More wet weather. Terrific. My little goats haven’t been out of the barn in months. Or, so it seems.

Goat don’t do wet. Nor do they do well in wet weather. But staying in the barn isn’t good for them either. We clean it as often as we can. But in wet weather, we end up putting the poop in a corner. Sometime they get into it; sometime they don’t. Sigh … we definitely need a better poop management process. I’m working on it.

Because of this wet weather, we’ve increased our parasite prevention. They’re eating feed with Decoquinate (Deccox) in it. Deccox is a coccidiosis preventative. Coccidia is my greatest enemy when losing goats. Winter time or moist grounds increases their growth rate thereby increasing the odds of infecting goats. I have lost more goats in the winter than any other time of year. Each winter I say ‘this year I won’t lose anyone.’ So far … so good.

This year we started ‘winterizing’ everyone back in November. Everyone has been dewormed and vaccinated. Their eyes are nice and pink (see Famacha articles) and they have all the free-feed essentials: minerals (with copper), kosher salt, apple cider vinegar, and baking soda. Keeping them healthy with a strong immune system seems to be our best defense against parasites.