Dear Dr. Legacy - I have been hearing a lot lately about Q-fever, is it likely to show up here like mad cow disease did? Will my pet goats be safe from being destroyed? signed Q-uified Dear Q-uified – Q-Fever is here has been for quite a while and it tends to be an annual disease that shows up during kidding season. It can be a serious disease in that it can be transmitted to humans, most commonly through birthing fluids. As of 1999 Q-Fever is reportable in Canada. Q-Fever is around everywhere – goats, sheep, cattle, wild animals, dogs and cats. It can be spread to animals by ticks and also contact with the birthing fluids and afterbirth. It can’t be completely eradicated. An outbreak can happen as it did in the Netherlands where 40,000 goats were destroyed this past year – it can happen. If proper precautions are not taken to prevent the spread entire herds can be infected. Birthing areas should be cleaned and disinfected between birthings, stalls should be as well before putting another doe in. Any areas where there has been an abortion as well should be cleaned up and care should be taken to prevent other goats from coming in contact with any birthing fluids or afterbirth. You also should wear gloves when assisting a doe or handling wet kids and not allowing the birthing fluid to contact your skin. To make matters worse Q-Fever can become air born and can be found in the animals milk. Other than the doe giving birth to a still born or aborting Q-Fever is asymptomatic – no symptoms. In a serious outbreak the goats that would be destroyed would probably be pregnant ones as those are the ones that will readily spread Q-Fever when they give birth. If you do not breed your pets or if they are wethers the Government would not likely order them destroyed.
Dear Doc - My nubian doe is 5 this spring. She has been giving milk since a 2 year old. She is due to freshen in July. In the past month her milk is horrible, I can't even drink it, it tastes so bad. I called my vet, he doesn't know. Why has her milk gone so sour? Everything here is the same, feed everything and she is the same happy and eating well. No Milky Way Why Dear Milky Way – Being that she is due to freshen in July is she currently in with a buck or just recently separated from him? As you know us goat boys like to make ourselves appealing to the girls. Our strong musky smell can permeate the milk and cause it to taste really bad. Continue to milk the doe and give the milk to any dogs or cats. It will take a bit of time for the milk to return to normal.
Hey Doc - I read last issue that you shouldn't leave collars on goats. I have break away collars on mine that my dogs wear. Can I still leave those on? Signed Collared Dear Collared – The absolute best is to have no collars on your goats. You know we get ourselves into some predicaments sometimes and having a collar on we are more likely to get caught on things and could strangle ourselves. If you absolutely have to have some sort of collar on yours goats for ID or something similar – it is better to use the smaller break away cat collars. With the larger, stronger break away dog collars take into consideration the size of the goat you have the collar on – would that goat be able to break the collar if it got caught on something? Having a collar on your goat is just a convenience for you. If it is a good break away collar it will break easily and quickly if you lightly pull on it. If you have to give it a real good tug in order to break it then the collar is too strong and won’t likely break if it got caught on something.
Dear Doctor Legacy -To what age can you safely still "ring" a buck? How big do the testicles have to be before you can't put a ring on? Ring or Wrong
Dear Ring or Wrong – There is much controversy on how old a buck should be or not be before ringing it. In commercial herds I know of bucks that are ringed (banded) as young as 1 day of age and as old as 6 months of age. Keep in mind that the older the buck is the larger the testicle size the harder it is on him, pain wise. It can be painful enough to cause him to go into shock. The younger they are the easier as the testicle size is smaller. If you have smaller breeds like Pygmys, Nigerians etc then you should leave them until they are around 3 weeks of age. It has been said that ringing your boys too soon can cause the urethra to not grow properly predisposing him to Urinary Calculi – with that said my human caretaker has wethered Boer kids at 3 days of age and kept some of those wethers as pets that are now well into their 10th year and never had a problem.
