Goats

[Bob halvorsen]

My goats bag was hard. She did not have milk. We gave her an anti biotic. How do I prevent that from happening again.

 

[Zoomie]

Hi Bob... your goat may have CAE. https://www.merckvetmanual.com/gene...verview-of-caprine-arthritis-and-encephalitis Look under "Clinical Findings" at the last couple of sentences. If she does have CAE there is not anything you can do about it.

If she has normal mastitis, you can treat her udder with special antibiotics. My advice would be this: take her to a vet for testing. You need to know what strain of bacteria, if she does indeed have normal mastitis, and that would be put up in the udder directly through the orifice. If she has CAE this can be determined with a blood test sent to a lab. Either way, treatment or not, you need to have her tested to find out what's going on and that is going to take some lab work.

 

[Latestarter]

I responded to your other post. Welcome to BYC. you'll have much better results over at the sister site www.backyardherds.com there are a large number of active goat folks over there.

 

[cassie]

I am assuming this doe is just fresh. As others have said, a hard udder is one of the classic signs of CAE. Have her tested and if it is CAE, your best bet is likely to cull the doe. Right now you might want to have her separate from the rest of the herd until you find out one way or the other. CAE is spread to kids by infected milk. However the discharges after kidding are also highly infectious and the CAE negative goats in the herd can become infected by being exposed to them.

 

[Lazy Farmer]

I responded to your other post. Welcome to BYC. you'll have much better results over at the sister site www.backyardherds.com there are a large number of active goat folks over there.

 

[Latestarter]

I'm not really sure why folks are jumping straight to CAE... She may just have a fat filled udder, and be a low milk producer. She may have also had plugged orifices and the OP didn't know how to properly milk to get it flowing. It might also have been a case of mastitis. There are many things it "could" be which is why I recommended posting over on BYH... There are some really fantastic goat folks over there and they normally put their heads together to figure out what's going on.

 

[Lazy Farmer]

We pull down and clear obstructions prior to kids nursing. Blockage is more common than most think.
You have done a great service by promoting BYH as well.

 

[cassie]

I'm not really sure why folks are jumping straight to CAE... She may just have a fat filled udder, and be a low milk producer. She may have also had plugged orifices and the OP didn't know how to properly milk to get it flowing. It might also have been a case of mastitis. There are many things it "could" be which is why I recommended posting over on BYH... There are some really fantastic goat folks over there and they normally put their heads together to figure out what's going on.

People are not so much jumping to the conclusion that the animal has CAE so much as suggesting the animal be tested for it. The fact the OP said the udder was hard and that there was no milk would make any experienced goat owner suspicious. A hard udder with no milk, or very little milk, is often the very first indication of CAE. It is wise to find out one way or the other because if the goat is positive she can spread the infection throughout the herd. If it is mastitis, in most cases the udder would be hot and painful as well as hard and in many cases the doe might be obviously ill. That may not be the case if the hardness was due to scar tissue from a prior infection. For obvious reasons I am sure there are a lot of experienced goat people on backyard herds, but there are people knowledgeable about goats on this site, too. Me, for instance. I raised purebred dairy goats for over 40 years and for many of those years I had a commercial dairy. There are others here also. In my opinion, for what it is worth, the OP's best course of action would be to take the goat to a vet who then can draw blood for CAE testing, check for a teat blockage and to see if the goat has an active case of mastitis or scar tissue. That said, the OP should definitely check out Backyardherds as you suggested.

 

[Zoomie]

Could not agree more with @cassie. The test for CAE costs $4.00. What a cheap form of insurance! Not to mention, if all goat breeders took CAE very seriously, we could wipe out this disease from the USA. Just *think* how awesome it would be if, when a goat had a hard udder, we could know for a fact that it was NOT CAE! To me? That would be just incredibly wonderful.

Best wishes to the OP, who sounds like has a huge mess on their hands, with kids and no milk. OP, I hope you are able to get some help. What you are going through just sucks. Here is hoping for a good outcome.

 

[Latestarter]

Though I agree that testing is extremely beneficial, and I test all of mine for CL/CAE and Johnes, when someone asks for help with a specific problem in a "read only" format, I rather prefer to start with basics and work toward the more complex.

Asking additional enlightening questions and trying to determine the solution to the existing problem first would prove far more beneficial than jumping right to worst case scenario and then expounding on the reasons for testing your herd for a specific disease. Then going further trying to "save the world" of goats through testing. IMHO the time for that particular discussion is later, not the here and now while this member is seeking specific help for a specific issue.

That being said, I'm sure there ARE very experienced goat owners here on a POULTRY site, however, I would suggest that a person would have much better success looking for help on a forum that is dedicated to the area of expertise the questions are associated with. Goats are after all herd animals & livestock, not chickens or poultry. One does not generally go to a dentist with a vision problem.

As an aside, there are many chicken owners over on BYH, and chicken questions do occasionally come up over there. Go figure