A small ruminant is a class of animal that includes sheep, goat, alpaca and llama.
This is even though the alpacas and llamas are camelids; they still have the fermentation process like ruminants. In the small ruminant class we have a little different approach to medicine than in other species.
First we assume, and this the only time we assume anything, that they are sick due to worm infestation until unproven. Next, if they are not wormy and male and sick, they are plugged and cannot urinate until unproven.
If both of these are unproven, then we start looking for other problems. But, I have seen small ruminants with resistant worms to every dewormer we have on the market. In this case we are in deep trouble. If we do not use our dewormers properly we will get resistance to them. Then the worms can live right in the bottle of dewormer.
We have had a method of detecting worms in small ruminants that is very accurate and works fantastic. We call it FAMACHA. It comes from South Africa with the boer goats. The first university to adopt and use this program was the University of Georgia.
I normally get the University of Georgia’s FAMACHA packets they put together. They also have a card with the colors of the lower eyelids that are used to tell how infested with worms your animals are. We now run around checking eyelids instead of running around with a syringe of dewormer. We have also found we could go back and use dewormers that we were resistant to after being off of them for several months to a year.
Now to prevent the bladder stones and males from plugging up and not being able to urinate, it is recommended to feed them 10 grams of ammonium chloride daily for their life. And if we are going to castrate them, wait a little bit and let them grow up some. This will give us a little bigger urethra so we are not quite so easily plugged. I would say wait until they are at least 2 to 4 months of age before castration. With these bigger kids though, we do need to manage pain for them.
