Keeping the animal health was the main priority since the moment you decided to raise them. No matter the purpose why you chose the animal, whether you want to pet them or raised them as livestock – still, you need to keep your goat healthy from the inside and outside. Raise them in the maximum effort and provide all facilities they needed would be you main focus and the key of successful business.
Whether you choose goat or sheep – or even both – because there are differences between goat and sheep, which effect on the quality of the meat (the lamb meat and the goat meat). Therefor, prevent illness or disease should be easier than treat it – also, it cost cheaper and saving more time. That is why you need to know how to boost your goat’s immune system to reinforce your goat natural body’s protection to avert all the bad intruder at anytime and anywhere.
But, if it’s too late – your goat already catch up some disease such orf disease in goat, then it’s time for you to apply some medical prescription. However, if you’re afraid to use the strong treatment that contained with chemicals, don’t worry, my friends – there are ways to nurse your beloved goat without any intervention of chemical production. You could use natural organic treatment to cure some illness and disease, such sore mouth in goats (and it’s effective!).
For your information, natural remedies can’t cure every illness and disease. There are some cases that chemical prescription is inevitable, and this is for your own sake – the safety of your goat’s life. Wisdom is needed to determine which treatment is the best way to handle the medical situation. In this article; 4 natural remedies for goats, will peel all the alternative ways beside chemical treatment you could choose to cure some disease on your goat.
But, let me remind you again, if you didn’t find any progress after the applying of these natural remedies – immediate care for the vet it recommended. Without any further, here are 4 natural remedies for goats!
1. Worm and Parasite Control
Worm and parasite are the most common’s situation in goats. This could occur if goat making a direct contact with the parasites, which is inevitable. Worm could easily attack your goat from the ground (generally when your goat graze the food), and parasite could spread out in the air, or could adhere while your goat playing is the shrubs or a thick grasses. The only thing you could do with this situation is control the parasite by gradually checking your goat cleanliness.
There are natural medical herbs usually use to clear the parasite and deworming problems, the materials is quite easy to find – or you could grow it in your garden or backyard, such; wormwood, parsley, black walnut, garlic, and pumpkin seed. Some people also use quassia chips and taheebo (pau d’ arco as the natural remedies for deworming and parasite situations).
Some herbs above perhaps a little bit hard to find caused its categorized as tropical plants, so it would be easier if you buy directly from herb distributor. Natural remedies generally work with combinations of other herb, example: you can use garlic plus parsley for the pregnant does and weanling kids. Or you can make concoction of quassia chip, plus wormwood and pau d’ arco (known as an strong antibiotic herb) plus black walnut.
You could soak the quassia chips in the water and let it stay for days (minimum a week) and then feed it to your goat with other materials.
2. Treating Mastitis
If you didn’t know, mastitis is inflammation of mammary glands caused by bacteria and viruses. The best way to avoid this illness is to make sure that your goat get enough nutrition in their body. This illness is painful for goat, especially during weanling. To reduce the pain while weaning kids, you could add sage to water for the mother, do this gradually.
There are some natural herbs that people usually used to cure mastitis, such; echinacea, ginger, and garlic. You should compress the place (body part) that infected with a hot water which contained with all the materials above, and for the last act; you can rub the infected part with peppermint oil (this action aim to stimulate the vessel of blood).
3. Diarrhea
Diarrhea could happen to any animals even us – human. Generally, diarrhea caused by eaten something that it shouldn’t, or eaten particular thing way too much. Some herbs believed could be the natural remedies for diarrhea, such; echinacea, blackberry leaf, elm bark, pau d’ arco plus garlic. Used it at least a week non-stop (until the diarrhea stop) – plus, you could use some antiviral and antibiotic herbs to keep the goat attacked by other illness (considering that your goat in vulnerable condition).
For smoothen the digestion system, you could feed them yogurt (only use it when the diarrhea passed) – yogurt known as an effective killer of bad bacteria inside digestive system.
4. Respiratory Ailments
Respiratory disease could attack goat at any ages. Generally respiratory disease caused by viruses infection and bacteria, parasite and fly, injured trachea and throat, and nasal passages irritation. You should determine the urgency level of the illness that caught by your goat, which some cases only medical treatment (chemicals involvement) could cure it.
These are some of risk factors that make your goat could infect by respiratory disease: crowding, reduction of antibodies, exposure of unknown substances, changes of nutrition, environmental situation, and transportation. You should know types of respiratory diseases that might attack your goat – so, you can make some prevention and know how to handle the situation:
- Lower respiratory tract: enzoonic pneumonia, blood-borne infections, verminous pneumonia, mycoplasma pneumonia, and pasteurella.
- Upper respiratory tract: nasal bots, and irritant & trachea injury.
But, for mild symptoms of respiratory illness, some people prefer to use herbs as the remedies, such; peppermint, echinacea, horehound, and pau d’ arco. You can combine those materials with ginger and garlic on equal proportion. Make sure you give it frequently until it passed.