posted 1 hour ago
We rotationally graze our sheep to keep parasites down, but would that same strategy apply to the LGD sheep dogs in the pasture? We had a batch of puppies that went through the vet last year, and the worming cost was shocking. This year I thought I would figure it out on my own. I just gave the puppies a teaspon of raw pumpkin + ground pepita seeds and will keep that up for 7 days.
We have more LGD dogs and are considering giving a round of diatomaceous earth once a year. There are very few holistic vets out there - their advice is to not deworm unless you have to - unless the annual fecal sample indicates to do so. Well guess what, our farm dogs never go to the vet except for rabies shots. It seems that common protocol is to hit up young puppies more with deworming (I fully understand that pumpkin is not the answer to all parasites).
Trying to find the middle ground here from over-worming farm dogs while keeping vet/medical bills down. The voices of folks that say they take no action unless they have to are hard to find.
Looking for input from folks in similar situation. Thank you!