Providence Hill
Chillin' with the herd
We are goat newbies and I am trying to get this right! We bought a new doe last week and before I let her in with the others I took a fecal sample to the vet to check for parasites. My local vet is wonderful but fully admits to not being a goat expert, and our only "goat vet" is pretty far away, so I'm using my local guy for routine stuff (fecals, etc.). Anyway, the tech called and said she had lots of strongyles, as well as "a strange capped egg I haven't seen before". She thought it might be a pickup from the chickens running around with the goats. They recommended Ivermectin, which I used. A day or two later I learned from various reading that the "capped egg" may well be liver fluke (!), which Ivermectin won't help. I guess I should've used Valbazen instead. SO, here's my question. I had planned to follow up with a second dose of Ivermectin in 7-10 days to get the remaining strongyles and break the cycle, but can I follow up with Valbazen instead? If I do, do I have to do another Valbazen dose 7-10 days after that to follow up on the flukes? Three doses of wormer seems extreme and I hate to use lots of chemicals if not required.
I do intend to take another fecal sample to my vet before I do anything else, just to make sure that capped egg wasn't an outlier, but if she finds more I'm thinking I need to switch over. Can I do that or would it be bad for the doe? Please advise! I don't want to over-medicate but I do want to make sure I get everything so the poor girl's healthy and happy. She is in milk now but I am basing my withdrawal times after worming on this: http://www.uky.edu/Ag/AnimalSciences/goats/presentations/drugwithdrawtimeJan05.pdf . I am hoping to use her as a foster doe for an older kid, I assume that's still okay even if she gets Valbazen since a lot of people use it post-kidding and it doesn't hurt the kids.
I do intend to take another fecal sample to my vet before I do anything else, just to make sure that capped egg wasn't an outlier, but if she finds more I'm thinking I need to switch over. Can I do that or would it be bad for the doe? Please advise! I don't want to over-medicate but I do want to make sure I get everything so the poor girl's healthy and happy. She is in milk now but I am basing my withdrawal times after worming on this: http://www.uky.edu/Ag/AnimalSciences/goats/presentations/drugwithdrawtimeJan05.pdf . I am hoping to use her as a foster doe for an older kid, I assume that's still okay even if she gets Valbazen since a lot of people use it post-kidding and it doesn't hurt the kids.
