Foot rot is a disease which affects both goats and sheep, if they are kept on low wet land. It rarely proves fatal, and can be cured if the cause is removed, but it sometimes causes a good deal of trouble. The goats' feet swell between the toes and become so sore that the animals are compelled to walk on their knees. It can be cured by carefully trimming the feet and using solutions of blue stone. Goats should not be put on wet land.
Sometimes the glands of the neck enlarge, a condition known as goitre. This is sometimes fatal with kids, but usually cures itself. There is no known remedy for it, but it is comparatively rare.
Anthrax, tuberculosis, pleuro-pneumonia and meningitis, will affect goats, but these diseases are very rare. Some of the southern goats have swollen ears, but what the cause of this trouble is no one has yet determined.
POISONS.
There are several plants which will poison goats, but very little is known about them. Some of the laurel family are responsible for the death of a good many goats yearly, and some milk-weeds will kill if taken in sufficient amount at certain times of the year. These plants should be avoided as much as possible. Treatment has been rather unsatisfactory. If the poisoned animal is treated at once, an active purgative may rid the system of the irritant. Epsom salts and crotin oil have given relief.
Mr. Schreiner describes an epidemic of pleuro-pneumonia which destroyed many flocks of Angora goats in South Africa. The disease was effectually stamped out in that country, and it has never appeared in American flocks. Mr. Thompson has described a disease called Takosis, which was supposed to have caused the death of many goats in the Eastern States, and along the Missouri River Valley. Some claimed that this trouble was caused by change of climate, others thought that it was starvation or lack of proper care. There is very little evidence of it now in the United States. All in all, the Angora goat is the healthiest of domestic animals.
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