Natural dewormer

[savingdogs]

I am experimenting with:

2c wormwood
1 c fennel seed powder
1c black walnut hull powder
1 c garlic
1 c stevia

Mix what I need with molasses, scoop out a generous tablespoon for each goat and make into balls. I roll the balls in slippery elm powder, except for Peach as she won't eat it. I discovered that if I roll hers in cornmeal she gobbles 'em down. I give for three days. I give twice a day....double dose....for three days if eyelids are pale. I'll be dosing this week, as Mya's eyelids are a bit pale.

I got some of the cut herb wormwood at a good price but it was too coarse to make into balls, so I sifted it. Boy, is that stuff bitter! The dust gets in the air and I could taste it while sifting it. Ick!

No milk withdrawal time.

This sounds like great stuff, Free, but gosh, other than the garlic I don't know where to find any of those ingredients. You should make some and sell it! I'd be interested.

 

[freemotion]

Molly's Herbals, of Fias Co Farm, sells them, and that is where I buy the mix. But....trying to be more self sufficient, I want to grow my own if I can get the wormwood going.

You can get the herbs online or sometimes in the bulk section at Whole Foods. Cheaper online, though. I got most of mine through the co-op and they came from Atlantic Spice Company. Not sure if you can order from them as an individual, I think so. Great prices, but not necessarily organic. I buy organic for our own use (anything I can't grow, like cinnamon.)

 

[savingdogs]

Thanks, Free, you are awesome! You did a better ad for Molly's Herbals than their own ads! They should hire you, you increase sales all around with all your goat-promotion, you are helping keep their business afloat single handedly.

 

[freemotion]

Hee-hee......I am happy to promote Molly's Herbals. Her product is wonderful and easy to use, very finely powdered. I can't make mine like that, and sometimes the balls fall apart and are messy to feed. I could never drench my own, but Molly's would drench easily, being so fine. I'm also grateful for all the wonderful info on her site.

 

[freemotion]

It is time to harvest the black walnuts if you plan on making your own dewormer in the next year or so. This is the only time to get the hulls, so even if you THINK you MIGHT want to make your own in the next year or two, get out there and pick some.

You need the green hulls from nuts that are about ripe but still on the tree. I picked an OFG Cheese Press full of green nuts (that is a four gallon kitty litter bucket ) and used two bricks to smash the hulls off. I put the broken bits on a foil lined cookie sheet (wax paper lined dehydrator trays work, too, but I got a lot this year) and into a very low oven. They stain like crazy and will ruin your clothes, so choose wisely. The stain will go through standard rubber gloves, too, so consider this if your job requires presentable hands! I simply placed a walnut or two on a brick and slammed a second brick down on them at a slight angle, facing away from me. Then picked off the loose hulls and tossed them into a box, discarding anything that was black inside and picking off the stems and any bits of brick that will mess with my food processor later when I pulverize them.

When they are completely dry I'll powder them and store them in antique glass-top canning jars with the name and date on them. I'll use this for two years. This allows for a bad year....I'm almost out, so if there are some walnuts next year, I'll get a few again just in case the following year is a no-walnut year.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

It is time to harvest the black walnuts if you plan on making your own dewormer in the next year or so. This is the only time to get the hulls, so even if you THINK you MIGHT want to make your own in the next year or two, get out there and pick some.

Last year the kids and I gathered 2 feedsacks full of black walnuts from our trees. I left the bags out in the yard and never got around to doing anything with them. This spring I went to move the bags and surprise!, they were empty! I think the squirrels had a good winter.


I think in a true SHTF situation the weak animals would die out and only the hardiest would live and thrive and reproduce. It may take a while, but I think we'd end up with stronger animals because of it.

 

[freemotion]

Yes, I agree, but meanwhile, we need to keep the ones we have both alive and producing well. If we keep them confined, as in a pasture, we limit their natural choices. Remember, shepherds and goatherds would take the flocks out to graze/browse. A small family usually can't do this effectively. Sometimes a neighborhood shepherd would take all the animals out for a fee. Or in a big herd/flock, the animals would be taken to the mountains in the summer to graze and the cheese would be made daily there, aged, and brought back in the fall/winter.


That is not likely to take place in our lifetime. I need to keep my goats going. Knowing how is important. I rarely run a fecal exam anymore after only two years. I can usually tell who needs what now. So far, so good.

My most resistant does are also NOT my best producers, nor do they have the longest lactations. There is a pay-off. Walnut hull powder and wormwood is a good SHTF solution to getting the most from your animals.

Yup, I've thought about it! You have a lot of time for such thoughts when milking four does twice a day, and the other tasks that come with homesteading.

 

[Beekissed]

Some people have success using a certain type of soap in the water, Basic H from Shaklees, but they changed the formula and I don't know if it works still.

Actually, any soap will work as the action of the soap is to dissolve the worm's protective oils on their skin, exposing them to digestive acids and killing them. The only reason folks use the Shaklee's is because it is supposedly all natural, made from soy proteins...which, incidentally, also add weight to livestock when used regularly. Shaklee's was originally utilized in Europe to fatten cattle and turkeys, long before they marketted it as a soap.

Pumpkin seeds contain a chemical that paralyzes worms, causing them to detach and be flushed out with the feces.

Garlic inhibits the worm's reproductive cycles and also causes parasites to detach...apparently vampiric animals don't like the taste of sulfur in the blood. Does that sound familiar? Shades of Bram Stoker....

The charred wood also works but have never really did any research as to why....my sheep LOVED the charred wood, so I'm assuming goats would love it as well. I have witnessed barn swallows swooping down to partake of our ash pile over and over of an evening, so there must be something there that tastes good or is good for their digestion/health.

Of course, all of these are purely anecdotal......

 

[Denim Deb]

My cats like to lick charcoal, and eat ashes.