06/02/2026
Are we a antibiotic/medication free farm?
This is another question many people want to know the answer to! Once again, this is an answer that many people think is a simple answer, but is much more complex!
I want to start by stating prevention is the #1 most important thing in our farm. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, as the old saying goes. Our goats receive the upmost care and support here on our farm. From receiving probiotics to promote gut health, to receiving the best goat minerals recommended, to daily one-on-one exams and care, our goats are prized and valued here! They aren’t just livestock, they’re our loved pets.
Our farm ALWAYS values holistic treatment over pharma medications, but to be 100% antibiotic and medication free would mean each year, we would lose about 10% of our herd, based on our calculations. I’ll happily explain what our judgement looks like in different scenarios, and let you decide for yourself if this is something you support, or disagree with!
Scenario 1
Half the herd once presented with mastitis. We knew there was something wrong when our culture below showed all of the purplish. These are coliform plates, but other bacteria can show up on them as well. A more specific culture told us the source of the mastitis was Staphylococcus CNS, a form of mastitis that passes from one goat to another through equipment. See the slide below with 4 compartments-the tiny white dots on the bottom quarter of the slide below. Individual tests on each goat revealed over half of our herd had it. Research on this type of mastitis revealed it often goes away on its own. Only one goat was symptomatic. We moved those with mastitis to the end of our milking, began a few holistic treatments like feeding medicinal herbs, and diligently evaluated each doe for a week to monitor their condition to see if it was getting better or worse. (Contaminated milk was tossed, un-contaminated milk was kept.) At the end of that week, we had two does who had not improved at all. The rest of the girls were completely better and added back into the milking routine. The two does were treated with a dose of intramammory antibiotics, that have a milk withdrawal of 4 days (you shouldn’t consume the milk for 4 days). We did not add these does back into our milk for 6 days. Had we have not treated those two does, these two does would’ve continued to worsen and this would have led to loss of the use of their udder or even death.
Scenario 2
Our first kidding of the year was a preterm deliver. Unfortunately despite all attempts to save the kids, they did not survive. When the doe came in to milk two days after kidding, she had pus dripping from her vulva-classic case of Metritis and likely the cause of the preterm delivery. She was treated with Excenel for 5 days. Excenel has no milk withdrawal, but the milk was given to the other goat kids for several weeks.
Scenario 3
This is the hardest one for me. In all of the years we’ve raised goats, we’ve never dealt with Clostridium. This year, that unfortunately changed. The CDT is a shot available to prevent clostridium and tetanus in goats, but we had never had a reason to use it, until now. This year, we devastatingly lost 3 kids to clostridium. Typically clostridium is a very quick killer, but we had one doeling hold on for nearly a month. We ended up vaccinating the rest, but it was too late for one other. Unfortunately once clostridium is in the soil, it’s there to stay. This means future kids are also at risk. Once you watch that painful death, you would never want to risk it again. There is an antitoxin, which you can give once they are sick, if you catch it in time, but it isn’t easily accessible or very effective. For this reason, we’ve chosen to begin vaccination against Clostridium, but does in milk will not be vaccinated. Our does are dried up 60 days before kidding. They will receive the CDT 30 days before kidding to protect themselves and their kids, and kids will receive two doses at a few weeks old. A does milk doesn’t taste good until about 2-3 weeks after kidding. This means there will be about 45+ days between vaccinations and their milk being included in our routine bottling. CDT has no milk withdrawal time, so this is definitely the safest way to do it, while still protecting our goats.
While we love to be as natural as possible, we value the life of our animals over completely obtaining from medical treatment when holistic treatment is just not quite enough.
What is your opinion? How would you have handled these situations?
