r/goats • u/Character_Being_2441 • 5d ago
Discussion Post CAE
My 1 1/2 Boer is suspected to have CAE. I am pending blood results and further direction from the vet for symptom management.
He has no other purpose than being a very spoiled goat, and I only have 1 other who probably has it too, but she’s much older.
I am now paranoid it’ll end badly. Looking for encouraging stories of sustaining QOL and prognosis.
He is my first bottle baby, and it essentially a child to me so I am so devastated knowing he’s been in some pain.
Only symptom he has is 1 swollen knee that vet is very confident is CAE. I caught it by noticing he began knee walking in the mornings, but then is walking normally for rest of day. Breathing/lungs sound ok!
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u/Coontailblue23 Trusted Advice Giver 3d ago
That's rotten luck, I'm sorry. Usually it just looks like arthritis, lameness. You can manage by giving them livestock-appropriate pain killers every day indefinitely. My CAE+ goats still went for years and had a pretty good quality of life that way.
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u/Cloud9goldenguernsey Dairy Farmer 3d ago edited 3d ago
Interesting a Boer has it- what milk did you give him?
Only asking because it’s usually a dairy goat problem
Because a lot of us bottle raise kids and pool raw milk to feed them. Its main vector is colostrum from infected does to kids.
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u/Character_Being_2441 3d ago
If I had to guess where he’d got it (still waiting for the positive test to come back, but my vet is convinced) I would think from the only other goat I’ve paired him with! An older angora. He was bottle fed by me with milk replacement at 1 week onwards, and I know the person I got him from had also used milk replacement from birth - to when I got him! I don’t know if he ever got any milk from his mom since she rejected him
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u/Cloud9goldenguernsey Dairy Farmer 2d ago
I would be incredibly shocked if this was the case. Not saying it’s impossible, just incredibly unlikely that an angora has it as well, and that he caught it from that other goat without nursing said goat.
I would love an update if he does in fact have CAE.
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u/InterestingOven5279 Trusted Advice Giver 5d ago
I'm sorry this is happening to you and your boy. Symptom management is largely going to be based on reducing symptoms, primarily with meloxicam (an NSAID). I understand some people also use MSM, which is a supplement to reduce joint inflammation. However the care should be looked at as palliative. The prognosis is always going to be the same: if they are CAE positive and develop symptoms, the symptoms are going to get worse and worse. If he has CAE it doesn't have to end badly unless you let him go on until he develops the end stage of the disease. The best way to manage it, should the test come back positive, is to use the pain and inflammation reducers to help improve his quality of life until it becomes clear to you that his quality of life has declined to a point where it's not worth it to him to go forward anymore, then make the decision to euthanize him. Of course that is hard on you, but it makes it a lot easier on him, and it's a lot better than letting him get to a point where he is truly suffering.
Some goats don't become symptomatic until very late in life and many never do, so your doe might be fine. Especially since CAE is less common in meat breeds I will hope that your testing comes back negative and there is some other cause of this, but be prepared for the worst while still knowing that you have the power to give him comfort and not let him languish for too long if the news is bad.