No CAE testing - What should I do?

[lupinfarm]

You cannot draw it yourself as far as I know because the lab (yes, only one... and its on the otherside of the country) won't take it if it doesn't come from a vet. The cost of having the blood drawn is expensive but its not nearly as expensive as the lab fees, shipping, etc.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

You cannot draw it yourself as far as I know because the lab (yes, only one... and its on the otherside of the country) won't take it if it doesn't come from a vet. The cost of having the blood drawn is expensive but its not nearly as expensive as the lab fees, shipping, etc.

My goodness. Sorry, I didn't realize you weren't *allowed* to take it! :/ Honestly, I just probably wouldn't worry about it. What do most people up there do?

 

[lupinfarm]

lol most people don't even test!

I spoke to a registered nubian breeder (shes a little less expensive than most but she retains almost all her kids so good luck getting any kids from her) and she doesn't test.

Most people call themselves CAE/CL free because they have a closed herd. Its just too expensive for people to test for. Most people don't even vaccinate! I'm pretty sure this lady vaccinates and she disbuds as well.

We don't really have a booming goat population though, goats and sheep are just not that popular here.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

What are you going to be doing with the kids? Honestly, and this is just my opinion, but I wouldn't worry about testing. I'd go see the herd, and see how her goats look. If they obviously are arthritic and have swollen knees, I'd probably look elsewhere. If you look at her goats and they all look good, she has older does that don't look swollen, and she doesn't have any udder issues (no milk, hard udders,etc), I'd buy her goats.

After knowing that my doe is positive, I probably will go ahead and test any does I get from now on (especially since testing for us is easy with Biotracking), but I'm not going to get rid of my doe just because she's positive. I'll bottle any doe kids she has, and let her raise any bucklings since they'll most likely be freezer meat anyways.

IMO, it's NOT worth $140 per goat to have it tested for a disease which in many cases is not a big deal at all.

 

[lupinfarm]

lol its $140 for 2 goats, but thats because they share a shipping fee.

ANYHOW, She did say she hadn't had any problems with arthritis or anything like that, but I will be going to see the kids ahead of time. I'm probably just picking up one doeling right now, and in a years time we'll breed her to a nubian buck (super easy to come by if you look in the right places lol) and milk her. We don't need tons of milk, so we're not concerned with the hugest quantity ever. I do intend on breeding Cissy and Mione one day and milking them too, but I want to have a larger doe as well so my dad can get in on the goat stuff, he's a big guy and he could never milk the mini's lol.

Some day far into the future I may go the registered route and breed registered goats, but for now our unregistered girls are fine lol. We're just getting started and set up and I do have a large barn that needs renovating and refitting plus my goatie house next to our house. I'll probably bottle feed the resulting kids.

 

[cmjust0]

We don't really have a booming goat population though, goats and sheep are just not that popular here.

That's not necessarily a bad thing..

Firstly, you're on the ground floor...and they will catch on. Second, less goats = higher prices...you know that much already. Third, a dearth of goats probably means a dearth of goat diseases, anthelmintic resistant parasites, etc.

The flipside of where you're at is basically where I'm at...goats are EVERYWHERE around here. That means they're cheap...like, I could probably buy as many mixed-breed mutts in various states of health for $40 a piece as I wanted, right this minute. I don't want any, though, because of the last part...disease. Lots of goats means lots of goat disease.

Meat goat people around here scarcely know what CAE is, and don't care to.. I personally consider CL to be basically endemic to the area at this point, too. Soremouth...it's everywhere. If you swap around -- even just buying in bucks and whatnot -- or you cavort with other goat people and visit other farms..shows..sales..I firmly believe you will have nasty goat diseases on your property at some point or another.

Not great. :/

 

[aggieterpkatie]

lol its $140 for 2 goats, but thats because they share a shipping fee.

Sawry. My readin' skills ain't nun good today.

 

[SDGsoap&dairy]

For those of you who draw your own blood and use biotracking- did you order the bioPRYN kit to collect CAE test samples? I don't see any other way of ordering the vacuum tubes if you aren't a vet.

 

[lupinfarm]

We don't really have a booming goat population though, goats and sheep are just not that popular here.

That's not necessarily a bad thing..

Firstly, you're on the ground floor...and they will catch on. Second, less goats = higher prices...you know that much already. Third, a dearth of goats probably means a dearth of goat diseases, anthelmintic resistant parasites, etc.

The flipside of where you're at is basically where I'm at...goats are EVERYWHERE around here. That means they're cheap...like, I could probably buy as many mixed-breed mutts in various states of health for $40 a piece as I wanted, right this minute. I don't want any, though, because of the last part...disease. Lots of goats means lots of goat disease.

Meat goat people around here scarcely know what CAE is, and don't care to.. I personally consider CL to be basically endemic to the area at this point, too. Soremouth...it's everywhere. If you swap around -- even just buying in bucks and whatnot -- or you cavort with other goat people and visit other farms..shows..sales..I firmly believe you will have nasty goat diseases on your property at some point or another.

Not great. :/

Yuh huh, I don't tend to go to other farms lol. We have to be careful for the puppies here and visitors aren't allowed to touch the goats. People know what CAE and CL are here but no one tests for anything because its just too expensive.

It took me ages to find just the breeders I found! I can't quite remember, but I think with this particular farm she breeds her Boer buck to Nubian does and sells most of the babies that are less nubian in looks. So I think its less about meat and more about milk production with her.

Within 20km of me there is probably 2 farms with goats (I know for sure there is one a couple roads over with boers, because I covet their beautiful century barn lol) and 3 with sheep. We're more of a sheep area than a goat area, you're more likely to find sheep farms than goat farms. It looks a lot like wales here so we have quite a few sheep farms. None sell though and all believe in the "no intervention" method where all their sheep are completely wild nutjobs.

The population of livestock is reflected in what our feed mills carry, we have a lot of horse feeds available to us, lots of cattle stuff, and most places carry a sheep ration. The only place that carries a feed labeled for goats is TSC and they only have a sweet-feed type ration. Not that I'm complaining, lol, and I would travel across Ontario if I could get a nice pelleted feed but we don't have a big enough population to warrant it unfortunately.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

For those of you who draw your own blood and use biotracking- did you order the bioPRYN kit to collect CAE test samples? I don't see any other way of ordering the vacuum tubes if you aren't a vet.

Nope, I just called up my vet and asked to buy the plain red top tubes. They sold me 5 for about $1.50.

I've seen tubes through farm supply catalogs though. I didn't order online because I didn't need a ton of them.