Goat question?

Question

I was on petfinder looking at goats for adoption. One listing said can not go to a home with other goats. These goats have have had CL. What is CL?

Answer 1

lost of people raise infected goats with out problem. it dose not affect the quality of life for a while but as time goes on you will they become lethargic and spend a lot of there time crawling on there knees and lying down. CL is diagnosed on a rating scale. it is not black and whit wither they have it or not and infected parents do not always pass it to offspring. it is not hard to find cheep goat expressly weathers (castrated males) the best way to get a pet is to go to a dairy breeder. the males are useless so they are cheaper than meat goats and they are often bottle feed so they are much sweeter. i have tow little boys that are looking for homes, one yearling that is free and one 1 week old that is $30. if you live in the NW GA area i would be happy to show them to you

Answer 2

What is it and How is it Treated?
CL (caseous lymphadenitis) is a bacteria that is very good at protecting itself from attack from antibodies. The goats body, when realizing this devious bacteria was doing a good job battling its antibody defense, walls the bacteria off into an abscess. This way the bacteria won't be able to invade the rest of the goats body. Sometimes some of the bacteria slip into the lymph system before the original abscess can form, then the body forms another abscess around those stray bacteria to keep it out of the body.

The goats body is generally pretty good at abscessing all of the bacteria at the lymphatic point of entry. Thus, as most goat owners who treat CL abscesses find, a doe will only have one abscess. Once removed/treated it is gone (though the doe will still have the antibodies, after all she's been 'vaccinated' by the CL assault). Sometimes the goats defense system will miss a few and will have to form a second or third abscess to catch them all. With human intervention in the form of abscess removal or treatment, the animal can be 'cured'. If not treated the abscess bursts and those crafty CL bacteria will continue infecting the animal until it ultimately kills it. Of course bacteria want to survive so when an external abscess bursts the bacteria now has the opportunity to find itself another goat.

Answer 3

CL means caseous lymphadenytis, a contagious bacterial disease in goats caused by Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis (pardon my french)
You can find more info about it on http://goatconnection.com/articles/publish/article_47.shtml

it's a pretty nasty disease and is potentially a zoonosis (transmissible to humans). I'd stay away from it if I were you.
Good luck!

Answer 4

it is a goat infection that they get-CASEOUS LYMPHADENITIS - MANAGING WITH FORMALIN

With the possible exception of a discussion about which breed is "best," there probably is not a more controversial subject amongst goat breeders today than how to approach Caseous Lymphadenitis (CL).

Caseous Lymphadenitis is a contagious bacterial infection that appears at lymph gland sites as abscesses. Not all abscesses are CL, but those appearing at typical CL sites (often under the ear but not always) should be considered suspect and checked out.

This writer has detailed articles on both Caseous Lymphadenitis (with a diagram of common CL sites) and all types of Abscesses (including CL) on the Articles page of the website. They have also appeared in my regular monthly column in previous issues of Goat Rancher Magazine. Because this bacteria is resistant to antibiotic treatment, Caseous Lymphadenitis should be considered neither curable nor completely preventable at this point in time. This article provides an alternative method for managing and controlling it.

Caseous Lymphadenitis is a fact of life in meat-goat herds. Like a car wreck, if you drive enough, your turn will come. If you buy and sell goats long enough and/or have any significant numbers of them, you are going to encounter CL in your herd. Therefore, it is wise to be prepared in advance on how you plan to handle it.

The CL vaccine made for sheep has not been approved for goats. Indeed, the manufacturer, Colorado Serum, recommends against its usage for several reasons, including painful injection-site reactions and because no studies have been done that prove its efficacy against CL. Goat producers who choose to use this sheep vaccine on their goats do so at their own risk.

The basic premise behind a vaccine . . . any vaccine . . . is to introduce a small amount of the illness-causing bacteria into the animal's body to induce its immune system to develop antibodies against it. If a goat already has CL in its body, usage of the sheep vaccine can activate the bacteria to form an abscess, usually at the injection site. Since laboratory tests for Caseous Lymphadenitis are far from perfect, especially on animals under six months of age, it is difficult for a producer to make sure that the goat being vaccinated has not already been exposed to the CL bacteria.

Most people who have Caseous Lymphadenitis abscesses in their herds refuse to acknowledge its existence because of the stigma it carries today, particularly when they are selling expensive breeding stock. Because of this writer's previous articles and speeches on the topic, she must accept some responsibility for the prevalence of this attitude. However, by taking this approach, we goat producers are 'shooting ourselves in the foot.' Fortunately after much discussion with Colorado Serum, this author is pleased to announce that the Colorado Serum vaccine for CL in goats should be available in very late 2007 or early 2008.

This writer has done lots of research on CL as it affects goats. When I first began writing about CL, my opinion was to destroy any goat infected with it. Since then I've held hours of discussions with goat producers, serum manufacturers, lab technicians, and others involved in the meat-goat industry.

I've discovered that there are potentially effective methods available for handling Caseous Lymphadenitis that permit producers to keep and not cull valuable breeding animals.

I used to recommend confining the infected goat, lancing the knot, draining the exudate (pus), and medicating the site. The problem, I've learned from many people, is that if this procedure is not done at precisely the right time and under the right conditions, a continuing problem persists. If the abscess is cut too soon, it festers and gets worse. Additionally, very little if any pus and lots of fluid is present, since the abscess evidently has not matured to the stage at which the pus is soft enough to be squeezed out. If the cutting is done too late, the risk incurred is that the knot may rupture on its own . . . contaminating the other goats and their environment. Either way, this very infectious bacteria has a great chance of finding a home on your property.

The right time to open and clean out an abscess is when the hair is beginning to come off and the knot is becoming soft. The problem is that this seems to occur in differing time frames in individual goats. Some CL abscesses appear almost overnight, while other goats have knots appear slowly and literally take months to "come to a head." Some abscesses encapsulate into several knots, while others become a single knot. Pregnant does are a special problem, because the producer obviously doesn't want newborn kids exposed to the CL bacteria. And a producer running a large number of goats has a huge problem trying to isolate every infected goat, while watching and waiting for that 'right time' to clean out the abscess.

For years on ChevonTalk, the Internet meat-goat discussion group of which I am owner, Dr. Rosemarie Szostak has recounted how she gained control over Caseous Lymphadenitis in her herd some ten years ago. Dr. Szostak, who is not a vet but is a chemist and goat owner, injected Formalin 10% buffered solution into the abscesses. Formalin is similar to formaldehyde. I have concluded that my original rejection of this course of treatment was wrong. While Formalin usage will not cure CL (nothing will, at present), it does provide an attractive management/control alternative.

Note: This writer is not a vet and the usage of Formalin is not approved for this specific purpose. Producers may find difficulty in locating and purchasing this product. This is an off-label/extra-label usage, so no withdrawal time information is available. Keep in mind, however, that CL abscesses encapsulate; they create a thick wall around the exudate (pus), isolating the infected material from the rest of the goat's body. This is why systemic injections of antibiotics are unsuccessful. The medication cannot get through those thick walls. Therefore, it seems highly unlikely that Formalin would be able to migrate to any other part of the goat's body. Further, when the goat is slaughtered and the hide is removed, sub-cutaneous (under-the-skin) abscesses peel off with the hide. Internal organs that are susceptible to abcesses, such as udders and lungs, go into the offals (trash) bucket as parts of the goat that are not normally eaten. Such abscesses would be quite visible in the organs, making it easy to recognize the need to discard them.

Injecting Formalin into a CL abscess requires the use of a Luer-lock syringe (so the needle does not slip off the syringe, disgorging Formalin on you), a 25-gauge needle (the very small size used for dogs and cats), disposable gloves, paper towels, eye goggles, and a strong person to hold the goat very still. The small needle is necessary because Formalin is the consistency of water, so it runs out easily. Think of the abscess as a clock face and inject downward into the knot at 12:00 o'clock (when the goat is in an upright position) as close to the goat's body that you dare go and still stay inside the abscess. Be mindful to avoid veins, arteries, and nerve endings. On a small knot that is about the size of a dime or a nickel, start with 1/2 cc Formalin. For larger knots, use 1 cc. Using too much Formalin can result in tissue swelling both at and surrounding the injection site. Hold your gloved finger lightly over the injection site when the needle is removed to stop the fluid from running out, much like a lab technician does when blood is drawn from a human arm. Too much pressure will cause the fluid to run out of the abscess. The producer may have to inject Formalin a second time, several days later, if the knot has not hardened. The goal is a hard ('embalmed') knot. This means that sufficient Formalin has gotten inside the abscess and mixed with the pus. Be careful when injecting a partially-hardened knot; the Formalin may blow back onto you. If Formalin does get onto skin or into eyes, generously flush with clear water and there should be no adverse reaction. (Note: Formalin was used as a fresh-milk preservative in the early 1900's; generations of Americans consumed it, so don't be overly concerned if it gets on skin or in eyes. Flush well with water.)

After four to six weeks, the abscess begins to dry up and peel off, much like a corn on your foot to which you've applied corn remover. Supposedly this 'embalmed' knot is no threat to your other goats.

The plus side of using Formalin to manage CL abscesses is no exposure of the bacteria to either the environment or other goats, no long-term isolation of the treated animals, and less stress on the producer. The negatives include off-label usage and the possible objection of some authorities to this application.

Each producer must do his own due diligience and decide which course of action to follow when dealing with Caseous Lymphadenitis. It is this writer's opinion that unless goat breeders want to continue destroying animals and incurring the financial losses that such decisions bring, then we all had better (a) make the need for a goat CL vaccine known to the appropriate serum manufacturers, and (b) learn how to manage and control Caseous Lymphadenitis when it appears in our herds.


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