What CAE looks like in a goat
CAE — caprine arthritis encephalitis — is a lifelong viral infection, and in adult goats its best-known sign is arthritis: front knees that swell and firm up over months, sometimes called big-knee, with stiffness that makes the goat reluctant to walk, kneel to graze, or keep up with the herd. Some does develop a hard, swollen udder that produces little milk despite looking full. Others simply lose condition slowly despite a good appetite and decent feed. The nervous form is mostly a disease of young kids, who develop weakness in the back legs that progresses over days. The catch for buyers is that many infected goats show nothing at all for years while still carrying the virus, so appearance alone cannot clear an animal.
What CL looks like in a goat
CL — caseous lymphadenitis — is a bacterial infection that forms abscesses in the lymph nodes. The ones you can see sit where lymph nodes sit: under the jaw, on the side of the neck, in front of the shoulder, behind the knee, or in front of the udder or on the scrotum. A CL abscess typically grows slowly into a firm lump, then softens and eventually ruptures, discharging thick, pale, cheese-like pus that contaminates the ground, feeders and other goats — and the infection can also form abscesses internally, where it causes chronic weight loss in a goat that eats normally. Old rupture scars at those classic sites are worth asking about directly, because a seller may describe them as a healed thorn injury.
The questions that protect your herd
Because both diseases hide, your questions matter more than your eyes. Ask whether the herd is blood-tested for CAE and how recently, and ask to see the results for the specific animals you are buying rather than a general assurance. Ask whether any goat on the place has ever had an abscess, whether abscesses are lanced or the goats culled, and whether the herd is closed or buys in animals — and if it buys in, whether newcomers are quarantined and tested. Ask about kids' feeding too, since CAE commonly passes from doe to kid through colostrum and milk, and herds that manage that route carefully are managing the disease seriously. A seller who keeps written test sheets and can show them for several years running is offering you the strongest evidence a buyer can get; vagueness, by contrast, is an answer in itself.
What you do with the answers
Whatever you buy, quarantine new goats away from your herd for at least a month and have them tested before mixing, even when the seller's records look clean — that gap is where introductions are stopped. Keep the test results, the seller's herd answers and your quarantine notes together so the goat's file starts complete: KinsLe's Pet Passport is built to hold exactly that packet, transferring with the goat if she is ever sold on, so the next buyer inherits documented history instead of having to take anyone's word for it.