Worms During Kidding Season

Mar 10, 2021

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Although we are finally getting the word out that current research shows that you should not routinely deworm goats or deworm the whole herd at one time, one of the last old-fashioned ideas about dewormers is still hanging on -- the idea that you must deworm all does after kidding (or within a week or two before kidding). The fact that does have often have an increase in their fecal egg counts around the time of kidding has caused people to believe that deworming is necessary. However, this comes from a misunderstanding of how correlation in this case does not mean there is a cause and effect.

Most people are not aware that worms do NOT hatch inside the goat, so more eggs in a fecal does not equal more worms in the goat. Worms need oxygen to hatch, so they only hatch on pasture. That means that the increase in fecal egg count does not cause the poor body condition that you may see in some does after kidding. In this episode, I am once again talking to Susan Schoenian, a sheep and goat specialist at the University of Maryland Research Center, as we talk about how kidding affects a doe's immune system, as well as what we need to do about it -- or not. And what can we do other than administer a dewormer?

Full show notes here --- https://thriftyhomesteader.com/worms-during-kidding-season/

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