How to Raise Goats Without a Chemical Wormer

Keeping your goat's feed from touching the ground helps prevent worms.

Though it's potentially quite challenging, raising goats without using a chemical dewormer is rapidly becoming a necessity for goat owners, since so many goat worm species have developed resistance to chemical wormers. (see reference 1, paragraph 1) Successfully raising goats without using chemical wormers requires strict adherence to worm prevention strategies, particularly those focused on Haemonchus contortus, the stomach worm primarily responsible for parasite-linked death in goats. Never depend on just one method of worm prevention. Instead, use multiple techniques to aid in keeping your goats worm- and chemical-free.

Things You'll Need

• Fencing supplies
• Cattle/horses
• Tannin-rich forage seed

Instructions

1. Keep hay and grain feeders and water bowls clean at all times. Elevate feeding equipment or position it just outside the main goat pen to keep it from coming in contact with worm-infested manure.

2. Rotate your goats among pastures to minimize their exposure to worms, which infect the goats when they consume short grass that has been in direct contact with worm-infested goat feces. Divide the pasture area into equal-sized paddocks large enough to provide forage for your goats for three to four weeks. Monitor the pasture forage height; once the goats eat the forage to within six to eight inches of the ground, move them to another paddock. Worms generally don't migrate more than four inches up the grass stems. (see reference 2, page 2)

3. Run other livestock species in pastures already grazed by goats. Stick with cattle or horses, both of which graze extremely close to the ground and consume goat worms without being infected, thereby disrupting the worms' life cycle. (see reference 4) Don't graze sheep with goats, since they share the same worms.

4. Seed your goat pastures with tannin-rich forages, which aid in naturally minimizing worm loads in foraging goats. Consider sericea lespedeza, chicory and clover, all prime tannin-heavy forage choices, according to Dr. Maria Leite-Browning, veterinarian and animal scientist with Alabama A&M University Extension. (see reference 3, very bottom of page: "use of plant with anthelmintic properties")

5. Lock your goats in the barn during times of peak worm migration and egg hatching, which are characterized by the presence of wet grass and humid weather. Take particular care to keep your goats indoors on rainy days, especially those immediately following a long period of dry weather.

6. Conduct fecal tests several times each year to monitor your goats' worm loads, recommends Dr. Mary Smith, coauthor of "Goat Medicine." (see reference 4) Be sure to collect stool samples from every goat that has pale pink or gray conjunctiva lining the insides of their eyelids, since this is a key sign of a stomach worm infestation. Take the stool samples to your veterinarian, who will examine them to determine the worm egg counts in each sample. Cull or sell goats that repeatedly demonstrate susceptibility to worms and keep for breeding the goats that show natural resistance to worms.

Tips & Warnings

• Never feed your goats hay or grain on the ground. Doing so drastically increases their chances of succumbing to severe worm infestations. It forces them to eat food that has most likely come in contact with manure.

References

• National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service; Managing Internal Parasites in Sheep and Goats; Margot Hale; 2006
• University of Minnesota Cooperative Extension; Preventative Health Strategies for Pasture-Based Goat Herds; Holly Neaton, DVM
• Alabama Cooperative Extension System; Barber Pole Worm Infestations in Goats; Maria Leite-Browning, DVM; 2006
• "Goat Medicine"; Mary Smith, DVM, et al.; 2009