JOHNES DISEASE IN GOATS.....Hey all you awesome goat lovers out there! I know Ive posted this before....but I cant find it anymore, so I have to post it again. Im sure theres people who havent seen it, who dont know about it and needs to be educated. Please bear with me. Yes Im obsessed with it, but if itll help save somebodies precious goats, well then..... JOHNE’S DISEASE IN GOATS……………I would like to share my story in the hopes that I can reach as many goat people as I can. There are so many that aren’t aware of this terrible disease. If they do I think the majority associate it with cattle. But I learned the hard way that it’s spreading to our beloved goats more then we’d like to know. Anyway, my story starts in May. I hope you’ll read this & share. Within 2 months, we lost all 4 of our barn babies (Kissie, my Arab mare whom I had for over 20 yrs. & Rosie, Roscoe & Rubie (our 2 year old Pygmy goats.) And that’s what we called them, ”our barn babies”. They were far more than pets, they were our babies. There’s a reason why I’m sharing this story, so bear with me. I’ll try to make a long story as short as I can. First, at the beginning of May, Rubie started experiencing some problems. Her face & neck were swollen (they call it bottlejaw), she would shiver a lot (even though she was always blanketed & it wasn’t that cold out), and even tho her appetite was good, she was losing weight at a rapid rate. Upon taking her to the vet, she was tested for parasites of some kind. Results were negative. We tried everything we could think of. It just took her down so quick…everyone was stumped. We lost her on May10. Three weeks later, on May 31st, my beautiful, beautiful girl, Kissie, had to be put down. The melanoma that she’d had for the last 10 years got out of control. Totally devastating! Two babies in 2 weeks! But, we did still have my little Princess (Rosie) & Mr. Brat Boy ( Roscoe, AKA Daddy’s Little Man). They were quite the highlight as they were both quite comical & a lot of fun. If anyone ever had pet goats they can tell you that they are awesome. Other than the fact that they will eat all your flowers & they poop a lot, they are just the best pets ever. We would take them for walks every day (they’d even been camping a few times) and let me tell you, if you didn’t take them, & you started to go somewhere without them, they sounded like they were being tortured. They wouldn’t stop until you went back & got them. So, they did help buffer the loss of Kissie & Rubie. Then…the beginning of July…. my little Rosie starting demonstrating the same signs as Rubie. Diarrhea, weight loss, but still had great appetite, and she had the shivers. We rushed her to our vet and let them know that we were prepared to do whatever we could in order to help this little baby. She was my spoiled, precious little Princess & we would stop at nothing to save her. Our vet contacted MSU to find out what route we needed to take. They informed our vets that they had been seeing more & more of this problem in goats and more often then not, those that were being purchased from zoo type facilities. Unfortunately we had purchased our three kids from a zoo. Our vet quickly over nighted a sample of Rosie’s blood to MSU. It came back saying that she tested positive for the Johne’s (“YO-knees”), a disease that’s only found in ruminant animals. It’s like a wasting disease where they’re literally starving to death. They eat & eat, but they’re losing all the nutrients they need to keep them healthy (& alive). Now I need to explain that ruminant animals are any hooved animal that digests its food in 2 stages…1st by eating raw material, regurgitating & eating a semi digested form known as a cud. Among these animals are goats, cattle, sheep, elk, deer, llamas, camels, giraffe, elk, antelope, bison etc. Many people will say that it sounds so much like Crohn’s disease. Unfortunately there is no preventative (for Johne’s), no treatment and no cure. It’s highly contagious, fatality rate is pretty much 100% & the steps to eradicate this disease from your herd, & or, facilities can be devastating, not to mention expensive. Very sad to say, all we could do was make Rosie’s last days as comfortable as we could. During the last week of her life, she stayed in the house wrapped up in a blanket on the couch with me cuddling her. But then there was poor Roscoe. He was on the verge of a total melt down himself, having to be left alone outside. Goats are herd animals & can get very distressed & lonely when they’re by themselves, especially when they’ve always had buddies. They have to have some sort of companion (horse, dog, cat, whatever, as long as it’s living). In this case it was his daddy. Rick had to spend every spare minute hanging out with the little man. Roscoe was happy as long as his dad was with him. The big problem was: Roscoe’s odds of getting Johne’s was pretty much 100%. Plus, being alone after Rosie was gone would be way too stressful for him, not to mention heartbreaking for us. Another caveat - Johne’s may or may not show up in the blood until it’s too late. You can end up with a false positive or negative. An animal can look healthy, but still be a carrier. On July 30th, when we knew Rosie’s end had come, we had our vet come out, and we made the totally devastating decision to put them both down. I need to mention that our barn & ground is contaminated & depending on the situation, it can remain that way for several years. Until the area tests negative for this disease, there will be no more kids. I can’t help but worry about the deer population… they’re ruminants. What about cattle farmers? Sheep breeders? It’s scary to think of how wide spread this disease could be. So, everyone, the point I would like to make is; if your thinking of getting a goat (or any other ruminant animal for that matter) please….PLEASE….. Do your research and ask a lot of questions! Especially if you’re going to deal with a facility that has animals coming & going on a regular basis. Actually, this is something that should be done, no matter what you’re considering on getting or where your getting it from. It’s just that this disease is very near & dear to my heart and unfortunately, we had to learn the hard way. They say things happen for a reason. Maybe getting a chance to educate people about this is our reason. It still sucks, though, and I just don’t want to think my little kids died for nothing. If anyone is interested in learning more about Johne’s, go to johnesdisease.org or the MSU web site or just type in Johne’s. Another site to check out is Johne’s & Crohne’s disease. There’s mutterings about how Johne’s & Crohnes could be associated (scary). But until there’s some pretty solid proof, they’re not going to spend money on research. There’s just so much to tell and to learn about this disease. I know I’ve taken up a lot of room here, but, if I could get the word out there through all who read this (& passes it on) and to everyone that has had to listen to me rant about this, then maybe we can make some people aware of just how serious this can be. It sure can’t hurt.
Posted on: Sat, 22 Mar 2014 15:14:31 +0000
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