Lets talk CAE

[Sweetened]

Months ago I traded a goat with a guy I know. His dairy goat had kidded, lost the kid and he'd never milked her. I've been working for 3 months ish and she has refused to dry up. Because I like her so much, I agreed to purchase his other does and boer buck off him.

When I arrived today and picked up the goats, one has a knobby knee and is walking stiffly. I thoight about it and took her anyway because, frankly, my herd has already been exposed through the goat I traded for, who shows know issues.

From this moment, except for meat sales, until I get bloodwork done, my herd is closed.

From what I have read, there is no cure, I can't even find information about long lasting treatments that are effective. Theres some confusion as to whether or not some goats throwing positive, but who never show symptoms, are resistant or lucky. From what I understand, without having goats off the property for 10 years, it can be picked up off the ground.

The goat in question, it would seem, is due to kid within a month. Now, I can do cae prevention, still not 100%, and the kid or kids could potentially still have t or get infected from the soil if I understand things right.

Talk to me about this. If the tests come bacl positive do I start killing muh beloved goats, and then keep the land bare of goats for 10 years? Do I raise everything on cae prevention and move on when those girls are spent?

Opinions please. And though this community has never been belligerent, I ask that if your comment is better quarantine or shoildnt have bought her or whatever, that it not be said. The original goat was quarantined, but has been in the herd as she showed no signs of illness. I know the decision I made with pi king uo the other girls, however I believe my herd is already exposed from the original trade. I am where I am, now lets look at options.

 

[Sweetened]

Awful typing on phone. Will correct tonorrow

 

[alsea1]

Dang. That's a bummer.
CAE and CL does tend to freak folks out.
Its possible your other goats have not been infected yet.
Testing would be the only way to find out which ones are infected and which are not.
Hopefully some folks with more to offer pop in soon.

 

[Sweetened]

I kind of think that, much like scrapie, we may be culling out resistant animals over a positive test. Some people today carry tb, will test positive for it but are actually immune, carry an antibody, like my mom.

 

[babsbag]

Sorry you are dealing with this, never fun.

It if my understanding that CAE is NOT soil borne and that it is primarily passed through milk, blood, or saliva and milk is the main route. Doing CAE prevention is a good idea but there are more and more studies being done that are saying that it can be passed in utero. I think it is 6 months before you can get an accurate test on a kid but not sure.

I would get the test done, I bet your goats are not infected. That being said, I would not keep the infected goats in my herd. I would segregate now and unfortunately leave them that way. Many people have 2 herds until the infected ones die. It can be an ugly disease, mastitis is common and the doe can get a very hard udder that you can't even milk.

There is no cure and to my knowledge not really any treatments either.

 

[Sweetened]

It's my understanding a person can keep a closed herd or purchase CAE tested free goats and, if you do it long enough, will probably end up with it due to false negatives and what have you anyway.

So when I read this disease is like or the same kind of virus as HIV, I can take HIV as a disease into consideration. It's likely passed on through breeding as well, but more likely from male to female than the other way around. It would be passed through saliva from an infected individual, probably into an open cut or fresh wound moreso than just getting sneezed on and so on. Milk = any kids born are auto-pull and segregation would be preferred in case of injury resulted in blood spilling. No needle sharing which seems a given. I suppose in larger herds it'd be an issue.

There is a chance, of course, the doe is only injured as only one leg is knobby, but she walks funny on both front, and is in quite a bit of pain, doesn't like laying down. Jumping from the truck for her (which almost planted me on my face), was very painful and she nearly collapsed. The swollen joint is mushy and hot, but the other leg seems painful as well.

From this, even though there are currently no studies that show CAE is zoonotic, its suggested that all CAE milk be pasteurized for human consumption -- I don't know if this is the anti raw milk agenda or a genuine concern, but it's definitely something to consider I guess. http://www.motesclearcreekfarms.com/asp/articles/zoonotic-diseases.asp

 

[jodief100]

CAE is a tricky disease. There is no treatment and the tests are not very accurate, high rate of false positives and occasional false negatives as well. There is also a lot of hysteria, speculation, assumption and outright false information out there about it. What you need to do depends on what your plan is for your goats. Are they just for your family? Don't worry about it. Do you sell goats to people who would not consider a CAE goat? Then you should start with CAE preventative raising. It really is going to be a personal choice.

In order to be truly CAE preventative, the kid must not take a single drink from the doe. You must be there as they kid. I suspect a lot of people raising so called "CAE preventative" are not that diligent. There are just so many unknowns, it is very difficult to control.

As for the pasteurized milk. Considering there are thousands of people out there drinking milk from goats that have never been tested without any ill effect, I wouldn't worry about it. Raw milk has it's own risks but it it is Escherichia coli, Campylobacter, Salmonella, and Listeria that are the main concerns.

 

[Sweetened]

Something else to consider, I guess, is kids testing negative after 6 months having been born from an infected doe and raised on pasteurized or milk from an uninfected animal and so on may be something a person would want to keep for breeding/replacement to study for resistance, especially after 1 year of negative testing.

I have no connection to this knobby-kneed goat, but will respect her through the birthing process and will likely cull her out of her misery as soon as the kid/s is/are born. She is a large, heavy goat, so I will have no issues selling her for meat to some people I trust to give her dignity.

She's a first time kidder at 2.5 years old (didn't catch in the fall when she was bred as a 2 year old). I was watching her sides and noticed movement on the right that looked like kids kicking. When I felt her, I can feel a limb in there that moves if I rub it. So I touched her bag, which isn't there yet, but feels mushy -- my does who haven't kidded have a flat, unremarkable feeling bag area with long nipples, for lack of better description. So I gave her teat a squeeze, much to her protest, and out shot milk -- so she's in the process.

Thanks for the input so far! Here are a couple pictures of her leg. This morning I got a good look at hooves and they need trimming badly so we will work on getting those correct. Could be an old injury that can't heal, maybe, due to hoof shape?

 

[Sweetened]

 

[alsea1]

Maybe she just injured the knee real bad and hurt the other because of favoring the injured knee.
Was the goat ever tested?
I would def. keep here where she does not have to move fast or jump.