# Lice in goat



## Mrndly (Aug 16, 2012)

My neighbor who is looking to get goats was told by one of the farms she visited that lice was just a fact of life for goats. Is this true?
I have had alpacas for 7 years and never had an issue with lice. Is there a reason goats might be more susepatable(sp?) Is there some prevenative care I should be looking into for my new doelings?


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## liz (Oct 5, 2007)

Just like any other parasite with goats...lice are NOT and should not be a "fact of life" for a goat.
As a preventative, goats should be handled daily and checked for external parasites, I have only ever had one who came to me with lice and she was just a baby at the time...and it was found to be carried in with the hay her breeder was feeding, I used Sevin dust on all my goats as well as their housing,that was 5 years ago and I've not seen a louse yet.

Lice can be life threatening as they do feed on blood and they will make a goat anemic


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## Mrndly (Aug 16, 2012)

Thanks for the reply Liz. I thought it was a strange statement to make. I get that lice "could" happen and I should keep an eye out for them just like I would for any other parisitic issue. It bothered me to think I should "expect" to get them


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## packhillboers (Feb 2, 2011)

Well.. there are different types of lice. The chubby greyish looking ones(blood sucking lice) Those are really bad for them. I believe that worming the goats with the Ivermectin orally has helped considerably with the control of lice and mites here on our property. If we have an issue, we do spray in the fall time or the spring but we have had an issue with mites on the young kids at 4 months. Two treatments of an oral wash(permethrin dip) took care of the mites without a re-infestation. There are tiny little hard to see lice that will often show up in the cooler winter months. They are carmel color-tiny and look like sawdust specks. Some people believe that these type of lice do the goat a good deed in helping shed the winter coat off. I am not sure yet if it is true. We don't worry too much about these lice unless they are visible and seem to be out of control in large populous amounts. Still - I think the wormer meds we use is controlling them well and a good balance of minerals available with copper helps.


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## ETgoatygirl (Mar 23, 2012)

Good info, everyone.. 

PackhillBoers- I have a question for you regarding the part of your post about minerals affecting lice. Do I understand you correctly in that copper (and a good mineral mix), help get rid of lice? I have a nice mineral mix for my girls, and have just fed them some copper a few months ago (as I know they were deficient). Should this help with their lice problem? I mean, I don't expect the copper to "cure" the lice problem, but it will help?


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## happyhogs (Oct 12, 2009)

I realise this may not be viable if you have quite a few goats but if you have just a few....I have used dog flea collars on my goats for two and a half years, replacing every four months and never seen sight of any sort of creepy crawly.


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## packhillboers (Feb 2, 2011)

ETgoatygirl said:


> Good info, everyone..
> 
> PackhillBoers- I have a question for you regarding the part of your post about minerals affecting lice. Do I understand you correctly in that copper (and a good mineral mix), help get rid of lice? I have a nice mineral mix for my girls, and have just fed them some copper a few months ago (as I know they were deficient). Should this help with their lice problem? I mean, I don't expect the copper to "cure" the lice problem, but it will help?


I am not sure what the copper might do for ridding a goat of lice. It is more to help the goat's immune system to help fight parasites off. They need minerals if they do not have good browse and I have read that a diet deficient in adequate minerals will weaken the goat's immune system and encourage the growth of all types of parasites. I think that the blood sucking lice need to be eliminated with some sort of wash. - as for the other kinds of lice- I havent seen it much now since we have been using the ivermectin orally.-- Come winter tho- those tiny 'sawdust' mites can show up - if so- we will probably sponge all the goats down in the fall with permethrin.


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## packhillboers (Feb 2, 2011)

Mange is a problem too but it is caused from a mite that you can not see without a microscope-skin scraping of the effected area. The tiny mites I mentioned are nearly impossible to see with your eyes. How you know? -They are all the same size shape speck. Take a dark cloth or paper, brush your goat, put on the dark and you will see them. OR wear glasses to see them. OR just get a magnifying glass to see them. They like to hide near the top back by the rump area in our goats or around the collar area. The blood sucking lice are visible. (Chubby little things that grab onto the hair shafts.) Look on the back of neck area for these. Mites & Lice are problems that are easier to control with a good diet and non crowded environments.


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## 8566 (Jul 18, 2012)

Kelp has helped a lot with our program.
It seems once I started them on it, I am seeing less issues with parasites and illness. Also with kidding.

I have also used the dog drops for ticks on my goats and that has helped on stubburn cases.

HTH,


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

I treat my goats at least once a month for lice. We get those little red ones quite frequently here and it's such a pain. We had bought a buck/doe a couple of years ago that had them, got rid of them, then got them in the spring of 2011, got rid of them. Bought a buck in Sept 2011, and he got them, then when we thought they were gone, they came back, got rid of them again! Then in April we bought 2 young does, and one was infested. 
Treated everyone, sure we got rid of them.
June, when it started to get brutally hot, I was suspecting lice as our buck was itching like crazy again, so we shaved them and OMG he was covered! They were hard to see because of his skin color and his hair was so thick. 
So we shaved everyone down, and sprayed everything/everyone with permectrin II spray.

So it's been 'fun' dealing with them. not! 
We have one doe that has some balding spots that she's been itching or rubbing, but haven't noticed any 'critters' on her, so I spray her every couple of weeks. Could be the flies, especially the horse flies as we've seen more of those this year than we ever have on our property.

They are a nuissance, but sadly they do happen. Every goat owner I personally know has had to deal with them at least once a year. 

I have heard Cylence is good stuff, basically like frontline for dogs, but the 2 infested does we got were treated when we picked them up and I didn't see any improvement after 36 hours so I treated them with my spray.
You can bathe them in permectrin II spray, a little goes a long way, or put it in a spray bottle and spray them down real good. 
A breeder friend said she took in a doe she'd sold that was neglected/lice infested and used the iodine/shampoo you use for horses for I believe for rain rot or hoof rot I forget which one it is, but she used that and said it worked great killing the lice. 

We copper bolused our adult goats a couple of weeks ago, I try to encourage them to eat loose minerals. I'm hoping this will help a lot more...


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