Chickenfever said:
They do have free choice minerals all the time.
Loose mineral? If so, what kind, and how often do you refresh it?
I ask because I learned the hard way that bad mineral set out in large quantities and trusting that the goats will "use it as they need it" is tantamount to providing no mineral at all.
If the mineral's old and stale, or otherwise soiled in some way, they won't use it regardless of how bad they need it. And if it's not high quality mineral, it won't do them any good even if they do use it.
Good loose mineral set out in small quantities and refreshed often typically disappears quickly. For me, and for most I've spoken with on the subject, that's what seems to work best.
FWIW, if you want an example of BAD mineral, go read the label on a bag of "American Stockman Big 6" at TSC.. Stuff's horrible. Mostly salt, with a concoction of six other minerals in their least bio-available forms.
I don't have the equipment to check for worms myself, but I am wanting to start them on Molly's worming herbals, just for prevention and overall health (from what I've read it works well).
You can get an idea of what kind of
barberpole worm load you're facing by using the FAMACHA system, and barberpoles are arguably the most dangerous worm a goat's prone to get. With FAMACHA, you basically just check the color of the inside of their lower eyelids. The way I interpret the lower eyelid color is like this:
White = life-threatening; use Red Cell and deworm
very carefully to avoid bleeding them out internally
Pale pink = heavy worm load; worm soon
Pink = OK, but keep an eye on this one; may require deworming soon
Dark pink = pretty good shape; no immediate worries
Almost red = really good shape
I've never had a white eyelid on my place, but I've seen them. And when I say white, I mean WHITE...I've seen them on other farms such that you can scarcely tell where the eyelid ends and the eyeball begins.
Pale pink, I've had...but only out of a few. Some are prone to get pink and stay pink for a while, and that's mostly OK with me, though I'll only let that go on for so long before I'll deworm.
Most of mine stay dark pink to almost red, all the time these days. I think it's got to do with rotating dewormers, deworming primarily on an individual as-needed basis, good feeding practices, and making good mineral available.
I will say this, though.. I recently had a goat who would go clumpy, then back to pellets, then clumpy, then pellets..over and over again. Her eyelids were always great -- almost red -- and her coat, appetite, and attitude were fine...but she just clumped up off and on, continually.
We used probios on her for a while when she'd clump up, but it kept coming back. Finally I came to the conclusion that she must have had a decent little load of strongyloides or some type of stomach worm other than barberpoles, so I dosed her orally with Dectomax injectable @ about 1ml/30lbs of body weight.
Her poo not only went back to pellets, but the pellets themselves got smaller, dryer, and darker almost immediately. Her attitude, while never
bad per se, improved as well. She just seems a tad bit brighter since being dewormed.
What I'm getting at is that I understand FAMACHA isn't the be-all, end-all diagnostic tool for judging a goat's parasite load...been there, done that, got the tee-shirt....but it
is helpful. And even though it's "failed" me once, I'll still use it as my primary parasite diagnostic tool.
