There are a number of reasons why a goat with a heavy load of worms may have a fecal sample where no eggs are found. Parasites may not lay eggs constantly, so there will be variability in fecal egg counts from one sample to the next. If animals were recently infected with larvae, it takes three weeks until those larvae are producing eggs to be seen in the feces. A common problem with fecal exams is that the sample may not be fresh enough and the eggs may have hatched. Scooping up a few goat berries in the pasture is a waste of time because you have no idea how old they are. A fresh sample is best collected by hanging out in the barn for 15 or 20 minutes after giving the goats hay in the morning. Have a paper cup ready to catch the sample when the goat starts to poop.
Since the first publication of this book, experts have begun recommending fecals only to determine the effectiveness of your dewormer. Once every year or two, or more often if you think your dewormer is not working, you do a fecal egg count before and after use of a dewormer to see how many worms were killed. You won’t get 100 percent reduction, but the closer you can get to that number, the better. Once you get below 60 percent, the dewormer may not be killing enough worms to be truly helpful, but this will depend upon the individual goat being treated and how debilitated they are from the wormload. A 70 percent reduction in a severely debilitated goat may not be enough to save it, while a 50 percent reduction in a stronger goat may be helpful.
Barber Pole Worm
Haemonchus contortus, commonly called barber pole worm, has proven to be one of the most aggressive internal parasites, and today it is responsible for the deaths of thousands of goats every year. The barber pole worm attaches itself to the inside of the stomach and feeds on the blood of the goat. If present in high numbers in the stomach, these worms will cause anemia. Although the barber pole worm grows to about three-quarter inches long, it is almost never visible in a goat’s poop. On a necropsy, though, the worms are readily visible in the stomach of an infected goat. Goat extension specialist Steve Hart describes the worms as looking “like coarse hair growing inside the stomach in a freshly dead goat,” and notes that the worms will release and can then be seen darting around in the stomach fluid.
Anemia is a symptom of an overload of barber pole worms, although barber pole worms are not the only cause of anemia. The inside of a goat’s lower eyelid should be bright red where it contacts the eyeball. This is easy to see by pulling down on the skin below the eye until the eyelid rolls out exposing the mucous membrane inside the lid. The lighter the membrane is, the more likely it is the goat is anemic, and if the membrane is white, the goat is dangerously anemic. Although some people look at the gums, the eyelids are the more reliable place to check as many goats have gums that are always a little pale. If barber pole worm is a problem in your herd, you may want to attend a training session on the FAMACHA program, which provides owners with the latest research in barber pole worms and hands-on training in determining anemia. If training is not available in your area, the University of Rhode Island now offers online FAMACHA certification.
Bottle jaw, which is a swelling under a goat’s jaw, is often listed as a symptom of a heavy worm load. However, most of the goats I have seen with dangerously high levels of barber pole worms never developed bottle jaw, including some who died. I have seen only a couple of goats develop bottle jaw, and they recovered after treatment. In my experience, the absence or presence of this symptom does not necessarily relate to the severity of the parasite infestation.
Goats with a heavy load of barber pole worms sometimes have clumpy poop or berries that stick together, rather than the usual loose pellets. Diarrhea is not usually a symptom of this parasite, and goats with a heavy load can have poop that looks completely normal.
When a doe has a heavy load of barber pole worms, there is often a dramatic decrease in milk production. A goat with a severe infestation will lose weight, ultimately lose its appetite, and eventually die from anemia. A goat that is unable to stand may be so weak from internal blood loss that it is very close to death. This is why it is important to watch for other symptoms and to treat the goat before it becomes severely anemic.
If you find a goat that is unable to stand, the biggest problem at that moment may be dehydration because the goat has been unable to walk to the water trough. I once found a buck that was so weak I didn’t have high hopes for him, but after getting several ounces of water into him with a drench gun, he was able to drink from a bucket, and within a couple of hours, he was standing. He was severely anemic, but he made a full recovery after being treated with a dewormer. Had I only focused on treating him for the worms, he probably would have died from simple dehydration.
Barber pole is a tropical worm, which thrives in a climate of plenty of rain and high summer temperatures. Grass is a necessary element in the life cycle of gastrointestinal nematodes such as barber pole worms. Goats are infected when they consume larvae while grazing in the pasture. The adult worms live in the stomach of the goat, and eggs are shed in the fecal pellets. When temperatures are between 50°F and 95°F, the eggs will hatch into larvae. Although larvae have no means of locomotion, they can float up a few inches on blades of grass wet from rain or the morning dew. When temperatures get too hot, too cold, or too dry, the larvae die.
Brown Stomach Worm
The brown stomach worm (Ostertagia or Telodorsagia circumcincta) can infect goats, but it is second to the barber pole worm in terms of prevalence and mortality. It feeds mostly on the nutrients in a goat’s stomach, and it can damage the lining of the stomach, causing poor digestion. Unlike the barber pole worm, it does not cause anemia. A goat with an infestation of brown stomach worm can have a poor appetite, grow slowly, get diarrhea, and sometimes bottle jaw. This worm also prefers wet conditions, but can tolerate cooler temperatures than the barber pole worm. It is more likely to be a problem in spring or fall rather than during the hot summer months. Goats are infected with the brown stomach worm while grazing in pastures where other goats have left infected fecal pellets.
Bankrupt Worm
The bankrupt worm or black scour worm (Trichostrongylus colubriformis) lives in the small intestines. Its eggs are shed in the fecal pellets. Larvae prefer outside temperatures around 70–80°F. Goats become infected when they eat grass from a contaminated pasture. It can cause diarrhea, but is rarely fatal. It interferes with a goat’s ability to get adequate nutrition from food, however, causing a goat to have very poor body condition, appetite, and production.
Tapeworm
Moniezia, or tapeworm, is one of the few worms that can be seen with the naked eye. Poop that looks like it has rice or noodles in it usually indicates an infestation of tapeworm. This worm is the most upsetting to owners because it looks so disgusting. As one vet said to me, they are far worse for the mental health of the owner than they are for the physical health of the goat. Tapeworms usually do not cause a problem in an adult goat unless the infestation becomes so heavy that it causes an intestinal blockage. This is usually due to some kind of stress depressing the immune system, such as shipping or poor nutrition. Growth of kids infected with tapeworm can be slowed somewhat because tapeworms absorb nutrients from the food in the goat’s intestines, but I have seen very healthy, well-conditioned kids pass tapeworms.
Many people incorrectly assume that tapeworms have caused a goat to be in poor condition because they see worms in the poop, treat the goat for tapeworms, and the goat’s condition improves. However, most drugs that kill tapeworms also kill roundworms, which are the other worms discussed so far in this chapter. In the process of killing the tapeworms, they also killed the worms that were actually causing the symptoms. Goats usually have more than one kind of worm in their digestive tracts.
Tapeworms infect goats through an intermediate host. Goats deposit the eggs on pasture, as they do with other worms. But in this case, field mites or grass mites, which are similar to chiggers, consume the eggs. The mites live on grass and browse, and goats become infected by grazing. Because
the worms live in an intermediate host rather than simply on blades of grass, a pasture will usually remain infected with tapeworms from one year to the next, which is much longer than for other worms. If you have trouble with tapeworms, you may need to keep kids off a pasture for more than a year.
Liver Fluke
Liver fluke (Fasciola hepatica) is another parasite that needs an intermediate host to infect goats. In this case it is a snail, which the goat ingests while grazing. The fluke then migrates to the goat’s liver. The main symptom is anemia with weight loss. Sometimes it causes death. This parasite is usually a problem in wet areas and is why some people don’t let their goats graze around creeks and ponds, although snails can be found in other places. Snails are most active in spring, however, so ingestion is less likely during other times of the year. It takes a couple of months for the fluke to mature in the liver and begin to cause symptoms. Your vet should be able to tell you if flukes are a problem in your area.
If you have deer and snails in your area, you may also have a problem with Fascioloides magna, another type of liver fluke, which is carried by deer, and is often fatal to goats. Deer flukes are not a common problem in goats, but discouraging deer from entering the pasture helps prevent infection. A livestock guardian dog helps to keep deer, as well as predators, away.
Lungworm
There are several types of lungworms (Muellerius capillaries, Protostrongylus rufescens, Dictyocaulus filaria), which infect goats when they ingest the larvae. Rather than staying in the digestive tract, lungworms migrate to (you guessed it) the lungs. You will see first stage larvae, rather than eggs, in a fecal sample. The main symptom is a chronic cough, but like other parasites, lungworm also takes a toll on the goat’s body and causes poor production and weight loss. It sometimes causes death. Some types of lungworms require a snail as an intermediate host, though not all do. Treating lungworm is controversial, so you will see a variety of regimens. Albendazole can be used at twice the cattle dosage for three days (although some sources say five) and then repeated in two weeks (although some sources say three weeks).
Meningeal Worm
Although it is more common in llamas and alpacas, meningeal worm (Parelaphostrongylus tenuis) can infect goats. It is a common parasite in deer and uses the snail, ingested by goats when grazing, as an intermediate host. In goats this worm migrates to the spinal column or brain, eating nerve tissue, causing paralysis and usually death. Goats usually ingest the snail in the spring or summer, but it takes three or four months for the meningeal worm to migrate to the brain. Symptoms are generally neurological and include leg weakness, paralysis, circling, holding the head to one side, tail twitching, sitting like a dog, and blindness.
Symptoms are similar to listeriosis, and a spinal tap is sometimes helpful to get a diagnosis. When I had only owned goats for a couple of years, I had a goat with these symptoms, and the vet simultaneously treated for listeriosis and meningeal worm, which is pretty common since it can be so hard to differentiate between the two. The goat made a full recovery. Now after having two goats and multiple llamas with meningeal worm, I’m sure that first goat had listeriosis as I’ve learned that surviving meningeal worm and recovering from it are two different things. The survival rate for m-worm in goats is only about 20 percent, and because meningeal worm gets into the spinal column, brain stem, or brain, it causes permanent neurological damage, so almost none ever completely recover. Depending upon how early in its migration the worm is killed and where, symptoms will vary from mild to complete paralysis.
Treatment consists of giving large doses of both fenbendazole and ivermectin for five days to kill the worms. In addition to giving the dewormers at unusually high doses, the animal must also be treated for brain inflammation that will occur when the worms start to die. A long list of side effects and reactions, including seizures, can occur during treatment, which is why it would be challenging to treat at home. The first animal to get meningeal worm on our farm was a llama. We had no idea what had caused her paralysis, so we took her to the university vet hospital. Once they began treating her for meningeal worm, she needed additional treatment to deal with high blood sugar and ketosis. Her paralysis actually got worse, and she was unable to urinate or defecate on her own for more than a week, so the vet put in a urinary catheter, and feces had to be manually removed. After spending $1,500 on treatment for a llama that remained paralyzed until we finally put her down six months later, we attempted to treat other llamas at home, and all died within a few days of paralysis setting in.
To prevent problems with meningeal worm, discourage deer from coming into your pastures and do not let goats graze in swampy areas. A livestock guardian dog may keep deer away, in addition to predators. There is no vaccine for m-worm, but some people who live in high-risk areas will give a dewormer monthly in the summer months. This is a bad idea because while you may prevent m-worm, the intestinal worms on your farm will become resistant to the dewormers. That means that you will have no effective treatment for your goats when they get a heavy load of intestinal parasites. Plus monthly dewormer is not practical for milk animals because of milk withdrawal times.
Because goats are a dead-end host for the m-worm, you don’t have to worry about them giving it to other goats. The worm does not reproduce in goats, and because it is not living in the digestive tract, it would not be leaving eggs in the feces, even if it did try to reproduce. Unlike intestinal worms that are destroyed by freezing, larvae from meningeal worms don’t seem to be bothered by cold temperatures. In one experiment, larvae survived on lettuce leaves at −4°F for seven days, which is when the experiment ended.
The good news is that most goats are less susceptible to m-worm, unlike llamas and alpacas, which are highly susceptible to it. There appears to be a very big genetic component when it comes to susceptibility. We have had hundreds of different goats living on our farm over the years, and the only two that ever had a problem with meningeal worm were two goats that were full sisters. Unfortunately, we no longer have llamas because they all wound up getting it within six to eighteen months after our Anatolian Shepherd died. Our best guess is that he had kept the deer off our property while our new guardian dogs were not particularly bothered by their presence.
Coccidia
Although usually lumped into any discussion of worms, coccidia are protozoa that infect the small intestine. Adult animals have immunity to coccidia acquired from exposure early in life and so are not bothered by the presence of small numbers of coccidia in the intestine. Coccidiosis, which is the illness caused by coccidia, is most often a problem in kids over three weeks of age, and is the most common cause of diarrhea in kids, although not the only cause. A severe case of coccidiosis in a kid can result in permanent scarring of the intestine, which will inhibit absorption of nutrients and cause slow growth. If not treated, kids can die from dehydration caused by diarrhea. If you do not see an improvement within a couple of days after starting treatment for coccidiosis, talk to your vet about the possibility of cryptosporidiosis.
What I Learned from Timpani and Windy
One morning we found Timpani, a mini LaMancha, laying in the snow. She was hypothermic and couldn’t stand. Even when she was warmed up, she still couldn’t stand. Her symptoms reminded me of the goat we had about eight years earlier that was paralyzed from a spinal cord injury. Goats fight all the time, and it’s pretty amazing that they don’t wind up with more injuries than they do. Timpani was very happy, and when we put warm water and food in front of her, she ate like there was no tomorrow. Because her only symptom was semi-paralysis, it really appeared that she was injured, rather than ill.
A week later we had a llama that wound up at the university vet hospital being treated for meningeal worm. I told the vets about Timpani, but she actually seemed to be doing better by then. She could stand some and take some wobbly steps, so we thought she was on the mend.
Two weeks after Timpani became semi-paralyzed, we found her sister Windy (short for W
oodwind) laying down and unable to get up. Unlike Timpani, Windy seemed very sick. At first glance, I thought she was blind because she didn’t look at me, but after flicking my fingers at her head, I realized that she could see. Mentally, however, she was absent. I stood her up in front of a hay feeder, and she refused to eat. I put a bucket of warm water in front of her, and she completely ignored it.
We took both goats to the university vet hospital. Initially everyone, including a neurologist, thought that Windy had listeriosis. Her symptoms were classic. She was leaning to one side and had the classic eyeball twitching of a goat with listeriosis. She had to be leaning against someone or something or she’d fall down.
When they first examined Timpani, they thought that she seemed to be lame rather than ill, but as they observed her more, they noticed minor neurological symptoms as well. They decided to start treating both for meningeal worm, based upon symptoms and Katy the llama’s diagnosis, and to also treat Windy for listeriosis because her symptoms would have indicated listeriosis, if not for the llama’s diagnosis already. The next day, spinal taps confirmed a diagnosis of meningeal worm for both goats.
Raising Goats Naturally Page 11