Deworming The Goat Kids

All this rain has been a blessing and a curse.  We have more grass than we have ever had for this time of year.  But goats don't thrive in wet.  They are arid animals for a reason.  And the reason is The Barber Pole Worm.  It is a blood sucking killer.  Normally, we just deworm the nannies when we turn them out after kidding.  Then, if something looks thin or has a messy rear end we will spot deworm it.  But this week, we lost 3 kids that showed no sign of a problem until it was too late.  J found one dead and two that were too weak to keep up with the herd.  I tried treating them, but they died also.  They were white as a sheet, but no diarrhea and at the bigger end of the kids. So we decided to get everyone up, check eyelid color, and deworm the pale ones.  This is the FAMACHA theory.  If you are interested in the details you can read more HERE.

 So, J and I got up early and walked up and down hills for 2 hours to round up all of the goats that were spread out over at least 4 different fields. 

 We then got them crowded into the barn and the hard part started. 

 J had to catch each kid individually,

then I checked the eyelids and decided if they needed deworming.  Over 3/4 of the kids failed the eyelid test.  We spot checked a few nannies and they were all ok.  To deworm the kids,  I used injectable ivermectin but gave it orally at 2x the cattle dose.  This is off label usage, but there isn't much that is labeled for goats that actually works anymore.  104 kids later J's hand was bruised, cut and bleeding but we got it done.  Depending on how they do, we might have to repeat the process in another 2 weeks.