My background is as a veterinary technician, so I'm pretty comfortable with reading and interpreting my own labs- or even running them at the farm. But many times I need my veterinarian to submit samples to labs for me, interpret, diagnose, and prescribe. We can't do it all- have a good relationship with a good vet. Ideally one who answers their cell when you find yourself in a panic (thank you so much Doc!!) Upon request, here's some information to guide you as you decide which lab to use for what.
Mastitis:
The way you collect samples matters. For milk you want to use a sterile, empty urine tube (plastic, mine are green tops). You need to clean your hands and the udder well, twice. Its too expensive to grow barn dirt in a petri dish!
Strip out each teat, this means squirt several streams into a cup for disposal.
Open the urine tube immediately before filling, and holding it almost HORIZONTALLY so nothing falls in from the environment, move it into the milk stream, catching milk up to the line, and then cap immediately.
Capture milk from each half separately. Label right vs left.
Treat based on the results and then RETEST! (Note: if you are using Today/Tomorrow and are giving a half dose in each teat, label them right/left and don't cross contaminate your udder halves. CLEAN those infusion cannula!
RETEST! Repeating your culture will tell you if you've been successful in your treatment. You don't want to dry off a doe, assuming she's well based off her clinical signs, just to lose her when she freshens again.
Cost: A C&S will be about $25-75, doubled for each half, but its so important!
You can check pH at home with a Dr. Naylor Mastitis Indicator card. Cut them in half, as you only need two spots (designed for cows with four teats/quadrants). This is only a screening, NOT actually confirmation of an infection or clear udder. Many herds check all their doe's pH weekly or monthly during their DHIR milk tests.
A culture is a test done (only) in laboratory where a clean specimen is placed in a dish with ideal conditions for bacteria to grow. For mastitis, a clean caught milk sample, growing in the lab tells you what you have- and therefore guidance of what to do next. This is only half of the need though- any growth also needs to be tested for its sensitivity.
Sensitivity refers to testing grown bacteria (see above) against what antibiotic will kill it. The two test together are called a C&S and tell you WHAT you have and HOW to treat it.
Labs: UGA Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory is able to run a C&S, your vet may be required to submit it, those limitations seem to shift based on test and who answers the phone/runs the test. If you submit the results, they may be less likely to release them back to you, rather that releasing to your vet.
I haven't used, but recently heard that University of Florida labs give more detailed results.
Fecals:
The McMasters Method is the appropriate way to count the number of eggs in stool, and therefore quantify the degree of parasite load in a ruminant. This is called a "fecal EPG" and is the number of eggs per gram of stool.
You can learn how to do this at home with <$200 in supplies and microscope, or you can send them out to a lab. Most vets don't do a Fecal EPG in office. I don't think it is difficult to do at home, but I have run thousands of fecal floatations in my years at the vet, so my opinion may not be a laypersons.
Instead, most offices offer a fecal flotation or DirectFecalSmear (Wet Mount). Both can give you important and immediate information about parasite eggs or sections in stool, but neither are quantitative. A fecal float is fine for determining if coccidia are present.
UGA offers McMasters EPG at the AVDL, as do most universities. I've sent out to MidAmerica Ag. Research before, and 4 out of 5 animals had "zero" eggs seen, which seems less reliable compared to other results I've received before. Sometimes you get what you pay for.
BioSecurity:
The primary lab offering GOAT biosecurity is WADDL. The College of Veterinary Medicine
Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory developed the Small Ruminant Biosecurity Serologic Panel. This checks for the most common goat diseases "CL", "MAP" or Johnes, "CAE" and "OPP". You submit 3 ml serum (preferred, need a centrifuge to spin down and remove solids) or 5-7 ml clotted blood (red top tube) and you CAN submit directly as the herd owner.
We test for: Johne's, Brucellosis and CAE, and will be adding CL. (We thought that NCDLS would include CL last year, but they would have sent it to WADDL at a higher cost, so we'll send directly next year. )
Labs offer other tests too: for example they offer a MAP/Johnes ELIZA in addition to a fecal PCR, which is a more accurate test. We send pooled feces for a whole herd Fecal PCR to test for MAP. Be sure to follow the lab's direction for every test and sample.
Labs I've used
Normally I use "Rollins" or NCVDLS, NC Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory System UGA UGA Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory also offers tests for CAE and Johnes
Cornell University a veterinarian must submit, but they had Johne's AGID when others only offer ELIZA. (The fecal PCR is the definitive test, per Michael T. Collins, DVM, PhD, DACVM at University of Wisconsin-Madison).
A note: Biosecurity is about SCREENING. Not specifically for diagnosing. You can get FALSE POSITIVES or FALSE NEGATIVES, and you shouldn't trust one test on one animal one year. You need records on your whole herd every year. If you are buying a new goat, ask for years of records (some big breeders even have a section on their website, I'm not that organized, I like paper!) for the whole herd. As a responsible breeder be prepared to share your records, it means your buyers are doing their homework to keep your animals safe <3
Pregnancy:
The fun one! BioPRYN Sheep & Goat Early Pregnancy Test Detection Kits are available online and include everything you need for testing (except a helper and cooperative goat). In Georgia you'll mail your BioPryn tests to Oak Haven Diagnostics. You can also use your own supplies and send blood directly to Oak Haven. They're cheap and quick. Wait until 35 days post exposure though, I've only gotten one "undetermined" by waiting the extra days. Call with any questions, they're sweet and responsive.
Supplies:
You can order supplies for BioSecurity and Pregnancy from your vet or online. UBRL LIVESTOCK DIAGNOSTICS offers supplies at a reasonable cost, but the LAB is NOT ACCREDITED so I've never sent them samples.
Good luck!
