Every once in a while, I get an email from a fellow goatherd asking why I don’t recommend herbal dewormers for goats. Although I’ve used them, and I’m not opposed to using them, I only recommend treatments that have the research behind them that prove they work. Without such research on herbal dewormers, I’m not going to make a recommendation that could wind up causing someone to lose a goat with a heavy worm load.
Unfortunately, the research on the efficacy of herbal dewormers just isn’t available yet. And when using an herbal dewormer with goats, it’s not as straight forward as measuring out a dosage of a chemical dewormer.Â
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We Tried Everything, Even Herbal Dewormers
When we first started raising goats, we came to the harsh realization that our herd had developed dewormer resistance within about three years. Treating our goats with chemical dewormers simply did no good, and we were slowly losing our herd to parasites.
At that time, I was willing to try anything and everything to save my goats: enter natural dewormers. Back then, there were three popular herbal goat dewormers on the market, and we tried all of them. In fact, I was using two times the recommended amount, administering it daily for several days, and doing fecal tests before and after. Unfortunately, there was no difference in before and after fecals, and we lost a buck while using the herbal dewormers.
The Research on Herbal Dewormers and Goats
Like many other goat-related topics, the research on herbal dewormers is lacking. But there is one published study on the use of herbal dewormers in goats. This study was controlled, meaning they split goats into two groups. Both groups had an identical amount of worm loads, to begin with. Then, they infected the goats in both groups with the same kinds, and amounts, of worms.
The goats in the control group weren’t treated with the herbal dewormer, while the goats in the second group were. They concluded that, statistically, there was no difference between the two groups and the worm load after giving the test group the herbal dewormer. Actually, if you look at the numbers in this study, the herbal group had more worms after administration. But this wasn’t considered statistically significant for the purpose of the study.Â
Look to Fecal Tests to Understand Goat Parasites
At one point, I thought an herbal dewormer had worked for one of my does. After giving her half an ounce of wormwood, her symptoms improved. Her poop when from a log to typical goat berries and her milk supply normalized. So it was encouraging! But the excitement was short-lived because after doing a fecal, we learned that the herb had killed only 50% of the worm load, which is nothing to get excited about.
If researchers do a study on any kind of dewormer, and it only kills 50% of the worms, they are going to say it didn’t work. When a goat is severely debilitated, you want as close to 100% kill rate as possible. If it kills even 90%, your goat could still die.
So, what this might actually end up coming down to, is the health of the individual goat. Some goats, with good immune systems, can handle worms better than others. So, if someone gives their goat an herbal dewormer and it kills a mediocre percentage of worms, it could make that goat look better, so the owner thinks it worked.
On the other hand, goats with underlying health issues or nutritional deficiencies may succumb to worms easier than an otherwise healthy goat.
If you’re willing to take a risk and test out herbal dewormers on your herd, the best way to ensure they’re working is to do before and after fecal counts.Always remember that a little improvement might be encouraging, but it might not be enough for your goat to fight the parasites the dewormer did not kill.
Natural Goat Dewormers in Your Environment
One of the more popular natural dewormers is mugwort, which is part of the wormwood family.
When I tested mugwort and wormwood, I utilized it as a dried herb, a tincture, and in its freshest form. In fact, I grew my own wormwood (which I was fairly lucky with because it’s actually a naturally occurring weed in the midwest).
After testing the wormwood and mugwort, and conducting before and after fecal counts, I found that it works if administered in large amounts. Unfortunately, it didn’t work consistently and I don’t feel comfortable telling someone with a severely debilitated goat to try it.
One thing to keep in mind, if you’re growing wormwood, is that the number of active ingredients in the plant will vary from one year to the next. That’s the thing about natural dewormers; they’re usually grown in an uncontrolled environment, and you have no control over the active constituents, which can vary from one area to another or one growing season to the next.
The makeup (and active ingredient) will depend on things like rainfall, nutrients in the soil, and other unknowns that we just don’t have the capability to test. Each year would be a brand new trial, if you were hoping to grow your own dewormer.
A Natural Dewormer That Actually Works
If you’re looking for a natural way to deworm your goats, one natural dewormer I’ve found to be extremely effective is copper oxide wire particles (COWP). We began supplementing our goats with copper oxide wire particles regularly when we discovered our well water had excessive sulfur and iron. This caused our goats to become copper deficient. Ever since we began providing our goats with copper oxide wire particles and implementing pasture rotation, we haven’t had a problem with worms.
With that being said, many wonder why we don’t just provide a mineral that has more than 1800 ppm of copper sulfate rather than COWP regularly. The truth is, higher levels of copper sulfate haven’t proven effective against the barber pole worm. And, unfortunately, the barber pole worm is the most prominent in our region. On the other hand, COWP has shown, in more than a dozen studies, to reduce the amount of barber pole worms.
Learn more: Copper Oxide as a Dewormer
Management is the Most Natural Way to Prevent Goat Worms
We all want to care for our goats in the most natural way possible, and that’s why we looked for herbal dewormers in the first place. But the truth is, the most natural way to control parasites is with good management practices; that way, we don’t need dewormers at all.
Ever since we’ve focused on barn hygiene, rotational grazing, and meeting our herd’s nutritional requirements, we’ve rarely had to deworm our goats. In fact, in the last year, only one doe needed deworming after the stress of kidding. Some of my goats have never had a dewormer in their lives.
My bucks never need dewormers; they just don’t go through the same stress a doe goes through during kidding and lactation. So our bucks don’t usually have a problem with worms due to our management practices. Unless, of course, there’s an error on our part.
For example, one time we moved our bucks back into a pasture too soon, and one of them got an overload of worms. Had we waited two or three months for the pasture to rest, it’s unlikely our buck would have needed deworming.
All this to say, if you’ve been wondering why I don’t recommend herbal dewormers, it’s because it’s still very experimental and results are not predictable. Moreover, there are too many factors at play.
Instead, I encourage good management practices, the use of copper oxide wire particles, and chemical dewormers when necessary to save a goat.
For more information about goats and worms
- Goat Worms: Myths and Misunderstandings (podcast)
- Bioworma for Goats (podcast)
- New Goat Dewormer Guidelines (podcast)
- Using Dewormers Correctly (podcast)
- Roundworms and Goats (podcast)
- Natural Parasite Control with Lespedeza (podcast)
- Internal Parasites in Goats: Preventing Infection
- Dewormer Resistance in Goats
- Deworming Goats
- Preventing Coccidiosis
Click here to visit our Amazon store, which includes a list of things goats need.
What brand and dosage of copper particles did you use?
I prefer Copasure copper. Using copper as a dewormer has a different dosage than using it as a copper supplement. I interviewed Joan Burke, PhD, who has done more than a dozen studies on this. This is what she said in the podcast:
“So initially, we had a dose titration study where we gave no copper wire to 4 or 6 grams per animal. And, generally, experimental doses published in the literature were higher than 2 grams. But our aim was to minimize the risk of copper toxicity. Some studies were as high as 20 grams. But if we want to use this as a dewormer, and we know that copper can potentially be toxic to both sheep and goats, we want to go with the lowest dose so that we can use it multiple times in summer. And then we did another dose titration study in weaned lambs later, and we went as low as a half gram or one gram, and both worked the same. So we can actually go as low as a half gram. And we basically now recommend, anything less than a year of age, to give half or one gram. If you’re not sure of copper status, go with a half gram. ”
You can find the entire podcast and transcript here to learn more:
https://thriftyhomesteader.com/copper-oxide-as-a-dewormer/
How often do you give your goats copper oxide to prevent worms or do you just give them copper oxide when they have worms?
All goats have worms, and that’s okay. You just don’t want the worms to get out of control and make the goat sick. We have a problem with dewormer resistance because people used to think that we could kill all the worms — just like we thought that we could kill all the bacteria in our bodies — and in both cases we have created “bugs” that are resistant to drugs. You should only use any type of dewormer when a goat is actually sick, just as you only use an antibiotic when a goat is sick. The best way to control worms is through proper management, which usually includes pasture rotation so that you are mimicking a natural environment where animals would naturally range over thousands of acres. Here is an article that covers all the latest research on worms:
https://thriftyhomesteader.com/goat-worms/
back in the early 60’s I lived with my dad and 100+ goats, primarily Nubians, Toggenbergs & Sainens in Michigan about 30 miles from Kalamazoo. We milked 100 goats two times a day by hand, no machines back then! He had quite the side business providing Goat milk to folks whom the doctors recommended drinking it. I know I drank a bunch of it over the years as well as enjoying the butter, cheese and cottage cheese he made. Tho I can honestly say I did not like the Buttermilk he made but that was OK as he drank a lot of that.
The only wormers my dad ever used was fresh cigarettes and shavings from a copper penny. He would break off the filter of a cigarette and hand it to a goat who quickly devoured it like it was candy. And every week or so he would file off shavings with a metal rasp from a penny right over their molasses based feed. We never had sick goats period! They were all fat and shiney haired.
He only feed the goats sweet feed and good alfalfa hay. The milk was so good, they were not allowed weeds, Tree bark, etc. which would cause the milk to taste bitter. And once a month he would go to the bread store and buy 3 barrels of bread which we lavished on them all. so that they all ate several slices each for 3 days before it could mold.
After several years he sold the farm and we moved to Florida. He never had any goats after that.
When I turned 60 I was in a place where I had the time and 10 acres of pasture and woods, enough to support a few head of goats. I had missed having goats around so I bought 2 good nannies and a Billy, I lost at least 5 goats over the next 10 years to worms usually 2-3 months after birthing. Until an old lady told me to use Horse Dewormer paste. it worked like a charm! I was always afraid to do as my dad had with the cigarettes and copper as everything I read said highly dangerous to goats….
Now I read of the Copper wire that you mention for worming! Talk about Full Circle! guess the Old Ways, weren’t so far off the mark as I have been led to believe all of my adult life.