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06-14-2014, 08:59 PM
I know those knees! 
and you dont have to worry about CAE. All animals still testing negative here so his mama and dada were and are clean. But more so then that is CAE doesnt present quickly nor does it present first in a squishy form. Think of CAE as arthritis cause well thats where it gets part of its name from. The swollen knee part is actually mutated bone growth. Another thing is his age. CAE takes time to really set in before you would start to see clinical signs.
My very first goat was a Nubian doeling. She was actually used as a clean up kid on CAE positive animals. On the commercial goat farm I worked on, we pulled new borns off positive does and raised them on pasturized milk. We never milked the positive animals. Most of the time the extra buck kids were graphed onto the positive does. But when a positive doe kidded and we were not around to pull kids before they nursed, the kids were of course were infected right off. But to make a long story short, my first doe, because she nursed off her positive dam while we were gone, was one of the kids used as a clean up kid on dozens of positive does. She was by the most heavily CAE infected goat possibly ever and even she didnt start showing clinical signs till she was over 3 years old. But normally its around age 5 they can start to show clinical signs if they even ever do.
With that being said, with the few boys you have and if you have a decent vet, it would be pretty cheap to have em tested. So please feel free. Its amazing how much that little piece of paper can give you piece of mind
and you dont have to worry about CAE. All animals still testing negative here so his mama and dada were and are clean. But more so then that is CAE doesnt present quickly nor does it present first in a squishy form. Think of CAE as arthritis cause well thats where it gets part of its name from. The swollen knee part is actually mutated bone growth. Another thing is his age. CAE takes time to really set in before you would start to see clinical signs. My very first goat was a Nubian doeling. She was actually used as a clean up kid on CAE positive animals. On the commercial goat farm I worked on, we pulled new borns off positive does and raised them on pasturized milk. We never milked the positive animals. Most of the time the extra buck kids were graphed onto the positive does. But when a positive doe kidded and we were not around to pull kids before they nursed, the kids were of course were infected right off. But to make a long story short, my first doe, because she nursed off her positive dam while we were gone, was one of the kids used as a clean up kid on dozens of positive does. She was by the most heavily CAE infected goat possibly ever and even she didnt start showing clinical signs till she was over 3 years old. But normally its around age 5 they can start to show clinical signs if they even ever do.
With that being said, with the few boys you have and if you have a decent vet, it would be pretty cheap to have em tested. So please feel free. Its amazing how much that little piece of paper can give you piece of mind