02/23/07, 08:41 AM
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Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Tennessee
Posts: 2,963
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I hate to pile on the poor vet, but I agree with all that has been said. Especially that most vets have not much idea about goats. There are still too many "$50 goats" around here, and people generally do not seek vet help for such a low-value animal, so the vets don't bother focusing on care for them. On the other hand, they are HORSE experts! ;-)
I have had goats die of confirmed cancer on my place, but have never seen a cancerous cyst. The cancers I have seen have been of mammary origin that spread internally.
Just the word "cyst" brings fear into the hearts of any goat farmer around here who is trying to raise a CAE-free herd. I once lost a week's sleep worrying a possible developing cyst on one of my goats was CAE. Turned out it wasn't a cyst, but a splinter injury that I treated. Whew. But I asked a vet about it, and he went to CAE right away (without even seeing the animal), and said the whole herd would have to be destroyed.
I guess the one thing that worked for me is boning up as much as possible on doing my own vet stuff, expecially identifying disease. It can help a vet when he or she comes to visit if you are all ready with symptomology and maybe have done some initial detective work on the case. Also, there's a bunch of stuff you can treat yourself, saving the vet bill. Although there are others who would not consider this a good thing, a vet visit or taking an animal to the vet is a very, very rare thing on my place. I have to be stumped first, and most stuff is within my home treatment range now. It takes time and reading and experience, but you as the farmer are always in the best place to provide the quickest treatment for your animal, if you can identify the trouble.
This site is a fantastic resource when you get really stumped, too. I'd say there is more cumulative knowledge here than in many vets' offices. Together, we have hundreds of years of various goat experience!
__________________
Jim Steele
Sweetpea Farms
"To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing." -- Robert Gates
Last edited by Jim S.; 02/23/07 at 08:44 AM.
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the vet came to my farm yesterday, good news and bad
but that she is still carrying at least one, :baby04: we are thankfull for that.also that my nubian has a cyst that could be cancerous that needs to be removed 
we werent even sure she was bred! other than that it was all good news, perfect bills of health for my bucks and other does and all of them have confermed pregnancies. so i guess i am happy, at least sylvia's(nubian) problem was caught before it went too far and charlie(pygmy) is still carying at least one kid. cant ask for much more. 
