Anyone else notice any of their goats wasting away? Pics Added

misfitmorgan

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I found the red top tubes on Amazon and Jeffers pet for sure. In packs of 100 it is cheaper at only like $45 maximum. I also found the syringes and needles in packs of 100 on the same sites at around $12-25.

We have a 100 pack of syringes and needles we ordered from valley vet two months ago because vaccination time was coming around and we always like to have extra on hand.

My only concern with getting 100 tubes is.....dont they expire? or no because they dont have additives? Because with 100 tubes even if i tested every goat/sheep we have every year it would take over 6yrs to use them.
 

Latestarter

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The tubes (for human use) do have an expiration date. For animal use I don't think that's quite as important. I doubt the feds are gonna come down on you about it, where in a hospital environment they most likely would. I really have no idea what size tube or with/without serum... Perhaps you could contact the test center where you'll be sending the tubes and ask them what specific tube/mfgr you should purchase?
 

Southern by choice

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Several times we had a goat pull back and ended up with just over 3ml... in the end we got a call saying they didn't have enough left over to send to UC Davis... which meant the rest of the batch did get sent... with a $20 shipping fee... The ones we had to do over got send out separate for again a $20 ship fee.
I don't like paying $40 in shipping :p

We were told 5-6 and that will be plenty. The thing is when you draw it is just as easy to do 5-6 as 3-4. The tubes (if no additives) are fine past expiration date.

We had 200 tubes... but so many people didn't want to buy a case when they were testing 4 goats... we gave them the tubes. We have a lot of goats and test yearly- new animals are tested up to 4x for CAE in their first year on our farm.
 

Firemedichagy

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@misfitmorgan

Is it possible you could isolate them just for a little bit and get a zip lock bag of each one's droppings.
My vet will test that way for about $16.00
Just run it up there and drop it off, no doctor visit fees. Maybe if you call around there may be some vet that can do it for you if yours doesn't.

Also, I have given my guy black sunflower seeds in theist and it makes his coat look amazing. They're pretty fatty too for weight gain.
He will eat them by the handfuls. ( not allowed anymore , he's on a diet )
 
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Firemedichagy

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@Southern by choice

I'm new at this ...
I saw you said some of your here were tested 4x for CAE?
Is once not enough?

My guy was only tested once. He has really bad arthritis.
Should he be tested more than once?

I draw blood on people no problem, got the vet to do his and It was over $100 for him to do it. If I had known that I certainly would have done it myself.

Still so much to learn.
 
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Southern by choice

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I saw you said some of your here were tested 4x for CAE?
Is once not enough?

One doe has been tested 4x for CAE. The reason is again... a proactive stance. When we bought the doe the doe's dam was negative for CAE but the herd had some does test positive.
This doe tested negative, as we expected. Because of the fact that some does from the herd she came from were positive I felt testing her at so many months apart would show if there were changes in her numbers. No changes, but because no testing is perfect and the fact numbers can change I felt it best to test again before she was bred and again just prior to kidding. Just in case, I would rather be prepared than not. Her numbers never changed and she will just be routinely tested like the rest of the herd. This was recommended to me and it made sense.

A second doe came from CAE neg tested herd but they had a closed herd and stopped testing several years earlier. Not a big concern as they were truly CLOSED. But, again... prevention and being proactive. She will now be just annually tested.

I don't think you have to throw the baby out with the bathwater so to speak. I just try to do what I can do. If either doe would have come up positive then I would have either heat treated the colostrum or given colostrum we have frozen from another doe.

As far as your guy goes... it would not hurt to test him again and use it as a "process of elimination" . There are many reasons a goat may have arthritis, a good vet can help you manage issues you may have with your boy's arthritis.
 

babsbag

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Several times we had a goat pull back and ended up with just over 3ml... in the end we got a call saying they didn't have enough left over to send to UC Davis...

I guess it is different for me since UC Davis usually does all of my testing so nothing needs to be sent. We draw 3 ML to get it all done.
 

misfitmorgan

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We do have the one in her own stall so we could get samples but the vet is still $125 per animal...$95 for the testing supposedly and $30 for the office visit...you cant not pay the office visit. They want the goat/s brought in and they have to take the sample, we asked if we could bring in just the sample and they said no because they need to see the animal itself and they need to take the sample themselves....so no way getting around it there. The other vets on do pets or large livestock, they wont submit a goat fecal for us. So we are going to have to buy a scope and do it ourselves.

We have decided to send out samples to Rollin for CAE and Johnes, then send samples to Biotracker for CL because that should be cheaper then rollin sending them to UC. We shall see since we will be sending 10 samples. We are going to do 5ml in each of the 9ml tubes and that should be enough then 2ml for the cl testing in each tube for that. We have 12ml syringes so we can draw all 7ml in one go.
 
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