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You are now entering the wonderful world of
Fainting Goats!
We are located on Long Island, NY.
I am Proud Member of MGR
(Myotonic Goat Registry).
I have a very small but quality herd. We
started our little herd in 2007. We started with a wether and a doe. After I saw the wonderful personalities and loving
nature of these goats we just had to have more! I spend a lot of time with all of my goats making sure everyone is healthy
and happy. We tested for CL with a Negative result in Nov 2008. The entire herd
was tested for CL, CAE & Johnes in Nov 2009 with everyone returning Negative
results!! I love to talk goats! So if you have any questions please feel free to drop me a line!
UPDATE April 2011: Our remaining does and bucks have still tested negative for CL. We are testing
again in September. Please keep your fingers crossed for another clean bill of health.
This email was sent back in March 2011 to all of the Fainting Goat Yahoo Groups.
Something has happened and I would like to share this experience with
you.
Not for Sympathy, not for Honor but for your own herds
safety. As so many other breeders here my goats are my
children. They are my babies and I love each and everyone one of
them. I purchased some does a year or so ago, wonderful breeding
stock and possibly to show. I was excited and happy. About 3 months
ago one of my girls had a lump under her ear of course I panicked
and brought her straight away to the vet. Needless to say my
panicking was correct. It was CL The dreaded word among breeders.
The vet said we had caught it early and it didn't have a chance to
burst. I was thankful and was hoping it was a isolated case. The next day I went outside to check all my goats. 2 of
them had small "wound
like" scabs on their necks. I kept thinking no it can't be. I had
always been so careful. Tested my heard for CL for 2 years without
a positive result. (that includes the girl with the lump she had
been tested 2x before with neg results). I cried, I felt helpless
as those big brown eyes looked up at me. As I scratched her head.
About a week later I noticed something strange. I was petting one
of my boys and he happened to look up at me, I rubbed under his
chin and there was a lump! It just couldn't be CL I had never heard
of it being under their jaws!! I checked everyone.. out of 24 goats, only 8 did NOT have the lump under the jaw. I called
my vet in hysterics, I was crying so bad he had to tell me to hang up the phone, wash my face, and calm down then
call him back. He said YES he had
heard of CL popping up under their chins, he also informed me that
it can now also pop up by the utter!! In his opinion he believed
that it was a different form of CL strain, caused by the
vaccination. (Again this is ONLY his opinion). I called a few close
friends who I can only thank for eternity for calming me down and
helping me though this. Who pets their goats under the chin? I would have never known to even look there!! I sent blood
on everyone and was able to narrow it down to 1 goats who might have brought it in. All
of my girls are now pregnant (as you guys know) I have been pulling
the babies as they are born and bottle feeding them. To prevent
them from getting it. Hoping they have girls so I can try to keep
my bloodlines that I have worked so hard to get. All my Negative
girls have been moved to another pen. Away from the CL. We now wear
little booties in each pen and replace
them when we step out of a
pen.
Once the last of the Girls kid, they will be
going to a pet only home to live out their lives. The new owners have no other goats and all the information about CL
they have researched. They feel they would be able to give these goats a wonderful pet home because they are so
friendly. I just didn't
have the heart to send them for meat or kill them like some might have done. They are my babies and as
hard as it is to get rid of them I know as a RESPONSIBLE breeder I
have to. We are also tearing down every pen, every toy, house etc
is being thrown away. We hired someone to come in with a back hoe
and tear up 1 foot down into the ground, we will then bleach the fresh ground, spread lyme then cover it with another
foot of clean top soil.
I must prevent this from infecting my remaining 8 goats from my
herd. I know some of you are thinking, What is she
doing, Why would she tell this. The reason.. Because I want people
to know, don't only check your animals for lumps on their neck,
check their chins, utters, ANYWHERE there is a lymp. This new CL is
strong and they all popped these lumps in ONE week!! Please let my
misfortune help another person, I lost more then half my herd from
this. My babies, everything I had worked so hard to achieve. But I
am lucky I have kids that I can bottle feed and hopefully keep some of my bloodlines. I would NEVER jeopardize anyone
else's herd.
Please understand I do not blame anyone! Breeders do not sell these
animals knowing they have it. At Least I would hope that no breeder would
ever do that. I know some breeders would be screaming from the rooftops about the breeder and who it was, as not to place
blame on themselves. Things happen that you can't change. It's totally up to the breeder to be HONEST and tell
people they had this problem. Please just know it could happen to you!
I do not
Believe this should be hush hush.. we should go forward
learning,
Every day is a learning adventure or Learning curve.. Its what we
take away from that lesson is what matters!
I can tell you this... I purchased a set of
fainting goats as pets... I grew to love their temperment, antics and fun loving personalities that I am now in the process
of breeding.
They are like potato chips.. you can't
have just one!!
Fainting goat history traces itself to the early 1880's,
when a farm worker appeared in Marshall County, Tennessee with three Does and a Buck that fainted. He traded
the goats to Dr. H.H. Mayberry who saw this interesting trait and started breeding it. This breed has also been
known as the, "Nervous Goat, Stiff Legged Goat, and Wooden Legged Goat and of course the Tennessee Fainting Goat."
These goats "faint" because of a condition known as Myotonia,
which causes the goat to lock its hind quarters and fall over, when startled. This is caused by a combination of recessive
genes. When startled, they try to run off, the hind end locks up and when the front legs continue to pull forward, they
just fall over. While it is called 'Fainting", the goat does not loose consciousness, but rather falls over because
the hind end locks and there is subsequent stiffness of the whole body. The condition lasts for some 15 to 30 seconds
and the goat then starts to move off, still somewhat stiff legged . The duration of the whole 'episode' is about 10
to 25 seconds and does not cause any damage to the goat.
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