I'm just weary to the bone with the constant barrage of problems here with animals. The constant mud; the heat taking its toll on everything from my chickens to dogs to cats; the parasites and worms that abound everywhere. It's tiring.
I'm not saying farm life is supposed to be easy, and maybe we just had a great streak of "luck" with all the various animals back north over the years. But, every animals we've had here on this homestead has been a trial. A failing trail :o(
Our chickens have all failed. The Buffs, the Reds, the Barred Rocks, the Red Stars and the the Black Sexlinks...well over 125 birds in 4 years. That's ridiculous.
The horse. Now, she wasn't exactly a failure. Just green and wild as the grass. Well, not that the grass around here is green, but you get the idea I'm sure.
Those blasted hogs. Ugh.
And now the goats. We started off with the abscesses. I started gleaning all I could from friends, goat lists and more. I haven't put the money into blood work ups or anything, but we are battling, rather uneffectively at best, CL here.
Without placing the goats in a sterile room we can sanitize beyond reason, there's nothing else we can do here. Rachel has a lump coming from well below her ear and across her neck. It won't be lanced, as even the vet agrees we are within the lymph region and it wouldn't be a good idea to open her up to far more infection/disease/whatnot.
So, what do we do? We've done penicilin shots, sufla boluses, and now another round of antibiotics (Baytril). There is no change. And Leah, the first goat we had issues with and had to lance, has sprouted another coming abscess. Hers is in an area we can lance again, but I'm growing weary of lancing what seems to be an endless supply of LUMPS here :o(
Does anyone have any other ideas? And other resources I should be reading? Any good CL stories out there at all? Am I destined to simply get rid of these goats? They have great blood lines and it seems like such a waste...
8 comments:
Gosh, I sure feel for ya! We had a terrible time with CL when we had our fainters. No matter what we did...it kept coming back. Good luck!
I am so sorry for your troubles. And I do understand. Currently we have a dairy cow, 13 goats (dairy, meat, and fiber), chickens, ducks, 2 pigs, and meat rabbits. Plus 6 children and 2 dogs. Our pens and pastures are a muddy mess right now making me wonder why I live like this. On the subject of CL, I don't have any direct experience with it, but everyone I've talked to says that the best thing you can do is to remove them from your herd and don't breed them. Sometimes those great bloodlines can mean problems. When I'm buying goats that is one of the questions I've learned to ask about. Although I only learned to ask after several really honest breeders volunteered the information that their herds were lump-free. I don't know much about your other problems with animals, but have found that most of my problems stem from management issues. Step back and take a good look at your setup. Compare it to what the books call for. Some corners can be cut, others can't. It's absolutely imperative that you really talk to people in your area to find out what problems they have and how they handle them. Your problems will be different than the ones I encounter here in NC. Take care and I'll be checking in to see how you're doing.
Laurie in NC
Hi there. We just purchased 14 new goats and they've brought CL to our barn. 11 of them are heavy pregnant and 3 are young does. I am seriously considering culling the does to remove them and their bodily fluids from our crowd.
We are suppose to have kids in just a few weeks with these new ones.
We've lanced our first abcess today with the help of the vet and have sent it off for culture. I am SURE it is CL from all the reading I've been doing and I'm just breaking apart about it.
We are just starting our barn up again after almost a decade of having it empty (my husband was a shepard of over 100 dorset sheep back then.) So, we were working on fresh ground that I've just destroyed in 1 week by agreeing to help these does have a new home (their young owners were killed and terribly injured in a car crash).
I was unaware of this CL issue and disease and the grandfather that has been caring for the goats also didn't know.
Let me know how you are doing. I am thinking I just want to take these does back to their barn, dig 3 inches of soil, manure, etc. out from the areas they've been in containment and take a year off. This is quite a challenge for a new goat owner.
So, what do you all recommend I do with these 20 + possible kids I have arriving? Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
I hope your absesses start to releases their grip on you. We are in the beginning stages of homesteading, homeschooling, and being more self-sufficient here. I know this is just one of the first stumbing block being placed in front of us, but it seems SO BIG.
In friendship and understanding,
Jen
Having seen CL in friend's goats, let me offer you this information. First off, CL rarely kills a goat, it is not transmitted through milk or the womb and there is a vaccine called Case-Bac which is used on sheep but can be used on non-infected goats to prevent infection. Also, while you can't cure CL, you can CONTROL it and save valuble goats and money. Honestly, I would never get rid of a goat just because of CL, sure the abcesses look yucky, but once goats go through it (at least the ones my friend had) they very rarely get another lump. You can use Formalin to kill the abcesse before it bursts, by injecting it into the lump after it loses the hair and before it bursts. About 6cc for a big lump, 4 cc for a med lump and 2 cc for small lump. My friends have used this with great results, the lump shrivles up and there is no spread of the CL from that lump. Overseas CL is seen as nothing more bothersome as a cold, and over here so many dairy goat herds have it the owners don't even bother with it because very few animals ever die of it. Same goes for meat herds. Now I know there is people out there that would kill a CL goat but I can't see doing that, my friends didn't and their goats are still going strong and are healthy and no lumps. Just some thoughts!
I am wondering how your situation turned out- I just got 6 does from a farm and one of the best has a lump. I can not see killing her and would hate to sell her when she is apt to deliver haelthy kids but I further am scared of CL infecting my ground and the other 13 goats. The other five I got from the same farm show no signs but there was a badly infected buck near death and thee thought of all my goats being in that shape is disheartening.
Cl is highly infectious and very easy to spread, I had problems with cl for the longest time, we still have one or two more goats with it and we are going to lance them in a couple of days I use an iodine solution only peroxide can form a protective layer over the puss in a couple of days once you think everything is better boom it's right back, so use iodine to clean and cleanse and then use bleach, bleach kills the virus and since there are layers of puss helps to open ip those layers making it easy to squezze,when squezzing your goat don't gove if you see the slightest white in the lance then it not over and if it still is lump. Sometimes it works one time if you really try but just to be sure go back the next day and do the same thing. And then two times after that. The goats that we have lanced in the past show no further symptoms and I believe to be cl free but I always keep a cousious eye out just in case so they don't infect the herd and start the cycle all over again
I have a large goat about 200lb who has CL. I clean out the abscesses when he gets them. Aspirin seems to help bring it to a head and lessen the amount of puss. One time he had several abscesses at one time. We gave him two aspirins over two days. It worked almost immediately.
DK
CL can be spread if the access opens. Best bet is to have a vet inject formulaic into the affected lump BEFORE it looses the hair. The biggest issue is that lancing the access allows the bacteria opportunity to spread. Getting it destroyed before hand substantially reduces the chance of further contamination. Bleach will kill the bacteria, but it can live in the ground for about 45 days without a host.
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