how to incorporate alfalfa for conditioning

[sawfish99]

We have a doe that has poor conditioning. She kidded 10 weeks ago and her conditioning bottomed out after kidding. We did fecals and she had a heavy parasite load. While we prefer herbal worming, the herbals were not bringing the parasites under control. Therefore, we did 2 rounds of both Ivermectin and Safeguard based on the fecal results. We are running another fecal tonight to assess the second round of worming, however her conditioning is still below where it needs to be.

Right now, she is getting about 5lbs of Purina Goat Chow, split between 2 feedings a day. She also has unlimited grass (timothy/clover) hay and we add some browse to the pen, such as spruce trees we are removing from the property.

There is no local source of alfalfa hay bales, so my options for alfalfa are compressed bales at Tractor Supply, cubes, or pellets.

I want to give this doe some alfalfa, but not add the cost for the entire herd (if I eventually locate a source for hay bales, I will give it to the whole herd).

Given the 3 options, how would you incorporate alfalfa to improve conditioning on this doe in milk?

 

[elevan]

I prefer the alfalfa pellets and they are the most economic of the offerings at TSC. In fact I've removed all grain from my goats diet and they now get the alfalfa pellets instead.

Given that your doe had a heavy worm load, I would also put her on some Red Cell to help her recoup.

If your next fecal comes back with problems I would switch the Safeguard out for some Valbazen - your vet should be able to sell you a small amount fairly reasonably priced.

A note on herbal dewormers: They work best as a preventative and must be used consistently all the time. Once you have a heavy bloom they aren't very effective as you've already found out. Check out the Parasite Management link in my signature. At the bottom of the article is a link to the thread discussion and somewhere in there toward the middle to end is a list of plants that you can add to your field to help fight parasites.

 

[Chris]

Since your Doe has/had a heavy parasite load and you had to worm her "heavy" I would hit her with Activated Charcoal Jell then Probios.
I also agree that you may want to hit her with some Red Cell like elevan recommended or you could give her some Dyne Supplement.


Chris