Independence Homestead

Read Part 1 and Part 2 to hear the first part of the story!

At this point in the story Storm is still showing rear end weakness, and we’re pretty sure he has a meningeal worm infection.

The curative treatment we followed was oral dosing of Safeguard at 10 times the standard rate for 5 days in a row. Storm weighed 57lbs using a goat weight tape, and the standard dosage rate is 2.3cc/100lbs. So his daily dosage of Safeguard for this treatment was 14cc of Safeguard. My largest syringe is 10cc, so I’d feed him 10cc, then refill it to 4cc and feed him again. Thankfully he liked the taste of the medicine and ate it right up!

This is a TON of dewormer, and I was worried about what it would do to his system. To keep his rumen functioning well, I mixed probiotic powder with some grain and fed it to him daily. While grain might be been a little hard on his system, I figured he could use the extra calories, and it ensured he ate all the probiotic powder.

Thankfully Storm took the dewormer like a champ and we quickly saw improvement in his mobility and strength. It’s been nearly 3 weeks since we completed his treatment, and he seems happy and healthy. Amazingly, his mobility is back to normal. Many resources say any damage caused by the meningeal worm is permanent, but that doesn’t seem to be the case here. I wonder if we caught it early enough to prevent permanent damage? Whatever the reason, we are thankful that Storm is back to normal.