The "All Natural" Way to Hurt Your Goat

I get super frustrated when I see people on internet forums post about horrible problems with their goats and follow the description of the problem with something like, “Well, I gave them a dose of cinnamon and put tea tree oil on it and it didn’t get better!”. I just want to scream at the computer when I see junk like this. When did people decide that cinnamon, tea tree oil, yogurt or other goofy home remedies for goats are a valid treatment option for diseases and infections?? 

It chaps my ass to no end when proven conventional treatments (e.g. antibiotics, anthelminthics, coccidiostats, etc) are shunned in favor of an “all natural” approach. The reason I am frustrated is not because I am getting kickbacks from Big Pharma to advertise their products or because I have been brain-washed to believe in the global suppression of natural alternatives by the chemical lobby. I am frustrated because I see needless and painful suffering happening to goats whose owners refuse to use conventional treatment methods. I don’t believe that most “all natural” remedies are in the least effective. If you had a horrendous case Staphylococcus aureaus dermatitis with blistering pustules and raw, bleeding skin, what would you chose to use on yourself – a proven treatment with topical antibiotic cream or a dash of cinnamon and some tea tree oil (neither of which have been proven to do anything)? Or better yet, if you had worms – which treatment option would you choose? Would you endure pain and suffering to try out your “all natural” remedy first or would you go to the doctor and get a prescription? If you would not use the remedy on yourself, then why would you use it on your goats????!!!

People are very quick to dismiss conventional treatments as “bad” or “dangerous” because they are manufactured from chemical components. This does not make them inherently evil. You have to realize that when trying to fight a bacterial, parasitic or fungal infection in your goat, those pathogenic microbes are fighting back just as hard. Bacteria, parasites, fungi and viruses have evolved over millions of years to live inside your goat and reproduce. They do not care about the health or pain-level of your goat. There only mission is to reproduce and spread to new hosts. They have developed incredibly sophisticated ways to infect and spread. Those ways are harsh and dangerous. Sometimes the only way to save your goat from an infection is to fight back with something just as harsh and dangerous, like a conventional treatment. 

People want to believe that “all natural” remedies are better, more effective, and safer because they come from nature. Well, guess what? – Nature is a BITCH! Nature doesn’t care about your goat. Nature is the same thing that created the bacteria, parasites, fungi, and viruses. Those are “all natural” too. And they want to kill your goat. 

It saddens me to no end to see animals suffer because their owners are too stubborn and stupid to use conventional treatments. I see goats die because someone wouldn’t use an antibiotic on their mastitis or kids suffer because someone won’t preventatively treat them for tapeworms by using an anthelminthic. This is unnecessary when a valid chemical treatment option is available.