It looks like we're going to be moving. Most of the goats are coming along, too. I need to know now what can be done to safeguard my goats against any infective agents on the premises. Goats have been kept there before, as recently as a year ago. They were whatever could be bought cheaply at the sale barn, and almost certainly had CAE, abcesses, and who knows what else. I plan to put our herd in a different part of the land from where the old barn and goat pen are, but at times the goats that had been there ran about freely.

I was thinking about putting down a layer of lime in the area where our goats will be, and making a new barn or maybe letting them use the horse trailer as a barn until we can build one there. I need to know if there is anything else we can do before we move out there. Would it help to burn the ground where our herd will be?

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), February 04, 2001

Answers

Wow... thats a hard one. But its best to know what kind of livestock was raised on a farm rather than not knowing. Do you know the previous owners? If so then maybe you'd know if their goats were clean or if they had CL.. ... wouldn't really know that unless theyw ere honest or someone else knew.

I've heard burning can help, however once CL is in the ground its hard to get rid of. Some folks will say it takes 7 years, but i tend to think never. You can lime and it would help and also disenfect with bleach. Hope this helps. Good luck. and i'd also be leary of a safe area on the farm as you have no idea where those goats were.

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), February 04, 2001.

I wouldn't be worried about the ground Rebekah. I would be worried about the barns, wooden fences, feeders and the like. The very worst the ground is going to give the girls is hoof and foot rot, except maybe in the area right around the barns and inside the barns. The real problems with CL, since CAE is long gone since it dies instantly the air touches it, is on wooden surfaces, metal fences can be disinfected, but you really can't disinfect wood. Good luck with this. As my last alternative I would vaccinate my herd for CL. This would have to be a hard thought decision, as vaccinating makes you forever positive on test for CL, yes UC Davis can tell the difference between positive for disease and positive for the vaccine, but on a health certificate positive is positive. If you are going to be forced because of economics to use the barn and wooden fences than put Teck Trol or another powerful antiseptic/disenfectant into a pump spray or better yet power washer and spary spray spray, layer of lime several inches thick in the barn also. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), February 04, 2001.

Yes, I did know the previous goat keepers, so I know where the other goats were kept. They were not very conscious of disease or it's prevention,had never heard of CAE for example. I know that at least one of their goats had abcesses, and one of them had such a bad case of mastitis that most of her udder sloughed off, and her leg is permamently crippled. I won't put our does in the barn ,too risky and too small.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), February 04, 2001.

The only diseases I know of that will remain viable in the soil are CL and soremouth. CAE dies quickly outside the body. I would recommend that you spray down all surfaces of any buildings your goats will be in with a strong disinfectant. Scrape away several inches of soil from the barn floor if it is dirt and replace with clean soil from a sand and gravel company. You can vaccinate against CL. Soremouth is another problem. Soremouth is more common with sheep. The bugs that cause it and that drop off the animal in scabs into the soil can remain viable for years. It is not life threatening, but is more of a nuisance. The affected animal will develop an immunity and the sores will eventually clear up, but the organisms will always be there. I don't know of any thing that can eradicate soremouth from a pasture except maybe a nuclear blast or time.

-- Skip Walton (sundaycreek@gnrac.net), February 04, 2001.

Rebekah, people in our area have fed kelp free choice and top dressed their daily ration with it and stopped abcesses. My very first doe had them and I fed her the kelp and she never got another one and I have never had one in my herd. I Know Vicki doesn't believe in the benefit of kelp, but I would check it out.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), February 04, 2001.

Thanks Diane, looks like we'll be neighbors, we're moving to Indiana.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), February 04, 2001.

rebekah-where in indiana are you moving??

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), February 05, 2001.

Rebekah, the sloughing off of the udder would have been from malignant edema you may want to vaccinate with Covexin 8 from now on. It contains the toxoid for this, some photos of it and information about it are up at saanendoah.com

About the kelp, when we fed it to our milkers, we simply didn't see any improvenment, no outward apperance, no increase in milk supply. When you add supplements to your management you have to say "Whoa" at some point or you will be quickly spending more money on the goats than on yourself! Perhaps between our grain mix and the loose minerals we use, we have the same benefits as the kelp does for someone else? Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), February 05, 2001.

We'll be in Warsaw, IN. about the kelp, I didn't notice a lot o difference, either, but the goats seemed to want it, it didn't cost a whole lot, and it had a lot of minerals in their natural form, so I figured why not? It also had iodine which we are deficient in here,and after some of the young kids had goiters, I began feeding the kelp. The goiters went down! But maybe they would have gone down without it. :)

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), February 05, 2001.

The real problem will be coccidia as it will remain in the soil indefinately unless you remove 6 to 8 inches of soil over the whole farm!! It is the only parasite that will travel from one species to another...chickens, cats, dogs, cows, goats, even humans can get it! It is a silent killer and will stunt the growth of young animals...The symptoms are listlessness, poor appetite, runny stool and rough coat. You can use bovatec in your feed to prevent your goats from infestation.

-- Cathy Hamilton (chamilton@mail.gcnet.net), February 08, 2001.

You can't get rid of coccidia except by sterilizing the soil to a depth of several feet and over the entire property. Not a very practical solution. It is a naturally occuring bacteria in all dirt. All animals have it in their gut, but adults have developed natural resistant. The danger is with the young ones that don't have a strong immune system. The best management is to prevent the bacteria from proliferating to a dangerous level in kids and aggressively treating if they show symptoms of cocci. Rarely will an adult come down with cocci, and then it is usually because of a compromised immune system caused by stress or diet imbalance. We normally do not have a problem with kids born in December/January or June/July. In the winter it is too cold and in the summer it is too dry. The warm wet spring is the best time for cocci to be a real problem and kids born during that time tend to come down with cocci.

Trans-specie transmission of cocci is a debatable topic. Some claim that strains of coccidia are species specific while others believe that chickens can infect goats, etc. I've not seen scientific studies to support either side of the argument, so to be safe, I guess I'll assume that it can be transmitted between different kinds of animals.

-- Skip Walton (sundaycreek@gnrac.net), February 09, 2001.