Should you buy all your goats from a single herd? From a veterinary perspective, it is safer to
buy all of your goats initially from a single herd. If you are bringing in animals from a variety of
places, they will each come with their own germs and parasites. Although each individual goat has
been living with its bugs forever, the other goats have not, and their systems will be faced with the
stress of fighting off new bacteria and viruses. It is impossible for a goat to be completely parasite
free, and with the growing problem of dewormer resistance, bringing in goats from a variety of
herds could result in severe parasite problems. There are only three classes of dewormers, so if you
bring in goats from three different herds, it is possible that you will have put together goats that are
carrying parasites that combined have resistance to all known dewormers.
Probably at some point you will be bringing in at least a few goats from different herds, and when
you do, it is imperative that you quarantine new goats for both their safety and the safety of the rest
of your herd. Moving to a new farm is stressful on goats, whether it is across the road or across the
continent, and being isolated from other goats can stress them even more. If you can afford to do it,
bring in two goats at a time from a single farm so that they will have a friend to stay with them
during the quarantine period.
If you buy a single goat, put a wether with it for company to keep its stress as low as possible.
Although it may appear that a castrated male would have no place on a farm, he can provide a
variety of important functions, such as letting you know when does are in heat as well as being a
companion to animals in quarantine, such as those newly purchased or showing signs of illness.
They can also help out around a homestead by pulling a cart or carrying firewood. Because they are
not producing babies or milk or sperm, they tend to be very easy keepers with high resistance to
parasites and illness.
How do you know you are buying healthy goats? Goats can have a number of health problems,
and some are more obvious than others. Few people would be willing to take home a goat with a
crusty nose or diarrhea, but there are some diseases that can be asymptomatic in the early stages.
Caprine arthritic encephalitis, usually called CAE, and Johnes (pronounced like yo-nees) can often
be detected only by testing animals. There is no requirement for testing, and everyone handles it a
little differently. Some herds are tested annually, especially if they attend shows and the goats are
exposed to other herds. A herd may be closed, meaning the breeder no longer buys goats and does
not offer breeding services. But a herd may be called closed even though the animals are taken to
shows, so the term “closed herd” does not have a universal definition. After several years of negative
test results in a closed herd that does not show, some breeders may test less often or not at all.
If the animals you want to buy are not tested, you can ask that adult goats you want to buy be tested
or the dam of any dam-raised kids you want to buy be tested. Because it takes months for a goat’s
body to develop enough antibodies to show up in a blood test, pathologists recommend that kids
not be tested until six months after they have stopped nursing. As an additional precaution, you can
ask to have the kid’s sire tested because research has shown that CAE can be transmitted through
breeding.1 If the dam was infected during breeding she could infect nursing kids with the virus,
1
Is caprine arthritis encephalitis virus (CAEV) transmitted vertically to early embryo development stages
(morulae or blastocyst) via in vitro infected frozen semen? http://www.theriojournal.com/article/S0093‐
691X%2811%2900662‐5/abstract
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