Six lower incisors are found at birth and a set of 20 ''milk teeth'' are complete at 4 weeks of age consisting of the eight incisors in the front of the lower jaw, and 12 molars, three on each side in each jaw. Instead of incisors in the upper jaw there is a hard dental pad against which the lower incisors bite and cut. With progressing age, the permanent teeth wear down from the rectangular crossectional shape and cores to the round stem which is a further distinguishing mark of age. Furthermore, there are pregnancy rings marking horns and telling age. 10 Among diseases, goats are not too different from cattle and sheep in the same regions.
Goats tend to have more internal parasites than dairy cows, especially in confined management.
They tend to have less tuberculosis, milk fever, post partum ketosis and brucellosis than dairy cows and their milk tends to be of lower bacteria counts than cow milk. They have more prepartum pregnancy toxemia than dairy cows, and are known to have laminitis, infectious arthritis, Johne's disease, listeriosis, pneumonia, coccidiosis, scours, scabies, pediculosis, liver fluke disease and mastitis. Before the first pregnancy, the udder is underdeveloped, but with sustained repeated gentle massaging, a small, normal milk producing gland can be stimulated in virgin does and even in goat bucks. In contrast to sheep, the teats of goat's udders are conveniently long and large for hand milking. 12 Tails, scent and horns distinguish goats easily from sheep and cattle.