I'm a first time ND goat owner. We bought 2 goats from different farms in November and one kidded with twin doelings last Sunday. The other goat came from a small home herd that had recently acquired a Nubian goat. The goat I bought and the Nubian had only been in the same herd for maybe a couple weeks. The previous owner just found out that the herd the Nubian had come from has CL. As far as I know there were no abscesses or anything on the Nubian and the owner is doing a blood test on her. My question is how likely is it that the goat I bought has contracted CL? I don't really know much about the disease other than that it's passed through the puss from lymph abscesses, right? I kind of feel sick over this and would like any input possible. Also, I'd like to get my goats tested as well, but have no idea how to go about doing that. Any advice? Please?
You need to be a member of Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goats to add comments!
Replies
I'm the same way!! Watching it done helps the most.
Peggy Grossenbacher said:
Thanks for posting this Rachel! I need to get some tests run on my goats, but just needed to see the procedure done. If I see it done...I can do it! :) Thank God I have a background in Phlebotomy. LOL
Rachel Whetzel said:
http://www.biotracking.com/
I was afraid for my first time so I had my vet do it. He only charged me $50 for all 4 of them and he spun it too. I'm glad to know I don't have to spin it next time though and also he charged me $50 for coming out so the whole thing was pretty expensive. I did the Caprine Bio-screening at Waddl which is CAE/CL and Johnes and it's $22 each goat. The whole thing set me back almost $200 but now I know my herd is all disease free since I will have kids to sell in the spring.
I don't doubt that your vet told you the blood had to be spun, Beverly. Mine tried the same thing in her attempt to charge me $50 per goat for testing, knowing I was testing about 20 goats. However, blood for CL/CAE/Johnes testing with WADDL and blood for pregnancy/CAE sent to Biotracking does not have to be spun. It does not even need to be mailed on ice or anything special like that. You only need a red-top blood tube, which can easily be purchased online. Biotracking is used to dealing with owners and has all the supplies online. I got started before they existed, however, and just searched for "buy red top blood tubes" online and found the cheapest place. You can use a regular syringe with 20 g needle to draw the blood then stick it into the tube, and the vacuum in the tube will pull in the blood.
There is a great video here showing how to draw blood. I'll see if I can find it. :)
I also was new to testing and just had the vet do it. Costly but worth it to me. How the blood is handled seemed to be an important issue by what I read and I wanted someone with more experience than me to draw blood. We did 11 animals. I understand the samples need spun and I didn't know how to do all that, I also didn't want to be poking them with needles when I am not experienced with it.
Talk to your local vet.
Thank you for the info! Any advice for where to get blood vials for the draws to mail in? I'm totally new at all of this and feel like it's a steep learning curve! By the way, I loved your book! My hubby got it for me for Christmas. It was very helpful as I helped my first Doe kid last Sunday. We live in the boonies and there are no registered ND people in less than 1.5 hours from us so we kind of feel a little on our own with all of this.
The test for CL is a blood test, and if you send the blood to WADDL, they can run CAE and Johnes on the same blood sample. Goats can have internal abscesses and/or be carriers, so not seeing a cyst is no guarantee that a goat is not infected. Sounds like the risk of infection of your goats in this situation is probably pretty low, but doing blood work in a few months to be sure is a great idea.