big brown horse
Overrun with beasties
noobiechickenlady said:As WZ says, Google Foo. Heeeeyah!
I nodded my way through the whole site, except when I was writing stuff down
Sustainable, natural, organic, herbal, etc, and goat husbandry
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FarmerChick
Overrun with beasties
key being they are ruminents and it is SO IMPORTANT to truly know how that will effect their system. be sure before feeding it definitely.miss_thenorth said:
I don't know. I never made it or really know what it is....LOL.....but those guts run in a very fine tune. Not even close to a horse.
I have no idea if it would bloat at all. Bloat can be so deadly.
just throwing that out there.
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freemotion
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Kombucha is one of those ferments that is very high in probiotics. I am not worried about feeding a small amount, which is what I will do next feeding in the beet pulp. I'll let you know what happens! We are talking a tablespoon per critter at most, probably less. It is more of a supplement than a food source. Similar in some ways to ACV.
jlbpooh
Ridin' The Range
First of all I would like to complement everyone on how nice this thread is progressing. It is much better than the "organic post." I got a little peeved and scared with that one especially with even trying to do anything naturally. I am gaining so much enthusiasm for still striving to give them as little of the pharmaceutical type stuff as possible.
I want to try the natural thing. I haven't tried any one thing specifically from the Natural Goat Care book yet. On the reviews on Amazon, a few people said it was hard to find the components in the recipes, but Hoeggers sells all of it. They reccommend dried kelp give free choice, dolomite, and a few things mixed with it to use as a daily mineral supplement. Vitamic C was highly reccommended to cure many illnesses, sometimes it needs to be injected and other times sprinkled on food. The book had a little bit of skipping around and some repetitiveness, but overall was done well if you ask me. I read it from cover to cover right before I got my babies.
I bought the Molly's Herbal deworming kit too. DO NOT give the goat formula to horses because of the black walnut, she makes a separate formula for them. I may need to make the dosage balls though because 1 of my goats finally finished his first dose after 3 feedings and the other one picked all the pellets out and left the herbs. I may try to mix it in water and drench them, but my husband is on second shift now and I don't think my daughter is quite able to help hold them to try the drench even though they are Nigis. It has a very, very strong smell to it though so keep it away from anything you don't want tasting like garlic, lol.
I didn't pursue trying to get them to take anymore herbal after this whole other thread had started because so many people swore it didn't work, I was upset with myself for blowing $26 with shipping for it. I am much more inclined to try it now after reading that others have used it. My vet did worm them a few weeks ago when I brought them in for their rabies shots. Do you think it would hurt to start them on the natural stuff already? I asked if they would do a fecal float, and they just shot them up with the Ivomec instead and told me to come back in 4 months for more. Hmm, not sure about that. They could have made much more off the fecal I would think. They only charged $10 total to worm both goats.
I want to try the natural thing. I haven't tried any one thing specifically from the Natural Goat Care book yet. On the reviews on Amazon, a few people said it was hard to find the components in the recipes, but Hoeggers sells all of it. They reccommend dried kelp give free choice, dolomite, and a few things mixed with it to use as a daily mineral supplement. Vitamic C was highly reccommended to cure many illnesses, sometimes it needs to be injected and other times sprinkled on food. The book had a little bit of skipping around and some repetitiveness, but overall was done well if you ask me. I read it from cover to cover right before I got my babies.
I bought the Molly's Herbal deworming kit too. DO NOT give the goat formula to horses because of the black walnut, she makes a separate formula for them. I may need to make the dosage balls though because 1 of my goats finally finished his first dose after 3 feedings and the other one picked all the pellets out and left the herbs. I may try to mix it in water and drench them, but my husband is on second shift now and I don't think my daughter is quite able to help hold them to try the drench even though they are Nigis. It has a very, very strong smell to it though so keep it away from anything you don't want tasting like garlic, lol.
I didn't pursue trying to get them to take anymore herbal after this whole other thread had started because so many people swore it didn't work, I was upset with myself for blowing $26 with shipping for it. I am much more inclined to try it now after reading that others have used it. My vet did worm them a few weeks ago when I brought them in for their rabies shots. Do you think it would hurt to start them on the natural stuff already? I asked if they would do a fecal float, and they just shot them up with the Ivomec instead and told me to come back in 4 months for more. Hmm, not sure about that. They could have made much more off the fecal I would think. They only charged $10 total to worm both goats.
miss_thenorth
Overrun with beasties
JLB, I am soo glad you didn't get scared off!
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freemotion
Self Sufficient Queen
Do you have any interest in learning to do your own fecals? Do you have any connections with the local science department at the high school that will let you run in with a couple of slides? It really is quite easy. And you will have the tools to know if the herbal formulas are right for your goats and for your property.
I just got an e-mail that mine just shipped from Molly's Herbals. Worth the $26 just for the learning experience, for me. That money spent will force me to get moving on this project that I keep putting off. But I really only wormed my goats 3 times in 6 (? How long have I had them? ) years and I seriously doubt any of them were EVER wormed before I had them. I see no health issues and the fecals I ran a month ago showed a few eggs but in the acceptable range. I will be monitoring my progress and will post about it, but just keep in mind that the worm burden on my property will not likely resemble the worm burden on anyone else's property. So in the early stages, at least, being able to run fecals is the best way to determine what herbs work for your goats on your pastures.
I just got an e-mail that mine just shipped from Molly's Herbals. Worth the $26 just for the learning experience, for me. That money spent will force me to get moving on this project that I keep putting off. But I really only wormed my goats 3 times in 6 (? How long have I had them?
) years and I seriously doubt any of them were EVER wormed before I had them. I see no health issues and the fecals I ran a month ago showed a few eggs but in the acceptable range. I will be monitoring my progress and will post about it, but just keep in mind that the worm burden on my property will not likely resemble the worm burden on anyone else's property. So in the early stages, at least, being able to run fecals is the best way to determine what herbs work for your goats on your pastures.- Thread starter
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freemotion
Self Sufficient Queen
And I hope more people find us and we can really get going with some great discussions and ideas and experiences! Come on, lurkers, the water is fine....jump right in! 
ohiofarmgirl
Overrun with beasties
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yep. thats kinda the crux of the matter.
i turned around on our local vet - i just took him a bag of poop, and not the goat, and said - hey buddy will you test this? $10 and out the door.
you might also see if there is a 'big animal' vet around - your person might be...but really they are following 'standard procedure.
one of the reasons some of us do our own "vet work" (to the best of our abilities) is to avoid the "standard procedure" and lots of chemicals. the natural way gets lost in the stampede for better living thru chemicals.
but to answer your question - if i remember right, the one dairy gal i wormed with ivormec, i started pretty quickly with the herbal stuff. another benefit for me with the herbal wormer - i wasnt very excited about drinking the milk from her after pouring on the chemicals.
as i understand it the two work differently so i figured it was ok. and she's out there right now and not dead so success!
;-)
miss_thenorth
Overrun with beasties
How strong of a microscope would you need to do your own fecals? I think this would be very beneficial to my operation, with the animals that I have, and will have in the future.
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freemotion
Self Sufficient Queen
My dog, who lives for fresh milk, wouldn't touch the milk for several days after the Ivomec. I gave it a few more days after he would drink it again before I would save it for us.
A fecal on a goat is $22 here. To get the vet on the farm, I will spend an average of $300. To bring the goat in, I will spend an average of $200 with almost no treatment. You bet I practice preventative health care and don't call the vet unless it is absolutely necessary!
A fecal on a goat is $22 here. To get the vet on the farm, I will spend an average of $300. To bring the goat in, I will spend an average of $200 with almost no treatment. You bet I practice preventative health care and don't call the vet unless it is absolutely necessary!
