# Goats with bugs, lice, mites, something that bites ME!



## Tallistrailblzr (Aug 10, 2015)

I am new to goats and have learned so much through this site. I hope you all can help me again. My goats are as healthy as they can be, maintaining weight, wormed, slick and fat. However, anytime I pet them for extended periods of time or hold the babies, I get little big bites all over me. It is similar to the time my husband killed a turkey and had me to pluck it and I got EATEN ALIVE by mites. Do goats get mites? onder: I know they can have lice, but their lice is not supposed to live on humans. I don't want whatever they have getting all over the cats and dogs too. How can I get rid of whatever it is? I never see anything on me, just have little itchy bites the next day.:sigh:


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## SalteyLove (Jun 18, 2011)

Goats can get both mites and lice. Lice are visible to the naked eye, mites are not. Do the goats seem particularly itchy? Is there fur ever mussed up from them biting at their sides? Are they rubbing on everything? 

Perhaps you are allergic to hay (or goat dander) and are having a mild reaction?


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## Tallistrailblzr (Aug 10, 2015)

They do not have any spots that are missing hair, but they are pretty itchy. They turn around all the time and bite at their legs and back. I don't feed hay yet since they have so much brush to clear. I am thinking mites. What do you do for those?


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## cfish001 (Sep 1, 2015)

For external parasites, I dust my animals with Diatomaceous earth. 

This seems to take care of any critters that may live in their fur, Fleas, mites, lice etc. I buy the food grade variety from my local feed store. Make sure you don't inhale the powder.

I have heard two explanations of how diatomaceous earth works. 


"One is that on a microscopic level, the diatomaceous earth particles are very sharp looking. These particles stick to an insect and get stuck between its exoskeleton joints. As the insect moves, it gets physically cut up.
The other explanation is that diatomaceous earth sticks to the insect and somehow causes them to dry out. I think this approach involves scratching the insects waxy layer which then allows precious moisture within the insect to get out. So their teeny tiny bug-innards turn into teeny tiny bug-innards-jerky."


A pair of my newborn kids just recently got lice on them. I dusted them (carefully so as to not produce any airborn dust). The lice was gone the next day. Also did the same with fleas that were on my goats. Same result. 



You can even give Diatomaceous earth to your animals to deal with internal parasites. I have been using Diatomaceous earth mixed with molasses and give to my goats and a check of their lower eyelids have always shown me that we dont have a worm issue. I dont give it to them all of the time, I just do a 2 week run every couple of months. 



Diatomaceous earth has no toxic side effects to your animals or you (except you must be careful to not breath the dust). Just toxic to the bugs.


Carrol


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## Tallistrailblzr (Aug 10, 2015)

Awesome thanks!


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## SalteyLove (Jun 18, 2011)

Diatomaceous Earth will not address mites which burrow in to the skin of the animals. But with them biting at their flanks, I would assume you have lice. You should see lice when you part their fur and looks closely - clear or yellowish or reddish small oval thing in their hair. There are a lot of treatment options for goat lice. DE will need to be re-applied frequently for a few weeks to eliminate them and the bedding in their shelter will need to be stripped & replaced.


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## cfish001 (Sep 1, 2015)

Just recently I found a treatment that worked for getting rid of lice. It seemed to kill them outright and pretty quickly. 

I had moved Iris into the house to care for her and it turned out she had lice. I at first tried diatomaceous earth and it seemed that the lice kept on getting thicker. Got on the internet and did alot of research for alternatives and found that using coconut oil on her might be very effective. I had some and applied coconut oil to her fur. I rubbed coconut oil on her liberally to the point she looked greased up. She was a saanen and of course had lots of hair. Within a couple of hours they were all dead. I then rubbed coconut oil on her every couple of days. 

When we took her to the vet, the vet looked and saw the dead lice. He asked us what we used and I told him about the coconut oil. He said that works really well. He also said that any kind of oil would work. What the oil does is suffocate the lice - they can no longer breath. 

I love it when I can find something in my kitchen what works well for the goats!


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