There is a great deal of great information on the internet, but sometimes it’s helpful to have excellent reference books on your home library shelf.  Here are two of my all-time favorites that I highly recommend:

Meat Goat Production Handbook, ISBN 1-880667-04-05

Sheep and Goat Medicine, 2nd Edition, edited by D. G. Pugh and A. N. Baird, ISBN 9781437723533

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Parasite management comments:

* Always use a water-based oral drench product, rather than an injectable or pour-on product because the withdrawal times prior to slaughter are shorter and published in the Meat Goat Production Handbook available from Langston University. Order the book from Langston University at http://goats.langston.edu/library. Scroll to the bottom for order forms for the Second Edition of the Handbook.

* Use one oral drench product from each of the three classes of dewormers. There are lots of trade names but only three action classes of the dewormers. In essence, all of the dewormers in an action class kill the nematode parasites in the same manner.

*Cattle pour-on dewormers should NEVER be used in goats to treat internal parasites.

 

*One action class are commonly called "....zoles" and include fenbendazole (trade names are Safe-Guard, Panacur, and possibly others), albendazole (trade name Valbazen), 

*Valbazen Suspension (11.36 % or 113.6 mg/ml): 20 mg/kg orally; withdrawal time is 9 days for meat and 7 days for milk Do NOT use in pregnant does in the first trimester of pregnancy

*Safe-Guard/ Panacur Suspension (10% or 100 mg/ml): the label dose in goats is 5 mg/kg, but a 10 mg/kg dosage is recommended. At 10 mg/kg, withdrawal time is 16 days meat and 4 days for milk. Add 1 day for each additional day the drug is used (e.g. if administered 2 days in a row then withhold milk for 5 days after 2nd dose).

 

*A second action class is denoted by the compound ending in ".....mectin."

Examples for use in goats are ivermectin (Ivomec Sheep Drench) and moxidectin (Cydectin Sheep drench)

*Ivomec Sheep Drench (0.08% or 0.8 mg/ml): 0.4 mg/kg orally; meat withdrawal time is 14 days and milk withdrawal is 9 days. 

*Cydectin Sheep drench (1 mg/ml): use orally at 0.4 mg/kg orally; for a single dose the meat withdrawal time is 17 days and milk withdrawal is 8 days.

 

* The third class of dewormers is limted to levamisole (Prohibit Soluble Drench Powder (Sheep) and morantel tartrate 

*Prohibit Soluble Drench Powder (Sheep): (Note that this drug is also sold as Levasol and Tramsiol) 12 mg/kg oral dose with meat withdrawal of 4 days and milk withdrawal of 3 days. Solution prepared by dissolving the powder as instructed on the package.

*Morantel tartrate (Rumatel) recommended label dose for goats is 10 mg/kg, orally. There is 0 (zero) withdrawal time for milk in lactating cattle and dairy goats. Meat withdrawal time for goats is 30 days. Because of the large differences in morantel concentration among the various products, it is important to carefully read the label and make sure you are dosing correctly.

 

* The FDA regards extra-label use of drugs as an exclusive privilege of the veterinary profession and is only permitted when a bona fide veterinarian-client-patient relationship exists and an appropriate medical diagnosis has been made.

 

* Drug resistance to multiple drugs and sometimes to all available drugs in parasites of goats is extremely common.

*To improve the effectiveness of deworming treatments, multiple dewormers may be administered at the same time sequentially. It is important not to mix the different drugs together as they are not chemically compatible. They should be given separately, but can all be given at the same time, one right after the other. It is always recommended to treat goats selectively given their individual need for treatment based on FAMACHA score, fecal egg count, body condition score, and other health measurements as a guide. This recommendation is even more important when using drugs in combination. If all animals in the herd are treated, resistance to the dewormers will develop rapidly, and if using a combination there will be nothing left to use when this happens.