our goat has an infection? in 1 bag, it has now absessed and opened to drain. it looks realy bad and i am not sure what to do. i thought of giving her LA200 but i dont know what to clean it and dress it with. i have never seen this before, there is a hole 2in. wide by about 4 in long not bloody but raw w/ milk dripping out. no fever and she is still eating.her kids were taken away 2 mon. ago at 8 weeks and we did not milk her, she has been w/ a buck for a week but i do not think she has been in heat. i was thinking of flushing it but not sure what to dress it w/ that wont burn. thanks

-- renee oneill (oneillsr@home.com), September 23, 2000

Answers

Renee, go get that doe out from the buck and isolate her IMMEDIATELY. It may be CL and that stuff is super contagious and very hard to deal with. I had to put my first doe down this spring because she developed CL in her udder. Also, the CL is possible to transmit to humans, so don't touch the pus with anything you don't intend to burn. You can make a drench of iodine, hydrogen peroxide antibacterial soap and water and flush it. But you have to make SURE that this isn't CL. is it greenish at all? Is it cottage cheesy? Email Vicki or Bernice ASAP, they are both able to diagnose things very well by description. Good luck.

-- Doreen (animalwaitress@yahoo.com), September 23, 2000.

what is cl?

-- renee oneill (oneillsr@home.com), September 23, 2000.

Here is an article on it. You can find out more by reading a Goat Medicine or Merck's Vet manual. Also there are discussions on this in the archives here, but this article is a pretty good intro.

From the National Goat handbook:

Caseous Lymphadenitis

Caseous lymphadenitis, also called pseudotuberculosis or merely ''abscesses'' has been referred to as the curse of the sheep and goat industry throughout the world. It is considered by some to be the major disease problem of dairy goats in the United States. The causative agent, Corynebacterium ovis, also called C. pseudotuberculosis, was first described in 1894 from the same disease in sheep. It is a small rod-shaped bacterium which is colored blue (Gram +) by the common differential stain used in bacteriology. C. ovis grows readily on sheep blood agar and other bacteriological media enriched with serum. The organism forms small, dry, white to yellow colonies which are initially very tiny but grow to a pin-head size in about 48 hours. If an abscess has not ruptured and is lanced in a sterile fashion, pure cultures of C. ovis are commonly obtained from the pus.

The pus is thick, often dry, and greenish-white in color. Its consistency is best likened to toothpaste or putty. The abscesses formed by C. ovis are usually associated with lymph glands and may be ''external'' where they handily break to the outside or internal where they are not at all visible. In the goat the external abscesses of C. ovis are most often found around the head and neck, frequently below the ear and behind the jaw. They are initially small but invariably grow larger. Because the goat often manages to put a thick connective tissue wall around them, they do not readily rupture until they reach the size of walnuts or larger.

Internal lymph gland involvement often affects the mediastinal (between lungs), gastrohepatic (between stomach and liver) and mesenteric (intestinal suspensory) areas. Interference with organ function in these vital areas produces unthrifty and weakened animals which are frequently afflicted with difficult breathing and a chronic cough.

Much of our knowledge of caseous lymphadenitis comes from the experience of Australian workers with the disease in sheep. They found that environment contamination with C. ovis was common in afflicted herds and that the widespread distribution of abscesses in the species could be related to contamination of shearing wounds. The distribution of most external abscesses about the neck and head suggests that goats are most commonly infected via ingestion of the organism. Frequently goats are exposed as kids but abscesses don't become evident until the animals are at least a year of age. The disease is insidious in its development.

To minimize environment contamination, encapsulated abscesses should be drained before they rupture. The hair should be clipped away around the abscess and its surface disinfected with tincture of iodine or other suitable antiseptic. The abscess should be incised vertically to promote drainage and pus should be squeezed out and collected for destruction by incineration or exposure to strong disinfectant solutions. Since C. ovis has been associated with infections in man, care should be taken to avoid direct exposure to the pus.

Following drainage, the affected goat should be isolated from other goats until healing is well-progressed. The wound should be irrigated initially and on a daily basis with an antiseptic solution such as chlorhexidine (''Nolvasan'') diluted 1:10 in hydrogen peroxide. Intramuscular application of penicillin - streptomycin on a daily basis for at least 3 days can minimize complications and continued shedding of the organism. Because of the presence of veins, nerves, arteries, esophagus, and glands in the throat region, abscesses in this area may require professional assistance in lancing. ''Throatlatch'' abscesses are especially serious and endanger the life of the affected individual.

Once established in a herd, caseous lymphadenitis is difficult to eliminate. Even goats in which abscesses are properly lanced and treated will often have recurrences, and environmental contamination leads to infection of kids. To remove caseous lymphadenitis as a herd problem, it is best to cull chronically affected goats. Kids should be separated from infected does at birth, given colostrum from clean does, and raised in a clean area on ''clean'' milk or replacer. Some experienced goat people have recommended the administration of bacterins made from C. ovis isolates from the herd in question but this practice remains controversial since no clearly definitive scientific studies have been made. Dr. Sam Guss, the eminent goat veterinarian, recommends initial application of an autogenous bacterin at 3 weeks of age, a second dose at 5 weeks of age, and booster doses at 3 to 6 month intervals thereafter. Lastly, the importance of cleaning and disinfecting premises before repopulation must be emphasized.

A bacterin is a young broth culture of C. ovis which has been inactivated with a dilute formalin solution. In this way the organism and its exotoxin are destroyed while the constituents which serve to stimulate the immune response are still active. Bacterins in theory should cause previously unexposed animals to more effectively resist natural infection or infected animals to more readily purge themselves of infection. The difficulty with C. ovis is that infected goats seem to have the ability to wall-off the organism temporarily but mobilize an immune response inadequate to effectively destroy it. Accordingly, recurrent abscessation is common.

Bacteria other than C. ovis may be responsible for abscessation as a result of contamination of lacerations or punctures. These are usually associated with poor sanitation. Corynebacterium pyogenes is frequently responsible for abscesses containing yellowish pus of a mayonnaise consistency. Streptococci often produce a watery discharge while staphylococci cause a creamy exudate. Although the nature of the pus can give clues to the cause of a particular abscess, only laboratory cultural methods can give definite information. Commercial bacterins against C. pyogenes and Pasteurella species are available and have been used prophylactically against pneumonia (which often accompanies the stress of shipping) and even against caseous lymphadenitis. Varying degrees of success have accompanied their use but, again, their real value is not well- established.

-- Doreen (animalwaitress@yahoo.com), September 23, 2000.

This sounds like the exact same problem i am having. I have drained the udder and have given LA200. She is now acting normal, but I'm concerned that is still oozing a little. The other udder is normal for her, they are usually full looking. I am concerned about this one though because she has kicked it and caused a small cut. Will it spread to the other udder?

-- Ginger (majic99@home.com), September 23, 2000.

It could spread to the other udder, but essentially if it's a dairy goat and you are CERTAIN it is CL in the udder you pretty much have to put the goat down. That is horrific news, but this disease has the POSSIBILITY, not probability, of transferring to humans. You need to find out for certain what the bacterial make up of the infection is.

There is a site called cybergoat.com that has a veterinary link that has vets whom are reccommended by goat owners listed by state. I found the vet I am using for my goats there, and he is super. With my doe that had it in her udder he said that there is a small chance of curing it if the animal hasn't had a history of abcesses and doesn't have more than the one. Mine had four in one half of her udder. He also said that if the goat is of extrmely good lineage they have performed amputation of the affected part of the udder and gotten a couple more kiddings out of the doe. My doe had good lines, but she wasn't exemplary and it wasn't worth a $600 operation. I found another lump on her rib cage the week after the visit to the vet and then I decided the fight was over. This stuff will spread throughout the body and can cause horrific things to happen like rupturing the heart or lungs.

Now please, I am not a vet and I am not saying that that is definitely what you are dealing with, but until you know for sure what you are dealing with you need to behave as if this is CL. Isolate, flush and wear rubber or latex gloves. Burn anything that comes into contact with the mucous and wear only the same set of clothes and shoes in which to take care of this animal and change and wash yourself before you take care of your other animals or yourself. This isn't anything to be lax about at all. Treat it like toxic waste handling and be very careful.

I don't mean to scare you or anything, but this is serious and you need to know how to deal with it so it doesn't endanger you or your other animals. Good luck.

-- Doreen (animalwaitress@yahoo.com), September 24, 2000.

i have the vet coming tomorrow morning to check out the puppies and the goat. she thinks it may be mastitis or a rip . i will let you know.

-- renee oneill (oneillsr@home.com), September 25, 2000.

Renee, what happened when the vet came? hope it all went well!

-- Doreen (animalwaitressss@yahoo.com), September 28, 2000.

the vet came and has figured she tore it on something, i am thinking the buck may have done it , he is a boar and she is a lamacha. we had to cut away the dried skin and stich it back up. she seems no worst for wear. the odd thing w/ her is she never dries up, never. i have had her 3 yrs. and bred her 1 time ,milked her the year i bought her and left her kids w/ her this past spring.her bags are always full,the vet needed to but a few stiches inside to stop the milk from coming through the rip. this morning i cleaned it and her bag is filling up w/ milk again. i need to call the vet and see if i should milk,i sure she has to be sore!

-- renee oneill (oneillsr@home.com), September 28, 2000.

I am glad it isn't CL!! She might need a little immune system help. Maybe give her some probiotics. The feed store should have some, they usually are in the horse section. Take care.

-- Doreen (animalwaitress@yahoo.com), September 30, 2000.