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VACCINATION & DEWORMING AT ONION CREEK RANCH IN TEXAS

Annual Vaccinations & Deworming

Sometime after Labor Day (the time frame fits my ranch schedule), annual vaccinations of CD/T and Presponse HM pneumonia and deworming begins.Everyone gets the vaccinations. Not everyone gets dewormed. If they don't need deworming, they don't get dewormed. Deworming when it isn't needed results in resistance to dewormers

Newborn and Young Kids

At about 6 weeks of age, kids born in the current year and their dam sare run through the working facilities. Kids are given their first CD/T and first Presponse HM pneumonia vaccine and dewormed orally with the dewormer that I know from experience usually works on my ranch. Dams' eye membranes are routinely checked for coloration (FAMACHA). If the dam's inner lower eye membrane isn't RED to BRIGHT RED, then she and her kids are putting into a holding pen and fecal counts using McMasters' gridded slides are used to determine eggs per gram that the dam is carrying. I don't much worry about worms in kids at this age, but if a kid looks poor, I will check it for worms and coccidia.

If six-week old kids are likely to have worms in your area, then by all means do fecals using microscrope and McMasters slides.

If the eggs per gram count is 250 or more, then the dam and her kids are dewormed orally with a dewormer which I believe works on my ranch and kept in a restricted area for one week, at which time a fecal count is done again. If the dewormer didn't kill 95% of the wormload, then it by definition FAILED and a different class of dewormer must be chosen and the process starts over again. This is the ONLY way to know if your dewormer worked.

Second vaccines (boosters) are given at 10 to 12 weeks of age (30 days after the first vaccines were administered) and FAMACHA is used to determine if kids or dams need additional dewormer. If the eye membranes are not RED to BRIGHT RED, the fecal count process using McMasters slides is used once again. Ear tagging takes place concurrent with these booster vaccinations, and weaning can take place when males are three months old.

CL (Caseous Lymphadenitis) Vaccinations

Since May 2021, there has been no vaccine available for CL in goats. The CaseBac vaccine produced by Colorado Serum works with sheep, NOT goats,per Colorado Serum. I see no CL vaccine on the horizon. See my article on how to manage CL on www.tennesseemeatgoats.com on the Articles page or in MeatGoatMania archives.

DRAWBACKS TO FAMACHA: FAMACHA is a great field test for H. Contortus (barberpole stomach worm) but do not rely on it. FAMACHA only tells you what is actually happening in the goat right now. It does not reflect additional worms that haven't reached the point in their life cycle where they begin sucking blood. This means that the goat is in worse shape worm-wise than FAMACHA indicates. A FAMACHA field test score of RED to BRIGHT RED is all I will accept. If coloration is lighter, fecal counts must be done to determine wormload.

FECAL COUNTS USING McMASTERS SLIDES are the only way to know if your dewormer worked. Count the eggs per gram. About 250 eggs per gram in many cases means deworming is needed, but some goats are debilitated by a lower fecal count. Choose a dewormer (not a "white colored" dewormer),give orally, do fecals again in seven days. If the egg KILL did not reach 95%, the dewormer did not work. You must start over with another class of dewormer. This is the ONLY way to know if the dewormer worked.

WHITE-COLORED DEWORMERS: Safeguard/Panacur and Valbazen do NOT kill stomach worms in most of the USA. I never use them for stomach worms.

COCCIDIOSIS is a protozoan which does not respond to dewormers. I don't include Cocci in this article for that reason. I have a separate article on Coccidiosis on the Articles page at www.tennesseemeatgoats.com and in MeatGoatMania archives and this issue.

Suzanne W. Gasparotto, ONION CREEK RANCH, Texas 6.2.25