Goat with a Lump

[ckbrigade]

Well, (still working on testing) but the lump went from hard to soft seemingly overnight and hair came off as well. I went to feel how soft it was and applied to much pressure and it popped. I attempted to clean it out as best I could and disposed of the stuff. It was a very small amount of very white, odorless thick creamy glue substance.

Still looking at managing it (when the test comes back positive :| ) .....Read somewhere that adding vitamin D3 might be helpful....

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

Sounds like it was an abscess, but I'm glad you are still getting her checked out and tested. With CL, it is usually the lymph nodes that abscess, so it can be difficult to tell whether you are seeing pus from the lymph node or a more benign abscess. What I usually tell people is just to be careful when draining abscesses especially if the CL status is unknown, because CL can be spread through the pus from one goat to another quite easily.

Another thing I would want to rule out is tooth root abscess due to its location (from what I see in the picture anyway). A vet would be able to take a closer look and give you a better idea of what you are dealing with.

I have known many people that run two herds on their properties when they CL positive test results. Many rescues do the same as well. It is not a death sentence, but it will take some extra biosecurity and precautions on your end to prevent spread to the other goats.

 

[cassie]

The prevention of the spread of CL from positive goats to the negative ones is simple. In a nutshell, if there is no pus, there is no spread. You just make sure no abscesses ever break out in the barns and corrals. You lance and clean abscesses in such a way other goats are not exposed to the pus, and keep the goat with the draining abscess away from the rest of the herd until it is completely healed. It takes very little pus to infect the rest of the herd. When we (by that I mean myself and any number of other breeders I know) decided to eliminate CL, that is essentially what we did. With a few exceptions we did not cull positive goats nor did we separate them from the herd unless they had an abscess we were treating. What we did must have worked because the CL is gone and it never came back, and I am talking about a period of well over 20 years.

 

[ckbrigade]

Well, attempted to have the vet look at her but he said he was not able to. However, he dismissed it as anything other than a grass seed and said to do antibiotics (penicillin) if it kept filling up to see if that worked.

 

[cassie]

It won't keep filling up if you clean it out right. When I lanced abscesses, I used a razor blade and made a fairly large incision. I wanted to be able to clean it out well. After I expressed all the pus I could into paper towels (which were later burned) I used a hose and washed the abscess out really well. After the water drained off, I poured in a generous amount of 7% iodine and sloshed it around. You could use peroxide for the same purpose. Then I puffed in Wonderdust. Wonderdust is found in the horse aisle of the livestock supply. Among other things it contains alum and it does a fine job of drying up the abscess and promoting healing. The next day I opened the abscess and repeated the iodine/Wonderdust treatment. I did this every day as needed until the abscess was healed. In your case, enlarge the opening a bit, express any pus, and pour in peroxide. Unseal the abscess and pour in the peroxide daily. It is important that the abscess heal from the inside out. Otherwise it will just seal over and form another abscess.

 

[ckbrigade]

Okay, I just need to get some wonderdust from the store but I can handle doing that!! Thanks!