# Myotonics; When do they start "fainting"?



## Happy Hobby Farmer

Silly question, but when do purebred myotonics start showing signs of myotonia?
At what age can you determine the degree of myotonia they have?


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## GotmygoatMTJ

Well I'm not really sure but someone told me 6 months? Sounds wrong, because I swear I've seen younger kids faint. :S


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## Springbett Farm

I can't remember the exact age mine started fainting, but it was around 2 months when I really noticed a difference. I was surprised my first year of raising myotonics that none of the newborn kids fainted... and then they did as they grew. I have one that doesn't faint at all, but she's a mini silky fainter and evedently that is permissible.


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## Guest

I didn't realize they had to get older to fall over. I buy feeders at 25lb or bigger and I have some of them in every group, and the will lock up if scared at that size anyway.


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## KW Farms

It depends. Some can start showing signs at hours old, others around a month, and some longer.


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## taelir

One of my newest kids has shown signs of locking up a little bit (he's 4 days old). I think it really just depends on the degree of myotonia.


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## Happy Hobby Farmer

Okay, thanks for the replies! The reason I was asking is because I bought 6 PUREBRED myotonics last year as weanling kids, so they were around 3 months old. The breeder registered them all as 5's. Well now, coming up a year, I have 3 that don't faint AT ALL, they don't even stiffen up. One faints very easily and is always stiff and should be a 6, and the other one I agree is a 5.

Does anyone know with the MGR if you can have the degree of Myotonia changed after registration? I'm selling the three that don't faint at all, but I really think it should be noted somewhere that they are not 5's!


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## Epona142

Oh...really? This is news to me! I have a half myotonic kid here - I figured she just doesn't exhibit it. But she's only 6 weeks old this weekend. Maybe she'll show it later on.


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## WarPony

Epona142 said:


> Oh...really? This is news to me! I have a half myotonic kid here - I figured she just doesn't exhibit it. But she's only 6 weeks old this weekend. Maybe she'll show it later on.


My buck didn't show any signs at all until he was about 4 months old. I've seen him lock up about 4 times (he is a year old now) but he is so tame and well socialized that almost nothing startles him, so I couldn't prove he was myotonic if I had to. Unless i found a really aggressive rooster to sic on him, since that is the only thing in the last year that has triggered a lock up, lol.

I'm curious to see if his kids with my Togg show any signs. they won't be as spoiled as he is, so they should be more likely to startle than he is.


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## taelir

Epona142 said:


> Oh...really? This is news to me! I have a half myotonic kid here - I figured she just doesn't exhibit it. But she's only 6 weeks old this weekend. Maybe she'll show it later on.


I think it's been shown that the goat needs to be at least 62% myo to display signs of myotonia, but I may have read that wrong when I saw it. Myotonia is a recessive gene, though, so your little doeling could still pass the gene on. If yours is 50/50, most likely it won't show any signs.


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## Happy Hobby Farmer

I know the 50% crosses never faint & rarely if ever stiffen, but if you breed them back 100% myotonic, those 75% kids usually do faint.


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## Epona142

Interesting! Thanks for sharing. She was sort of a spur of the moment thing - her dam is out of my stock and she traces back to my first ever buck, and the dam rejected her, so the owner sent her to me. 

I used the same sire on most of my does this year, breeding for meatier kids.


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