Safe-Guard dewormer??

[Jenn27]

I bought this Safe-Guard dewormer for goats yesterday. Has anyone used it? I was gonna just buy the food dewormer if I ever needed it, but the vet gave Sam a dewormer the other day and I didn't wanna double-dose him. Now I think Missy needs it because she is really skinny. But, my question is the dosage? It says only 0.6 cc's for a 25 pound goat?? That's such a tiny dose. Doesn't seem like that would do much good.

Any of you ever use it? How much and how often??

Thanks!

 

[alsea1]

Go with the label instructions. If the wormer is formulated for goats then the dosage is correct. The only time you need to do any fancy math is when you use an off label product(one not labeled for use on goats).
Take care to get the correct weight of the goat. Giving the incorrect dose can create worm resistance.
After dosing with the wormer take a fecal sample to your vet in about 14 days or so I think. They will take a look and see it that wormer was effective. In some cases you may have to switch to a different wormer. But find out first via a fecal. Otherwise you really don't know what works, what didn't.

 

[Jenn27]

Sounds good. Thanks!

 

[Southern by choice]

All of our vets prescribe a different dosage.
The general consensus is 9cc- 10cc per 100 lbs.
We always used the dosage on the bottle and have never had problems but we also never had any parasite issues. Goats coming onto our farm did have high loads (more often than not) and the bottle dosages we were told really WERE NOT effective.

this is an article from the American Consortium for Small Ruminant Parasite Control. They also suggest a higher dose than what is on the bottle.

http://www.acsrpc.org/

I am not a vet and cannot say what you should do, it is best for you to contact your vet and ask his/her protocol. All other de-wormers are off label for goats and require a vet's supervision.

Fecal samples are very important.

 

[Jenn27]

Yeah, I am considering just getting a fecal sample done. It may not even be worms. I just know that she is a lot skinnier than Sam, but Sam can be a bully around the food sometimes.

 

[Pearce Pastures]

I am a big advocate for the fecal test before you treat. Safeguard only treat a few types of parasites and in many places, is not very effective due to misuse (like testing without cause or on a rotation). It does no good to treat without checking first to see what parasites are hanging out. Wastes money on the wrong meds, gives the parasites a chance to develop resistance to the med since it wasn't needed, and the real culprits go untreated.

 

[Southern by choice]

Fecals are the number one way to see what the animal has and also to see how effective a particular dewormer works.
I agree with @Pearce Pastures there is a good deal of resistance... for many reasons. I also believe it is still a very effective dewormer but is often used incorrectly. Not fasting the animal, improper dosage and not knowing the weight of an animal are huge contributors.

This is a great resource for fenbendazole and how it works, the class of dewormer etc.

I disagree that it only treats a few parasites. It is a broad spectrum dewormer that treats for many parasites, with the exception of flukes.

Quoting from the article...
"Fenbendazole has a broad-spectrum of activity against gastrointestinal roundworms and lungworms oflivestock, including adults and L4-larvae of the most important species (e.g. of the genus Bunostomum,Haemonchus, Ostertagia - Teladorsagia, Trichostrongylus, Cooperia, Nematodirus, Chabertia,Oesophagostomum, Trichuris, Dictyocaulus, Muellerius, etc.) as well as arrested larvae of several species. It is also effective against most livestock tapeworms (e.g. Moniezia, Taenia).

It is also effective against the major parasitic roundworms (e.g. Ancylostoma, Toxocara, Trichuris, Uncinaria) and tapeworms (e.g. Echinococcus, Dipylidium, Taenia, etc.) of dogs and cats."

http://parasitipedia.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2512&Itemid=2785

 

[Fullhousefarm]

Southern, how do you practically fast an animal that's heavily milking and nursing twice a day? We have occasional trouble with Barberpoles and I've never heard a good answer.

 

[Pearce Pastures]

Clarifying a bit what I meant because it is a broad spectrum treatment. But there are parasites that do not respond to it, such as cocci (I had a gal who was treating it with a deworming paste), and then there are other parasites who don't respond well to it and other medications should be used. Both are why testing is important, as Southern said, before and after. Can't well know if a medication is needed or even is working without testing. Of course, with some, like barberpole, you can get a good guess at how heavy a load is by using other methods, and then there are some parasites that don't show up in fecal. It is still a good practice and especially when someone is learning to assess their animal's health, it can be a great training tool.

 

[Southern by choice]

Southern, how do you practically fast an animal that's heavily milking and nursing twice a day? We have occasional trouble with Barberpoles and I've never heard a good answer.

With a heavy lactating goat or pregnant goat you should not fast.
I think it is mentioned in the article.

Using fenben is very safe but does go through the system quickly that is why the short withdrawal, using it several days in a row is most effective. Some do 3 days some vets like to see 5 days in a row with high loads. Perhaps giving it late evening when the goat is bedding down for the night might be best. That is like a fast.

It is tricky. The article is a good one I think because it explains the class of dewormer and how that class works. There are 3 classes and each works differently as in some interfere with the glucose uptake, some shock or stun and are expelled, some kill.... different stages (of the parasite) are effected by certain classes.

Like Pearce I am a big believer in running fecals, learning how to do your own with a vet as back up while you learn is always a good idea. When I am lazy I will send a fecal up to Rollins Lab but usually run my own and recheck 10-14 days after a deworming and again at 30 days.

For those that have a fair amount of goats I recommend a livestock scale. The one we have we love! It runs around $300 and is the best money spent! We also weigh our LGD's on it.
http://www.palletscales.net/ps250_hog_sheep_scale.htm
We have the VS-660