General PSA

My PSA for the day is to please do actual deep dive research and reference real scientific studies before using herbs and tinctures to "treat" anything.

Giving pumpkins because your goats have fecal confirmed worms? NO. It doesnt work.

Feeding your goats tobacco because they have fecal confirmed worms? NO. It does not work.

Making a huge herbal blend and making them eat it everyday? ..... WHY? What are you trying to accomplish or fix?

We know what goats need to be healthy. Adequate, draft-free shelter. High quality hay. Varied forage. Constant access to goat-specific minerals. Clean, fresh water. Pasture rotation and/or adequate space. Proper biosecurity and cleanliness.

Provide those, and most issues you run into will be isolated, freak incidents, or will open your eyes to a flaw in your practices in providing those above things (which isnt a bad thing! Just use it as a learning experience to improve!).

If your goats have pneumonia, they need ANTIBIOTICS.

If your goats have a substantial wormload, they need DEWORMERS.

But!!

!!!!!

!!

There is absolutely lots of worth in providing these things like pumpkins, oregano, fresh veggies, fruits, pine branches, (whatever that isnt toxic and has some sort of health content in it that doesnt imbalance their required daily intake %s)... just to keep their diets varied and a good mix of different nutrients rolling in. Goats need good, balanced, proper diets, the exact same way we do. Providing that for them WILL decrease their health issues in the future just because we all do better with better nutrition. These natural remedies will not fix anything that is already a problem, however. If you want to put cayenne pepper up a goat's nose because it has a respiratory infection, please please please rethink what youre doing. Look things up. Like, ACTUALLY. Dont look at some hallucinating AI summary or a comment on a facebook post. Look at scientific journals, really absorb the information, practice some critical thinking (start with "what is the purpose of x? How does it directly influence y? Why did z become a player in this formula in the first place?").

If you see a list of things to give your goats, break it all down. What does this ingredient do? Why is it there? What purpose is it serving? What about this next ingredient? How does it work in conjuction with the next? Understand what goats need in nutrition to be healthy and what sort of balances need to be made. There is a reason why being a livestock nutritionist is a REAL job with real worth.

And most importantly -

"Who is giving me this information? Do I trust them? Do they have an ulterior reason for suggesting this?"

Remember folks, 99% of what you see on social media is an ad. Its for revenue. Fb and Instagram and YouTube are ever-revolving money doors for content creators. Health potions and cure-alls have ALWAYS been the #1 grift since the dawn of time.