Anyone have any info on goats an CL

I had a goat that yesterday had a hard lump burst. I never had thought much of it cause I assumed she had a reaction after I gave her a shot of vit. B after she kidded an I yanked her babies to bottle feed them. That's when I started noticing she had a lump.... Right in front of her left front shoulder. That's been about two months ago. Then yesterday It burst with creamy colored toothpaste consistency stuff with no smell to it. S I squeezed it all out cleaned her up, an yes I used surgical gloves to make sure I didn't get the gunk on me. A did some more research on it. This morning is when I finally was able to come up with some answers that it looks like she may of had CL. So we took the necessary precautions an had her put down. It's not worth infecting our whole herd or any other animals but I was wondering if it was CL all along if the milk she had before it burst would be infected. Or if her milk was infected at all if she just had the one abcess on her body? She was one of my best millers. An we used her milk on our babies along with other mommas milk.... An our calves, us an our pigs... S I am just trying to get some answers rather any of us might be sick because of it.

My friends sheep get cysts like that once in a while, and they can be anywhere on the body, not just on lymph nodes as with CL. The last time it was baseball sized on the udder. CL cysts are on lymph nodes and are filled with greenish fluid. Another friends boar goats got random cysts once in awhile. Sometimes we leave them and sometimes we lance them. None of the animals has ever seemed sick other than the occasional lumps. There is a standard CL test you can do to find out. Culling is recommended when animals are effected with multiple cysts.

Go to www.tennesseemeatgoats.com loads of information there. So sorry for your loss.

Oh yikes, I was asked to weigh in on a goat question here and given the link, but I didn't know it was a serious health question, sorry for the delay, but its 2:30am and I promised I'd do it, so here I am before finally getting some sleep. This time of year, 24 hrs in a day isn't near enough when the dry days are scarce.

Anyway... CL is nasty stuff, sounds like you took a lot of the correct precautions. I'm so sorry you lost your best milker, that's heartbreaking.

Do you have a goat literate vet there? Or any chance you saved some of the abcess contents? That's the only real way to definitively diagnose CL, thru a culture of the abscess contents. The blood tests have a fairly high false positive rate. If a goat has been vaccinated or ever exposed at all, even if they do not have the disease but just have the antibodies, some will test positive.

CL does occur in the lymph nodes, of which there are a couple in the udder. Its theoretically possible to have one in the udder burst and have the milk contaminated. Pretty rare, but possible. I'd worry more about driving cars in terms of probability of bodily harm. There's a human medical test for it, if you're worried you got exposed.

Does that help?

Yes it helps some, thanks lacia . I didn't save any of the abscess puss, we burned everything. Then heavily sprayed everything else with bleach. I used gloves the whole time I worked on her so I think I am safe that way. Thanks for the info though!

Hey Tim,

Just wondering what the latest news is with this, if you decided to go with the odds that things are fine or get more testing or ?

All the best,
Lacia Lynne

Hi lacia, it's tim's wife kristie, yes we decided to chance it, after our clean up an burning of things. But I do have one question, we kept a doeling from her kidding this spring, is there any chance that doeling would get CL?

There's a chance, but a bigger chance she's ok. I'm not totally convinced it was CL from the description. I'd watch the doeling carefully but not worry until you need to. <g> You can get the blood test on her, just remember it will only show antibody exposure, NOT the disease itself. Vaccinated goats can also show up as exposed to CL.

Thanks lacia, that makes me feel better, I really wanted to keep the doeling, cause her mom was such a nice milker! I hated getting rid of her but I needed my herd to be safe. An I rather be safe than sorry so....such is life on a farm!

No one can say you're "safe" only "safer" when you take appropriate precautions, but not drive yourself nuts with it. I'm generally a big fan of testing before doing drastic things when time and circumstances allow. If it were my doeling, I'd probably test her. Best case, it puts your mind at ease if its negative. Worst case, it says she was exposed and you need to watch her... which is where you are now, so I see only upside, as long as you realize a positive doensn't mean disease, only exposure. And any of us could have it come in anytime on things/people etc and we can't live in a bubble, but you'll know more about where you are now.