I mentioned in a thread a while back that we had some very skinny deer on our 500 acre HF ranch. Well, we harvested one ant took its organs to our vet, and sure enough she had worms.

On advice from the vet, we're mixing Ivomec with corn and putting it throughout the ranch. We are also putting Safeguard protein in our protein feeders.

Has anyone else had to combat this problem, and if so, do you think our methods are enough to solve it? Or did you have better luck using another method?

Just looking for input from those with experience in dealing with this.

Thanks

Also, our antler growth has been very disappointing. We don't have anything on game cams over 140" or so. Can the worms effect the antler growth that much?

Antlers are a product of excess protein... Without enough protein in the diet, or in your case when the source of protein is getting parasatized, the antlers will suffer.

So yes, worms can def hit antler growth!

To many animals can cause problems. Simplest solution I found was feeding lead to a lot of animals to get the numbers down. Worming them will be a short term fix for the real problem.

I tend to agree with ranchman.

Its 500 acres HF... shouldn't be hard to find out your density and ratios... you should have already done this anyway. How many deer are you running my bet is too many!

We're working on our numbers, and this year I think we're closer to CC than we'vestarted in the past. We're not seeing near the deer we are used to seeing from the blinds. I think we are starting this year more ahead of the culling game than we have in the past. On top of that, we've been green and are showing no signs of over grazing.

I know I've commented before on some of the older guys not wanting to kill all the recommended deer, but they are coming around.

And regardless, you still have to take care of the worms, right?

Even if your numbers are low, you'd still have skinny deer with worms running around, right.

If you are at CC and having internal parasite issues then my guess would be you are still over populated. Just my guess. Deer normally don't get internal parasites unless they are feeding in the same locations continually due to lack of forage. Being green now and seeing less deer at the blinds may not be due to being at CC. It could be due to the increased rain producing more forage. IME when you starting shooting a lot of deer from the blinds you kill all the deer that frequent the feeders and leave the smart one that learn avoid the blinds. Seen this happen many times on ranches that have to shoot a lot of deer. How do you survey the ranch? Do you do it semi and/or annually? Do you have food plots and/or supplemental feed? If so do you have feed year round or seasonal? Also are you putting out IVOMEC/Safeguard now during hunting season? There is a withdrawal time for slaughter on the label of each.

What is yals estimated density? How many total deer or acres/deer?

If you don't know its likely higher than it should be.

Yes, we do most, if not all of our killing from the blinds. I agree that the smart ones get smarter and we should change our tactics, but our time is stretched thin as it is right now. We have protein and corn feeders at all of the blinds, although we are not feeding protein right now.

We survey with an annual helicopter survey, and regularly with blind surveys. I know there is more we can do to get better results, but right now it is just two people doing all of the work out there, and mainly just on weekends when we can get free.

This is the first year we've done food plots in 7 or 8 years. I planted around 15 acres of oats at different locations this September. The rain gods have been good to me.

Yes, we plan on starting with he safeguard/IVOMEC in a couple of weeks. We've already taken 8 deer I think and we are going to try and take 20 more in the next 3 weeks (we'll have friends and family to help with that). Then we'll start the treatment in the beginning of November. Our thinking is that we want to start the treatment as soon as possible so we can get the deer healthy and they can start putting on as much weight as possible for the spring.

Correct, I don't know off hand, and you're probably right. We usually go with aerial survey and the numbers the game biologist tells us to take. Our survey is scheduled for sometime in November.

The few times I have seen worm problems in South Texas was when they fed protein from Jan-Sept and stopped. One was a ranch in La Salle County with deer numbers under control and great management of range conditions. It was 2500 acres with low deer numbers at just above CC. I got my buddy to take in fecal samples to the Vet to check them to see what he had and where it was a problem. This was in March in the mid 90's when he and I talked. I told him to use Ivomec on corn/Purina Exotic Feed with Safeguard in the pellets in the feed pens the first week then wait for 4 weeks to take the samples back in again. He cleaned up the problem with one treatment. My Vet told me you want to see a few in the samples but enough to need to treat. Moving your feeders and pens is a pain but can help. Tilling the soil under in the pens to put the dropping under will help. Randall Burkey Company in Boerne sells a poultry house disenfectant you can spray your pens with also to help if do not want to move the pens.

No exotics or livestock?

No exotics, no livestock, and no pigs.

So we don't have our feeders enclosed in pens.

Not sure how feeding protein from Jan.-Sept. can be the culprit, but that's what we do.

I will probably look into that spray, because moving the feeders would be a pain in arse.

Not sure either but it seems to be worse on those ranches than those that feed year round IME.
I know some ranches that treat yearling, about a month post rut if they need it or not. The simple fecal tests are pretty cheap compared to trying to worm the whole herd.

I'm sure your vet told you, but haemonchus can get very resistant to wormers sometimes. I know of sheep and goat ranches that have had to go back to using the old wormer levamisole because the worms were resistant to ivomec (and similar wormers) and to the bendazole wormers like safeguard.

haemonchus worms suck blood, can be an acute fall down dead illness at times.
ostertagia worms make animals' stomach "leathery" where they don't absorb nutrients very well.

short article on deworming which seems to focus on captive animals -
http://www.deerfarmer.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=140:deworming-deer-and-elk&catid=25:health

From http://agrilife.org/texnatwildlife/diseases-and-parasites/

" Likewise, internal parasites, especially stomach worms, are common but are not at sufficient levels to cause clinical symptoms. However, the concentration of individuals at feeding sites increases the potential for disease transmission. Because disease causing organisms can be transmitted through the soil, supplemental feed should not be placed on the ground. Some type of trough should be used and, ideally, the feeding site should be relocated every year or two."

Good article on deer parasites. http://www.westerveltwildlife.com/pdf/deer-diseases.pdf

This is an interesting read... How long have y'all had the ranch HF'd? Is this the first time you've have worms or have been treating for worms?