Welcome to our blog. Check back often for official news and announcements from the KGBA and articles on various topics of Kinder goat care, raising, breeding, showing and more!
Blog
Orange Sherbet
1 (3oz.) pkg. orange jell-o
1 pkg. orange Kool-Aid
1 1/2 cups of sugar
1 cup of water
1 qt. goat milk
Combine Jello, Kool-Aid, sugar and water in saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature. Stir in cold goat milk and freeze in ice cream maker. Taste just like store bought. You can substitute any flavors of Kool-Aid and Jello.
Meningeal worm
Meningeal worm
Brain Worm – Deer Worm
Paralaphostrongylus tenius
What is it?
The meningeal worm is an internal parasite (Paralaphostrongylus tenius) of the white-tailed deer that usually completes its life cycle in the deer without causing significant problems. However, when unnatural hosts, such as sheep and goats, become infested with meningeal worm, the parasite moves into the brain and/or spinal cord and causes neurological problems that can be fatal. Llamas and alpacas are even more susceptible to meningeal worm infection than sheep or goats. Cattle are not known to be affected. Meningeal worm is not a health concern to humans.
The life cycle of the meningeal worm requires terrestrial snails or slugs as intermediate hosts. White-tailed deer become infested with P. tenius by eating snails or slugs that contain the infective stage of the larvae. The larvae migrate through the deer’s gut and eventually move into the central nervous system where they mature into adults, produce eggs, and the life cycle begins again. However, when P. tenius-infected snails and slugs are ingested by aberrant hosts, the larvae migrate into the brain and/or spinal cord.
The larvae do not mature into adults, but rather wander through the central nervous system causing inflammation and swelling which damages sensitive nervous tissue producing a variety of neurologic symptoms. Experimental evidence suggests that it takes 10 to 14 days for the parasite to reach the brain and/or spinal cord after the animal eats the infected snail or slug.
Symptoms
The neurologic signs observed in infected sheep and goats depend upon the number of larvae present in the nervous tissue and the portion of the brain or spinal cord that has been affected.
A mild infection may produce a slight limp or weakness in one or more legs, while a more severe infection may cause an animal to be partially or completely paralyzed. When larvae migrate to the brain, they may cause blindness, a head tilt, circling, disinterest in or inability to eat, or other signs that mimic brain diseases.
Affected animals may get progressively worse, remain static, or in some cases improve without therapeutic involvement. In most cases, infected animals remain alert and continue to eat and drink normally.
Diagnosis
Meningeal worm infection cannot be diagnosed in the live animal. A fecal examination is not useful since sheep and goats are “dead end” hosts for the parasite and the larvae do not produce eggs or pass larvae into the feces. The parasites cannot be detected by blood testing. The only way to confirm diagnosis is to find the parasite in the nervous system, which requires a necropsy examination. Testing the cerebrospinal fluid, which requires the animal to be tranquilized or anesthetized for extraction, may help to support suspicions of brain worm infection.
Thus, diagnosis of meningeal worm in the live animal is based on symptoms and clinical history. Usually animals have been grazing for at least two months and there is a history of deer in the area. Diseases which look similar to meningeal worm infection include: listeriosis, CAE, scrapie, rabies, trauma, copper deficiency, vitamin E/selenium deficiency, spinal cord or brain abscesses, or polioencephalomalacia.
Treatment
Treatment regimes usually involve high, repetitive doses of anthelmintics, along with steroids, and other supportive therapies. Many different anthelmintics (levamisol, ivermectin, albendazole, fenbendazole, thiabendazole) have been used to treat meningeal worm infection. It is believed that some anthelmintics can kill the larvae before it enters the central nervous system, while others may be able to cross the blood-brain barrier and kill the larvae regardless of its location in the body.
However, it is important to note that no controlled studies have confirmed or refuted the efficacy of different treatment regimes. Nor does treatment repair damaged nervous tissue. Producers who suspect meningeal worm should contact their veterinarian for treament recommendations.
Prevention
As with other disease conditions, prevention is usually more satisfying than treatment. Unfortunately, the meningeal worm is a hard one to prevent. Reducing deer populations is usually impractical. A single deer can shed thousands of eggs per gram of feces, and the larvae are highly resistant to environmental forces. However if feasible, sheep and goats should not be pastured in areas which receive high deer utilization or removed from these pastures before the weather turns wet and cool. It may be helpful to limit sheep and goat pasturing to fields without contiguous woodlands and to pastures that are on high ground and well-drained.
Controlling the intermediate hosts may be a more effective means of prevention. Sheep and goats can be fenced away from likely snail and slug habitats: ponds, swamps, wetlands, low-lying, poorly-drained fields, and woodlands. Some veterinarians advocate strategic deworming as a means of preventing infection. However, it is important to realize that regular use of anthelmintics (e.g. monthly treatments) rapidly leads to anthelmintic resistance, so while regular treatments may help to control the meningeal worm, eventually those drugs will lose their efficacy against ordinary stomach worms, which may be an even greater problem on most sheep and goat farms.
References: P. tenuis – The White-tailed Deer Parasite, Michigan State University College of Veterinary Medicine and Goat Medicine (1994) by Smith and Sherman.
Copyright © 2004.
What to do with all that milk?
Equipment
1. Mixing containers such as enamel or stainless steel pots to melt the oils in and plastic bowl to weight the ingredients in NOTE: NEVER, NEVER USE ALUMINUM, it reacts with the lye
2. A heatproof container for your lye mixture such as a large plastic or glass bowl or pitcher.
3. Stainless steel slotted spoon or plastic heat proof spoon or heat proof rubber spatula. Do not use wood.
Creamy Goat Milk Soap
8 oz olive oil
5 oz coconut oil
3 oz palm oil
2.3 oz lye
7 oz frozen goat milk
Melt the coconut and palm oil in an enameled pan on low heat. Place the frozen goat milk in a glass bowl and slowly add lye while stirring with a plastic spoon. Stir until lye is dissolved and all milk is thawed. When the oils are warm to the touch (105 degrees) pour in the olive oil. Pour the goat milk & lye mixture into the oil mixture while stirring. Keep stirring until you get trace. Trace is when it thickens to the point where you can drop some of the mix back into itself and it leaves a trail. At this point use any herb, scent, or coloring and stir and pour into molds. Place plastic wrap on top of soap. Let sit for 24 hours. Unmold, cut into bars, and place on a rack to cure for 3-4 weeks.
“Oh my gosh she is big”
Greetings from the Gray J Ranch
Disclaimer: The opinions, views, and thoughts expressed by newsletter and blog contributors do not necessarily reflect those of the Kinder® Goat Breeders Association. Goat husbandry advice found in the newsletter and blog is not meant to substitute a valid veterinary relationship. Please request permission to share or reprint newsletter and blog posts.