New Thoughts On De-Worming Schedule  2006

For many years it has been advised that when you de-worm your animals, you should always de-worm your entire herd.  The reasoning behind this thought was that if animals were shedding parasites and eggs, the other animals would be infecting themselves.  Follow the de-worming by cleaning pastures and animal areas in three days which was the time that most of the parasites and eggs would be passed.

Now we are seeing parasites in llamas and alpacas becoming immune to the de-wormers most commonly used.  This is becoming a severe problem in the goat and sheep industry also.  So in reviewing llama parasite management, it has been discovered that not all the llamas in the herd have the same amount of parasites and in addition, not all llamas are shedders.  It is now recommended to only de-worm the animals that prove to actually have parasites as a results of fecal tests.  Regular fecal testing, regular weighings, and use of the Famacha method, all prove to give the most accurate records of which animals in your herd need de-worming.  This may prove to be a little more time consuming, but is much more accurate and will save you money normally spent on large quantities of de-wormers.  You can learn to run your own fecal tests.  See the additional article in this section of this website, Re-Thinking Our Parasite Management.