Archive for the ‘Goat Health’ Category
Goat Veterinarians, Herbal Wormers, and Anti-Parasitic Washes
A question I get a lot is whether there are veterinarians in this rural part of southern Italy; there definitely are, and clients probably use their services just as much if not more for goats, sheep, and horses as for cats and dogs. In that sense, we’re probably luckier than many in, say, America, who may have a more difficult time finding an experienced goat vet.
Indeed, our veterinarian regularly makes house calls, even for dogs and cats. We prefer that our animals live rather naturally with as many herbal/holistic remedies and as few doctor’s visits as possible, but our goats suddenly developed an issue with pidocchi (lice) and Pinta had a bit of a cough that I thought may have been related to lungworms, so the doc came the other day and gave them each an Ivomec shot, which should take care of all their internal and external parasite issues.
Indeed the girls seemed brighter-eyed and more playful just an hour or so after the meds, so hopefully that means they were working. Or, you know, they got high. Hey, happy goats are a good thing!
Anyway, I really would much prefer to try herbal wormers, but I haven’t found any in Italy; if you happen to know of any, please let me know.
Also, the vet recommended a spray-on anti-parasitic treatment for cleaning the pen, but it sounds pretty chemically powerful. I’m wondering if any of you have suggestions on more natural methods so we can keep our goaties from doing a lot of this in the future?
What types of wormers and anti-parasitics do you use?
Answering Goat Questions: Part II
Following up Answering Goat Questions: Part I, here is Part II:
6. “why do goats poop berries” – This has to do with the way their digestive system is set up (hint: nothing like ours) and what they eat, but you can read all about it at The Straight Dope.
7. “coffee discovered by goats” – Well, yes, kind of. Read all about it at The Legend of Coffee and the Dancing Goats.
8. “training goats” – Hah! Good luck with that. No, seriously, depends on the kind of training you want to do. Goats are highly intelligent, but they can also be stubborn. We’ve taught two of ours to walk on leashes. I don’t know about house-training, though…those little trap doors seem to open and drop a load of goat berries whenever they damn well please.
9. “who is pasqualina” – OK, I don’t know for sure that you were actually looking for *my* Pasqualina, but you can find lots of photos of her on Flickr, her kidding story on this site, and various posts about her at Bleeding Espresso.
P.S. She looks like this:
10. “michelle fabio” + paolo” – OK, pretty sure you were looking for us on this one. Congratulations! You are here.
That’s all until next time; thanks for finding us!
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GoatSpotting!
Goats that readers have spotted out and about. Send your photos to michelle(at)goatberries(dot)com!
