Maybe Vicki or someone else here has encountered this before. I have a yearling milker who has a lump on the side of her face, about where her molars on the lower jaw would be.It is about the size of a cherry, and it is fully haired, seemed to pop up overnight, it's been there for a few days and doesn't increase or decrease in size. When I feel it and move it around, it feels firm and round to the outside, but I can feel it grinding and moving against something inside her mouth. I am thinking that it may be an abcessed tooth? I've never had an abcess in this herd, and none of the does have been exposed to CL. She is valuble to me, and I will take her to a vet if necessary, but finances are tight, and if there is some way to help her at home, I'd like to try it.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), November 01, 2000

Answers

can you drain it yourself. We did with a sheep, I was also afraid it was CL (the vet says probably not) we took her away from the rest and I drained it. It was on her neck, we use proxide and stuff a needle in it and squeezed it out. The girl which was a baby is fine now with no other lumps to be found so I think my husband nick her with the razor when shearing. I also gave her Pen G for several days after incase of infection from me playing around with the cyst.

-- debbie wolcott (bwolcott@cwis.net), November 01, 2000.

I also had a goat with an abcess in the same spot you are describing. It did not appear to be painful to him, and felt just like you are describing. I lanced it with a razor blade, and it didn't even hurt him then. I was able to squeeze out a huge amout of thick yellow pus, the consistency of toothpaste. CL pus is cottage-cheesey. I cleaned it, then every day I picked off the scab and squeezed it again and cleaned it with hydrogen peroxide. He didn't like this part. Pus came out for about 3 days, then I didnt squeeze any more after that,just cleaned, and he healed up great with no hair loss or scar (and he still loves me).

-- Julie (julieamc@excite.com), November 01, 2000.

Hi,

Its possible it could be a salivary gland infection.. but without seeing it for sure I couldn't say. Our vet recently checked a small bump on one of my does... I too was paniking... he showed me this: take a needle and syringe, draw some fluid out, look at the fluid, if its pussy and cheesy looking it is porbably CL If not then its something else.

should you suspect CL then place her in isolation, let the bump get to the point where its big, shiny and the hair falls off, then take her to the back 40 (someplace very remote and untraveled) then lance it, drain the yukky cheese pus out, then burn everything you wore and take bleach and dump it on the ground straight. After you drain it do as Rebekah mentioned and isolate her until it heals. Then you might want to consider trying this herbal treatment to prevent further outbreaks with her. I have not tried it myself but have heard a lot of good things about it. BUT.... with CL I don't recommend playing with it. Its available from the http://www.7mfarm site.

Here are some other causes of abcesses: Brachial cyst; where wattles are, contents are clear or cloudy fluid.

Salivary cyst, on the side of the face

tooth problems: overgrowth of the sharp cutting surfaces of a goats moolars may lead to infection of the cheek lining. Goat may pack the cheek with cud to relieve irration.

goiter: iodine deficiency, enlargem,ent of thyroid glad at throat.

Bottle Jaw: severe parasite infection will cause amneia and edema, swelling under the jaw.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

Bernice

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), November 01, 2000.

First a CL abscess before it is ripe does not usually have the cottage cheesy look in it, it can look like think pus, a true ripe one has onion layers in it with the cottage cheese in the middle (Lunch anyone :) Unless you send it in for testing you haven't a clue, only a guess, and a goat can have one CL abscess and never see another one until stressed like in a sale.

Rebekah, this is exactly what an abscessed tooth can do, or even a molar that pushes against the side of the cheek, it can also cause a doe to loose condition or sling her cud if this is on the cheek she ruminates on. Though you can just lance the abscess to get rid of it, I would take her in and have her looked at by a good horse doctor. They have the pony sized moth speculums to get their "damn" mouths open to even be able to look and see what is going on. With the molars coming in being their teeth forever, not losing and replacing them like her front teeth, it would definetly be worth the money to fix this, probably float or pull this tooth, if she is nice enough to want to keep. At lest she is a yearling milker and you have the udder right there to help you make a wise decision. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), November 01, 2000.

This may seem like a stupid question since I have goats but what is CL?

-- Carol in Tx (cwaldrop@peoplescom.net), November 01, 2000.

Before trying anything too drastic, see if she's "holding" her cud. I had a yearling doe with EXACTLY the same thing. I called the vet, and couldn't get an appoinment for 3 weeks. After 2 and 1/2 weeks, it was about the size of half an orange. A lady who had raised goats about 20 years came to visit, and when she saw her, put her index finger in her mouth between her cheek and teeth and pulled out a big lump of half chewed cud. The doe is now 6 years old, and she always had a wad of cud in the cheek whenever she is pregnant. She doesn't do it after she kids, not until the next breeding, and she does it the entire 5 months. At least I have one doe that I can always tell if the breeding "took". She starts about a week after she is bred, and quits when she goes into labor. Weird, I know, but what can I say?

-- Kathie in Western Washington (twinrosefarm@worldnet.att.net), November 01, 2000.

Carol, we have pretty much hashed CL over and over again, a great site for lots of answers is Jennifer Smiths site: http://webs-best.com/Capriherb/ also Joyce's saanendoah.com site. You could spend all day going through all the links each of these sites have. And as always neither do everything the same, and neither do anything exactly as I do either! :) Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), November 02, 2000.

My Australian Shepherd recently had the exact same thing. Because it came up so fast, I figured it might be a blocked salivary gland, and it did not seem to cause her any pain when I pressed it or palpated it, so I thought I would just wait and see. After about a month, it began to reduce on its own, and has gone from a marble (a pint-sie, in marble-speak, if you are fluent...) to a pea. She seems fine, so I shall continue to do nothing about it. Of course, with a goat and food source, you've got to be more concerned. Good luck.

-- snoozy (allen@oz.net), November 03, 2000.

Thought I'd update this and let you all know how she's doing. The vet came out to look at her last night.We broke it open, and it doesn't seem to be an abcess. There is very little pus, just looks fleshy like liver, and bleeds. It's not in the right place for an abcessed tooth or salivary gland, according to the vet. She thinks it may be some kind of a growth or tumor. We took a culture just to make sure that it is not CL, and I am awaiting the results. Thank you all for your advice.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), November 14, 2000.