What could this be?

[crazygoatgal]

A gentleman wants to buy some goats from me but he has had a bad experience with a dairy goat farmer who is local to me. He purchased 7 1 week old babies in March and as of today only 3 are alive and they all have sores on their mouths. I thought of "sore mouth" but am pretty ignorant and am ashamed of that, but I told him to come here and try to see if someone here knows. The farmer told him that someone brought some goats to him that were sick with the mouth sores and it went through his whole herd and he lost some goats but that it was all under control now and should be no problem. I don't want my goats going to a diseased farm so I need to know for sure what is going on. What should be his first step? We do have a good goat vet by me, but he lives an hour or so from me. I have alot of issues with farmers like this guy who don't give a hoot about what he sells and to whom he sells. I think this older gentleman is just trusting and didn't have a lot of experience buying. He's educating himself now though, I tell you. Thanks alot for any help you can give.

[Backfourty,MI.]

It sounds like sore mouth but I never heard of it killing the goat before. I guessing that maybe the farm the older gentleman bought from didn't have the best goat management as far as worming, coccidiosis prevention, etc. But maybe the sellar does have good management, hard to say with not very many details.

Also I'm not saying the older gentleman that wants to buy some of your goats doesn't take care of his animals but if he isn't real knowledgable in goats is it possible the babies got coccidiosis & he didn't know what it was or how to treat it, did he do cocci prevention & also what was he feeding them? There are many reasons he could have lost those little one's but without more info it's hard to say for sure what was or is going on at his place or the breeders.
If they were staying in a barn back in March & being bottle fed, it could have been they got too cold to digest their bottles, etc.
I do feel bad for the man though because I am sure that it was very frustrating & heart breaking to loose so many babies.
If you want to sell some of your goats to him I would ask alot of questions & try & see what may have happened. If you still don't feel comfortable selling any of your goats to him then I would try & think of a nice way to explain it to him or maybe give him some info to read up on.
Maybe he'll sign up here & get alot of help that way too.

[Minelson]

HI CrazyGoatGal!
Sounds like Orf to me aka Sore Mouth. Frankie got it. Frankie gets everything so I think it has something to do with a weak immune system. Of course I freaked when I noticed the sore and did a bunch of reading up on it and came here with the problem. Of course you can find extreme cases of it...but generally it might go through the whole heard and then they are immune to it for some time. ( I can't remember how long) There are treatments but basically it has to run it's course. One of the main problems with it is nursing babies infecting mama's udder and not being able to nurse..so you have to keep an eye on that. I for sure feel that this is a secondary problem with old man loosing baby goats and others in his herd. There is more going on. The goats are yours to sell to whoever you want so if you don't want any of yours going there then don't sell them to him. Hopefully he will come here and get some advice from all of us hard core meanies. (jk..joke from another thread) Really, I would direct him here and to the FiascoFarm.com website. And if your not wanting to sell them to him just tell him that you are re-thinking your goat goals and decided not to sell. Or be honest and tell him you don't feel comfortable selling your babies to a place that is in the middle of an unknown health issue.
Does he have internet?

[crazygoatgal]

Thanks Katie and Michelle for the advice. I am very concerned about selling my goats to anyone who had such a high death toll, but am also interested in helping him figure out what is going on with his animals. This poor guy and his wife are just sick over the amount of loss they have had and that big farm does have a negative reputation. Unfortunately, the older couple are not "goat" people and don't have the poop on who is kosher and who to avoid. They just want pets and some milk for themselves. So, the sore mouth and the deaths are two separate entities?
I didn't like the fact that this goat farmer was selling 1 week olds and even a 1DAY old and in the dead of winter. And recommended calf milk replacer as being "just as good" as anything else. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I was hoping to get more responses from others, but I guess katie and michelle are the only ones who care about my problems, .

I guess thats why this is the meanest forum around.

[mekasmom]

Originally Posted by crazygoatgal

This poor guy and his wife are just sick over the amount of loss they have had and that big farm does have a negative reputation. Unfortunately, the older couple are not "goat" people and don't have the poop on who is kosher and who to avoid. They just want pets and some milk for themselves. So, the sore mouth and the deaths are two separate entities?
I didn't like the fact that this goat farmer was selling 1 week olds and even a 1DAY old and in the dead of winter.

It is very common for farmers around here to sell bucklings at a few days old. They keep the does, then send off the bucklings to sell because they don't want to waste the milk on them. My kids would buy them for $5-$10, bottle feed them for a few weeks then resell them at a profit. It's just a common thing to be able to buy them that young.

As far as the sore mouth, ecthyma, the animals will starve if the buyer didn't take care of them. If these were young bucklings, a week old, I can easily understand how they died. The buyer probably didn't even give them any antibiotics to prevent a secondary infection of that flesh eating bacteria... narcotizing something or other... that comes from the goat pox virus. At that young of an age those babies wouldn't have had much of an immune system to fight off the virus or any secondary infection. The guy is lucky he didn't catch it himself from the kids. It's just like cow pox.

[Creamers]

I'd say Cocci killed them or that and a combo of not enough or the right milk - maybe he fed a milk replacer, too little milk, didn't do cocci prevention or treatment - hard to say - the fault is probably on the buyer - the sore mouth likely didn't kill them or wouldn't have with proper care