Nubian Buck Dying,... (Was lost, rest of herd?)

[Roll farms]

A woman contacted me about a driveway breeding w/ our Nubian buck. The next week she emailed to tell me they wouldn't make it, she had to test her entire herd for it b/c a doe she'd bought from a well-known breeder's herd had tested positive.

Scares me how easily we trust people and risk our herd's health....

 

[Southern by choice]

We are "small scale" and we do use Craigslist sometimes for goats we have for sale. In our region that is how most people "adevrtise" even well know breeders.

We have found many list what they test for and also provide the documentation.
We test for Johnes, CAE, and CL

The Johnes test is a bit tricky. If a doe is pregnant it will throw the test also if she has recently kidded. Other factors include meds/dewormers.

Another factor is how a lab reports. Our state lab (Rollins) will have "Susp"... meaning suspect when actually the animal may NOT be suspect at all, it is just the code used... Suspect MAY MEAN "inconclusive". When I talked with the lab they explained the whole process.

How do I know this? ... because one of my vets FAILED to mention this even knowing my doe was heavily pregnant)about to kid). We repeated the test.... 6 weeks later. This happened to someone else I know and it really can cause a great deal of stress. We were not concerned and knew she was negative but I still had to do another blood draw and drive it to Raliegh. Not everyone has it that easy. I can draw my own blood and we live just over an hour from Raliegh , the test is only $1.50 but for others that could be very costly.

I think for so long no one tested for Johnes but now the word is getting out about it we are seeing more. Not sure if there really are more cases or if more people are discovering this because of the testing. Maybe both. IDK

It has long been a cattle disease so when we sell a meat goat (Kiko) we do let them know the goats are all tested and are Johnes Neg. because many are putting their cattle and their goats together. Several of the kikos we sold 5 months ago went to where they had cattle... they'd never heard of it.

My emoticons are not working. Boo Hoo ... My post is soo "naked" LOL

 

[babsbag]

A woman contacted me about a driveway breeding w/ our Nubian buck. The next week she emailed to tell me they wouldn't make it, she had to test her entire herd for it b/c a doe she'd bought from a well-known breeder's herd had tested positive.

Scares me how easily we trust people and risk our herd's health....

Really glad that she was honest enough to tell you.

I may be babysitting a cow for the summer, and she belongs to my best friend but comes from a dairy. Now I am thinking that I need to ask her to test for Johnes before I take her. She is due to calve in June, I wonder if that will skew the test for a cow too. She is with my friends goats, I wonder if she ever thought about all of this.