incidence of getting them, in that if the eggs show up in the nanny berries they spread from there by staying within the lot. I've always been with the understanding too that dry lotted goats are healthier and get less worms. Our goats certainly look healthier than a friend's goats that are pastured less than a mile away. At this point I'm giving them extra feed and better hay in order for them to get the nutrition they need to bring their blood counts up as quickly as possible. So far they look good, but I'm not worrying any less. Nasty little critters! Will worm them with Cydectin every 10 days for 3 times just to ensure we have gotten them eradicated completely. Just make me anxious.

You can get Red Cell from TSC to help with anemia.
 

goatgurl

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@madcow i have been having bad problems with barber pole worms this year too. I've lost a two year old doe and one of her this years kids and have several others that are pale. I've wormed with cydectin x3 and prohibit x2 so far. some of them are looking better and some aren't. I've also been giving red cell to some of them. this is the worst year in a very long time. keep fighting!
 
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