Caseous Lymphadenitis

I think we have it. We purchased several La Mancha does about 10 days ago and one of them has a lump between her hip and ribcage. I called the breeder up and he said yup, he just found a CL lump on one of the does he still has. 

We're at a loss as to what to do. CL doesn't spread to humans through milk. We need the milk from all the does in order to run our pasteurizer. 

After seeing the lump on the one doe I started checking out all our does very carefully and found a lump on the jaw of one of the NDG does. This doe was born on our farm and we've never had any abscesses here for her to have picked it up that way, and even if one of the new LaMancha does did have a ruptured abscess that we hadn't noticed (and I'm sure they don't) the virus wouldn't have had time to incubate. Maybe she doesn't have CL, maybe she has a tooth problem, some of the reading I've done suggests that as a possibility given the particular location of the lump. 

I did find out a couple of months ago that there have been sheep on our farm in the past decade. CL can live in the soil for a very, very long time. If we have CL in the soil we're in trouble. 

So I have to figure out what we're going to do. If the born-on-farm doe does have CL then she got it from the soil and we have two choices: learn to manage it, or quit goats. 

As for the LaManchas I have to decide if I want to keep them and just isolate whenever abscesses show up and then maybe sell them next year if we can get enough milk from just our NDGs, or sell them now and just hope that my NDG doe doesn't have CL.

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Comments

  • Someone told me that if it is on the jaw, it is probably not CL as CL tends to be on the lymph nodes, but check that out before taking my word for it =)  

     

    Marin,What did the pus look/smell like?  Was it cottage cheesy?  Green?  or yellow and thick like normal pus?  How big was the lump before it burst?  Was the lump losing hair?  From what I understand, if it is yellow and thick and has a smell, it is more likely a different type of infection.  Does anyone else know?

  • The abscess on our NDG did burst but managed to do so last week as we were rushing around dealing with Public Health requirements for our cheese building AND the transmission on my husband's truck karked it. We weren't able to get to the vet to pick up a swab to have the pus tested but we have kept her isolated. It's almost completely healed and once it has we'll return her to the herd and thoroughly disinfect the isolation area. 

    I'll still try to find some place that can do the blood test screening. My vet says they'd have to ship it to a vet school in Ontario who has a license to ship it to the states. This is rather onerous. 

    The LaMancha doe still has the lump, but she and the other does that we got at the same time are in much better body condition. It's a long and rather uninteresting story as to why we ended up with some less than stellar LaManchas.

  • Unfortunately I'm unable to ship blood from Canada into the US. I'll have to track down somewhere that can do it here.
  • I just got a phone call a few days from someone freaking out about exactly the same thing, and as it turns out, she had recently vaccinated. Looking at your note again, I realized that the lump is between her hip and ribcage. Was she recently vaccinated? If the breeder recently vaccinated, it totally makes sense he would find a lump on another one of his goats also. When I first read this, I didn't even think to ask if he had the lump tested. I just assumed he had when you called it a "CL lump."

    And yes, it is entirely possible that your ND doe could have a tooth problem.

    I have also done the testing from WADDL that Tammy referenced. One blood draw, and they can run CAE, CL, and Johnes on the tube. I'd really suggest doing that so you can get some sleep.

  •  

    Hi! I have done a lot of research lately on this condition and CAE.  Waddl will do testing for your herd or an individual goat.  Their link is: http://www.vetmed.wsu.edu/depts_waddl/caefaq.aspx Hope that helps.

  • Don't panic yet!  Not all abscesses are CL. Get it cultured. If it comes back positive, then you can panic. :) In the meantime -- sending you a cyber-hug. Hope it's not CL.
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