Goat heartworm? Have y'all heard of this?

[Cheryl aka JM]

I live in Morgan County Alabama. Recently I traded a couple goats with a fellow in Lawrence County Alabama~ (about 40 miles from me). The goats I received from him are still in quarantine here but so far seem fine~ a little wormy but he had just become aware of this issue in his herd when we did the trade and he was worming his goats the day I brought home my trades and wormed them.

So~
He called me last night and told me......(now this is a bit muddled because it is second hand information and he didn't know to ask for all the information I would have asked for......like the NAME of whatever they were testing for.......)

But he tells me that Lawrence county sent a vet out into his neighborhood door knocking anyone that had goats in their yards. The vet wanted permission to randomly test the goats for some new disease or worm that is apparently killing goats in Lawrence county. The gentleman got the impression that it was something like heatworms in dogs~ was a new disease or worm~ and that animals in Lawrence county are dropping like flies do to this~ apparently they look fine one day and the next day are just dead. The vet person tested 4 goats on his property~ 3 that had been on his property for some time and one that I had sent over there recently on this trade we did. All of the goats came up negative for whatever the vet was testing for..............THANK GOD!

But anyone have any idea WHAT the county is randomly testing for???

[Cannon_Farms]

other than maninja worm (sp?) I cant for the life of me think of anything other than that and possibly hook worms as its a fast kill if the infestation is bad enough.
It would be something I would like to know about since we are neighbors in state.

[Alice In TX/MO]

Meningeal worm. Deer worm. But it moves to the brain and spinal cord.

http://www.sheepandgoat.com/articles/deerworm.html

[Bricheze]

Originally Posted by Alice In TX/MO

Meningeal worm. Deer worm. But it moves to the brain and spinal cord.

http://www.sheepandgoat.com/articles/deerworm.html

You can't really 'test' for this in live animls, tho, can you? You can only diagnose from symptoms, which means if the vet was in fact looking for it, you might not be all clear, as he could have missed it/the infected goat might not of had symptoms.

[Cheryl aka JM]

whatever they were testing for apparently involved taking a blood test and the results were immediate

[Cannon_Farms]

[QUOTE=Alice In TX/MO;3895940]Meningeal worm. Deer worm. But it moves to the brain and spinal cord.


I could not for the life of me get it to look right, but thats it. With it being unclear if it effects the heart or what area period based on the first post, its all I can think of but the symtoms are something that just doesnt pop up overnight but maybe hes only seen the end stages of it where as the start isnt so easy to spot, many livestock vets only see the end stages of a desease because not too many people will call one out and try and self treat.
I personaly would be doing everything I could to contact that vet and find out strait from him.