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naomi_miller

livestock routines

Naomi Miller
13 years ago

Hi to all.... I would love it if you all could share with me your various 'maintenance' routines for caring for your livestock. Primarily, worming routines, external parasite control etc.... Just to let you know, we have a hobby farm where we spoil and adapt to our one horse, one llama, 4 goats, 4 sheep, 6 potbelly pigs, 80 chickens, 28 ducks, 6 turkeys, a pair of peafowl, 11 pheasants, a cow and a pair of emus..... I nearly go crazy trying to keep up with everyone's specific product and specific intervals for every one..... I really want to find a simpler regimen using a lesser number of various products and recommended intervals drawn together so that I am not worming someone every week of the year, lol....

So whatever fur/feather babies you have, please share your personal routine to include the product(s) and intervals ....

I recently did enough research to appease myself and join the band wagon of individuals who use the Ivomec inj for cattle to maintain HW control in the canines too..... I also have 5 dogs, 7 cats, 3 chinchilla and doves, lovebirds, button quail and finches.....so plllllleeeeeease help me get life under control :>)..... less bottles, generalized intervals and more time for me!! lol..... thanks in advance for any and every post ...

Comments (3)

  • yakimadn
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Only thing I know about the birds is mixing DE in the feed and dusting it in nesting areas/mixing in dust bath area. With so many birds, I'd add a half dozen guinneas, free range them all (chickens & all)on the pasture/area where the hoofed animals stay for a couple weeks, then worm your hoofed animals all at once with ivomec, 3 months later with panacure, keep the birds free ranging and you can probably cut back to worming the hoofed animals twice a year (Ivomec after 1st frost and panacure after last frost). Get a revival or valleyvet catalog and get a good 1 pill/3 month dog wormer for the dogs & cats, and do a little research on the pigs. We get our stuff from Jeffers, valleyvet, revival, BigD's, and country supply depending on who has the best sales. We justmade an EXCEL workbook to keep track of vaccines, wormers, breeding, due dates, etc.

    With so many animals, when do you cook???????

    Good Luck,

    Dave

  • cpp6318
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Ivermectrin pour on will work on all of the above. Personally I wouldn't worry about treating any of them unless you suspect a problem large enough to affect their well being. The only red flag I see is 80 chickens plus other fowl... Grab one every few days during the colder months and check for sucking pests...
    An easy schedule for large stock is once in the spring to guard against new infestations (as most pests use grass to reproduce) and once in the fall to kill off whatever built up over the summer before you switch to dry hay.
    If you are worried about it, though, pour on ivermectrin will treat just about any vertabrate animal for feeding pests. It kills some border collies but that just reenforces my veiw that most border collies are spineless...

  • goodhors
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Warning on the pour-on cattle wormer. I asked the Vet about why it is not used on horses? She said from trying it on her own equines, that it causes lumps and soreness on the spinal skin area. Horses were unusable for a month while they healed up. Horse skin is much thinner than cow skin, so be careful.

    The EXCEL spreadsheet sounds real helpful, I use it for the horse feed program, posted on the feedroom door. With 3 of us alternating the daily graining, best to have it posted to refer to. Easy to change and put up the revised copy for reading as you mix up the buckets each day. Added the market lambs and their feed on sheets for when DD is at meetings or school things.

    I would look at a quarterly worming for the big animals if they have large pastures, not crowded, not traveling to show or not getting new ones in. They should be shiny, in good flesh, nice hair, as signs of health. Dull hair on good feed is a warning sign that needs attention. You can get fecals done, which might show no reason to worm at that time. You should alternate wormer chemicals not just brand names, to prevent worm immunity, so that should be considered too. Some worms are not affected by the Ivomecs, like bloodworms in horses. Worms are NOT supposed to cross species, in getting contaminated. Pig needs I am not up on, nor fowls.

    We try to do vaccinations in the Spring, since many things are insect borne to spread. But having some shots given at different (months) times could spread out the cost, instead of taking such a big hit at one time. We vaccinate ourselves, with only giving one kind of shots each week. So horses could take a month to get all their 4 boosters. Cows could take 2 weeks for boosters. Too many kinds of shots at one time (unless it came as a multi-way injection), can make any animal sick with bad reactions. All those chemicals just over-whelm their system!! Unles you have new animals, usually that just means one booster each year, per disease.

    Something else with the EXCEL method, is you could set up a reminder program in your computer calendar. Reminder could tell you to order vaccines and wormer for which animals, then another reminder to give them after meds arrive. If you set reminder up again when you mark animals/birds done, then you should be set for the next session. You could also write a reminder on your wall calendar in the appropriate months to order meds, then when you DID give them. Notes ahead could be colored, to get your attention when the pages are changed.

    Not sure if you could wash the small birds, chickens, to ensure they get problems attended to in early spring, fall before winter. My friend used to wash/dip her birds regular, had a couple dozen. They were shown and she said the dipping bath really took care of LOTS of problems easier than other methods. She lined up her tall garbage cans, first with soap/cleaner, then a couple of clean water rinse cans. Water was warmed, not cold or hot. She held their feet, dunked them in head first a couple times, lifted them out to breathe, then dunked them a couple more times, lifted out to breathe. Then moved to the rinse cans. Repeated dunking, gave breathing time, in each clean water can. Then she put them down to shake off and dry. Change water as it gets dirty, sometimes often, sometimes water stayed clean a long time.

    I was rather amazed at her methods, but birds did not seem troubled or damaged, just irate! None got sick after dipping either. Birds were VERY clean after, looked nice to show. Never seemed to have any bird problems either like the mites or other nasties. She moved pretty quickly, made sure birds got their air back between dunkings. Kept her coop and perches, laying boxes very clean to prevent reinfestations.

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