I was wondering if any one else has ever had goats with sore mouth. We are having a problem with our herd on 23 Boer goats. Sore mouth is running ramped through all of them. I wasn't sure at first what it was so we took one of the worst to the vet. He said he had no clue what is was but it was the worst what ever it was he had ever seen.....LOL. Anyways we have given 3 days worth of incredibly strong antibiotics and that did little good. So I am left with thinking that it is in fact the sore mouth virus. Just need to know if anyone has experience with this. Should the herd really be slaughtered and start over or is there hope?
Back when I was in high school the new lambs would get it every year. It took a few weeks and then it went away. Nothing to worry about. Just something that stays in the soil forever. Once they have it they can't get it again. Kinda like warts in horses. They get them once and then can't get them again.
So the actual virus in the ground not in the goat? What I am concerned about is every time a baby hits the ground it will become infected or every time I bring a new goat home it will be infected. Is this really common in goats? When I sell them is it something that person should be informed about?
There's no real way to eliminate it from your herd. There IS a vaccine, but it simply GIVES them a mild case. Most of the time it's really not a problem, since once they recover they are immune for life. If you cull those who show the worst symptoms, you'll eventually wiind up with a resistant herd.
The vaccine works to limit the severity of it. The big problem with it is that babies can hurt so much they refuse to eat. I started giving the vaccine on my sheep and it pretty much limited the sore mouth.
When I was breeding and showing goats I was always relieved if the kids came down with soremouth. Then I knew they wouldn't be getting it in the middle of show season or something. A herd of goats that has never been exposed to soremouth is going to have a much more difficult time than herds that have had some exposure. After the soremouth goes through your herd, next year's kids may or may not get it, but if they do they will in all probability get a mild case because they will have gotten at least some immunity from their parents. If I were you though, I would just vaccinate. The vaccine is inexpensive and easy to use.
We brought it home from an out of state show last year. I was all freaked out but our vet says it's just like chicken pox for the goats. Everybody gets it once and then they are immune. We didn't have a second round of it and we moved recently so there is no reason to believe this year's kids will ever be exposed to it but I wouldn't have worried this time around if they had. We aren't showing anymore but I talked to several breeders who have had the bad luck to run into sore mouth during show season every year and no losses from it.
