Having decided on French Alpine Goats I did the natural thing. I found a dairy that was using them exclusively and I began a conversation with another amazing homesteader. Nancy Knigga of Russiaville Indiana. At her farm Sycamore Acres she raises the most beautiful French Alpine goats I'd ever seen.
She was lucky enough to be in a state that doesn't frown on small farm owners making and selling goat milk cheese. She also practice natural goat keeping. Due to some of the restrictions of having an actual dairy she couldn't fully go "All Natural" but the goats I was getting from her were as close to perfect as I could find.
Having been bitten by the homesteading bug big time I'd jumped in with both feet. I bought 3 amazing girls. All of them had just given birth to beautiful kids so they were in milk(the term we Know It Alls use to say they were producing milk). But little did I know goats are herd animals with a very strong pecking order. The two larger girls pooled their crankiness and set forth to destroy the third. Calling on Nancy and my other homesteading friends for advice they all said that I needed another goat. Apparently they are known to pair up and that makes them happy. So now I had 6 girls. That's a lot of goats to milk. I'd started in earnest and then we were off. Now it's time to discuss the care of "My Girls".
Being a part time herbalist and a full time goat owner it was only natural that I start my goats on herbal dewormers as soon as I brought them home to the farm. I was working on my own formulations before I'd brought the girls home and I'd thought had it perfected.
I had the girls fully tested prior to bringing them home. Because I had bought them in a neighboring state it is required that they be fully tested for every ailment known to goats and given a health certificate to produce when I crossed the state lines. I knew they were healthy and worm free. So the herbal worming started right away. My formula relied on a 3 day dose every 6 weeks. Having given them the first dose as soon as we got home I waited patiently for the next 6 weeks to arrive. When it did I dosed the girls again. At the beginning of the 18th week I had a full vet exam done on the girls again.
To my amazement(and disappointment) my girls were FULL of Worms! The vets chuckled among themselves saying things like "I've never seen so many worms" and "is this for real?". Seriously I was saddened by my failure. But that didn't last long. I was back to the drawing board. I had the girls chemically dewormed. The resulting milk was used to feed the chickens because of the milk withhold time on chemical wormers. But all was not lost. I was determined to get this formula right.
After having such a disappointing failure under my belt I did some more reading and some more experimenting and I came up with a weekly worm formula. I'd already been adding some herbs to my animals rations it seemed only natural to work out a more regular weekly dose that didn't include the wormwood. I also changed how I used the wormer. I now was making the dosage balls a head of time and keeping them in the freezer for use whenever I needed it.
Now it was time to test my formula on my girls. Starting with the first day of the next month we gave each girl two doses of our "monthly wormer". One with the morning feeding and one with the evening feeding. They loved the taste so that was a plus. We continued the dosage for the required 3 days. Then the following week we dosed with the "maintenance" formula. We followed this routine for 18 weeks and had our herd tested again. Not only were they worm free but they had gained a good amount of weight. Apparently the worms were keeping the girls from getting some of the nutrition necessary to keep them in top shape.
As the years of goat keeping continued we changed some of our formulas and some of our routines but in the end we feel we've got a pretty good handle on how to care for goats.
If anyone would like to try our herbal wormer please check it out on Etsy.
She was lucky enough to be in a state that doesn't frown on small farm owners making and selling goat milk cheese. She also practice natural goat keeping. Due to some of the restrictions of having an actual dairy she couldn't fully go "All Natural" but the goats I was getting from her were as close to perfect as I could find.
Being a part time herbalist and a full time goat owner it was only natural that I start my goats on herbal dewormers as soon as I brought them home to the farm. I was working on my own formulations before I'd brought the girls home and I'd thought had it perfected.
I had the girls fully tested prior to bringing them home. Because I had bought them in a neighboring state it is required that they be fully tested for every ailment known to goats and given a health certificate to produce when I crossed the state lines. I knew they were healthy and worm free. So the herbal worming started right away. My formula relied on a 3 day dose every 6 weeks. Having given them the first dose as soon as we got home I waited patiently for the next 6 weeks to arrive. When it did I dosed the girls again. At the beginning of the 18th week I had a full vet exam done on the girls again.
To my amazement(and disappointment) my girls were FULL of Worms! The vets chuckled among themselves saying things like "I've never seen so many worms" and "is this for real?". Seriously I was saddened by my failure. But that didn't last long. I was back to the drawing board. I had the girls chemically dewormed. The resulting milk was used to feed the chickens because of the milk withhold time on chemical wormers. But all was not lost. I was determined to get this formula right.
After having such a disappointing failure under my belt I did some more reading and some more experimenting and I came up with a weekly worm formula. I'd already been adding some herbs to my animals rations it seemed only natural to work out a more regular weekly dose that didn't include the wormwood. I also changed how I used the wormer. I now was making the dosage balls a head of time and keeping them in the freezer for use whenever I needed it.
Now it was time to test my formula on my girls. Starting with the first day of the next month we gave each girl two doses of our "monthly wormer". One with the morning feeding and one with the evening feeding. They loved the taste so that was a plus. We continued the dosage for the required 3 days. Then the following week we dosed with the "maintenance" formula. We followed this routine for 18 weeks and had our herd tested again. Not only were they worm free but they had gained a good amount of weight. Apparently the worms were keeping the girls from getting some of the nutrition necessary to keep them in top shape.
If anyone would like to try our herbal wormer please check it out on Etsy.
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