Nearly all goats are infested with lice, a small reddish louse, a goat
louse. Lice rarely kills the animal infested, but they do annoy the goat
greatly. Goats will not fatten readily, and the mohair is usually dead
(lusterless), if the animals are badly infested. It is an easy matter to
discover the lice. The goats scratch their bodies with their horns and
make the fleece appear a little ragged. On separating the mohair the
lice can easily be seen with the naked eye. The best means of ridding
the goats of this annoyance is with almost any of the sheep dips. A dip
which does not stain the mohair should be selected. The goats should be
dipped after shearing, as it does not take much dip then to penetrate to
the skin. One dipping will usually kill the lice, but the albuminous
coat covering the nits (eggs of the louse), are not easily penetrated,
and it is usually necessary to dip again within ten days, so that the
nits, which have hatched since the first dipping, will not have a chance
to mature and deposit more eggs. Goats can be dipped at almost any time,
but if in full fleece they will require a larger quantity of liquid, and
if the weather is very cold, there is some danger.