03/22/2024
PSA!
I am already seeing quite a few animals with barber pole worm this year. Usually peak season for that here seems to be July/August (although absolutely possible outside those times). I suspect the mild winter we had is playing a role.
-I do NOT advocate for blanket deworming. Resistance to our chemical dewormers is here and it is bad. The drugs we have are the drugs we have. Use oral formulations of dewormers and at proper dosages for the species being treated to minimize development of resistance. Work with your veterinarian to come up with research-backed protocols, both with chemical control and other (IMO more important!) ways to reduce parasite risk.
-Monthly FAMACHA checks, while not foolproof, can help to catch issues before animals show clinical signs. FAMACHA scores range from 1-5 ("five = fatal," those are the white mucus membranes).
-FAMACHA should be used in conjunction with other knowledge of the animal. Are there other clinical signs such as weight loss, loose f***s, etc? Is this animal under significant stress such as post kidding/lambing, heavy show schedule? In my own herd I never deworm anything that is a 1-2, always deworm if a 4-5, and sometimes deworm 3s depending on those other factors.
None of my young stock has ever been dewormed, and I try to deworm adults as little as possible. I am not as great as I'd like about routinely checking my own herd but here and there will grab an animal I'm curious about. Good color on this recently fresh adult doe I grabbed last night.
(ETA not ideal technique, see below for links on popping mucus membrane out more appropriately - it's hard getting a picture with one hand and popping eyelid up with the other, especially when the goat has had enough. 😅 But this color is still representative of what it looked like when I did it "correctly" before the picture.)
My go-to resource for small ruminant parasite information: American Consortium for Small Ruminant Parasite Control - http://wormx.info