Why didn't deworming improve FAMACHA scores?

Deworming animals with FAMACHA© scores of 4 or 5 should result in the improvement of FAMACHA© scores by at least one when checked two weeks later.  What if it doesn’t?  There are several reasons why deworming small ruminants may not improve their FAMACHA© scores.  We will start from the most common and go to the less likely items.

If you are deworming lactating animals, the nutritional competition between milk production and making blood may keep the animals anemic until they are in late lactation or until their young are weaned.  Heavy pasture contamination (lots of infective larvae on pasture) can also cause animals to become wormy quickly.

We need to think about dewormer resistance as another possible cause.  We use FAMACHA© to reduce the rate of development of dewormer resistance.  However, dewormer resistance can still develop.  The most common source of dewormer resistance is new animals

Read full article by Steve Hart 

Source:  American Consortium for Small Ruminant Parasite Control (ACSRPC)