Uh oh..an abscess??

[jill.costello]

Hmmmm- I've been reading when you guys talk about "no abscesses..." etc, as though it is a common symptom of something bad that goaties get....

What causes the "bad" abscesses in goats? I was giving pets/scratches yesterday, and Cayenne has a walnut-sized lump right on the back of her neck between her shoulder blades.....VERY suspiciously close to where the vet gave her the sub-cutaneous Blackleg/tetenus vaccination about a month ago....It is definately in the skin, not attached to anything, so I aspirated it with an 18 guage needle; I got out light yellow creamy matter very much like an acne pimple/cyst gunk.

I am quite alarmed- could this mean her vaccination went INTER-cutaneous and therefore didn't work??

Also, I don't like the idea of her having a small infection, but I don't like the idea of having to give her systemic antibiotics, either: I feel they are a recipe for digestive troubles......

Can it be lanced? Left alone? Help!

much thanks, -Jill

[mpillow]

Some of my girls get them at vaccination sites...its the ones that bust and weep that are bad news....look for hair loss at first at site....mine have never ruptured or lost hair and some have even gone away...

Ticks that arent dealt with can also cause this among other things....its not always as bad as it seems....but you certainly should be proactive in managing in case it is the disease type of abscess. Be sure to disinfect the site and wash and keep her separate until you determine a definite cause.

[rhjacobi]

Hi Jill,

Caseous Lymphadentis, or CL, is what everyone is worried about. Your vet can test for this. Even if it is CL, it can be managed and eradicated. I am not at home so I don't have my reference material, but you can do a search and probably get an abundance of information on CL. Not all abscesses are CL. Abscesses are the goats body dealing with something that its defenses have determined that it needs to wall off to keep it from spreading. If handled effectively and promptly, it will probably only be a one time thing.

Until you are sure if it is from the injection and not something that is contagious, I would treat it as highly contagious. Isolate the animal. Wear rubber gloves. Lance and remove all the "puss". Don't let it drop to the ground. Destroy all of the removed "puss" by burning or other method of ensuring that any infectious agent is destroyed. After lancing and cleaning the abscess, squirt 7% Iodine into the affected area to kill anything else there and around the opening to get anything that may now be on the hair.. I believe that Penicillin is recommended for this, but please verify this first. I am not at home to verify this myself. I would keep the animal in isolation at least until the opening is definitely closed and begins to heal. As far as I know, if it is contagious, it is only contagious if the abscess ruptures and it is the "puss" that is contagious.

Hope this helps a little.

Bob
Lynchburg, TN.

Originally Posted by jill.costello

Hmmmm- I've been reading when you guys talk about "no abscesses..." etc, as though it is a common symptom of something bad that goaties get....

What causes the "bad" abscesses in goats? I was giving pets/scratches yesterday, and Cayenne has a walnut-sized lump right on the back of her neck between her shoulder blades.....VERY suspiciously close to where the vet gave her the sub-cutaneous Blackleg/tetenus vaccination about a month ago....It is definately in the skin, not attached to anything, so I aspirated it with an 18 guage needle; I got out light yellow creamy matter very much like an acne pimple/cyst gunk.

I am quite alarmed- could this mean her vaccination went INTER-cutaneous and therefore didn't work??

Also, I don't like the idea of her having a small infection, but I don't like the idea of having to give her systemic antibiotics, either: I feel they are a recipe for digestive troubles......

Can it be lanced? Left alone? Help!

much thanks, -Jill

[NewlandNubians]

Any of the "combo shots", seven way or eight way (covexin eight is a common one) will give abcesses about the size of a walnut or as big around as a quarter. It happens frequently with those type vaccines. It will show up right where the shot was given. You might notice the same size bump come up on other goats vaccinated. You were okay to lance it in this instance. I used to leave them alone and have my vet write a statement stating that the abcesses were shot abcesses when I showed goats with those lumps. Some other breeders lance them. It's easy to tell they are shot abcesses because they'll all be in the exact same place on nearly all of my goats (-; I have since quit giving those eight way combo shots so I no longer have those abcesses.

CD&T will not cause those abcesses hardly ever but it is questionable how effective it protects against enterotoxemia. There has been many breeders out there (me included) that have vaccinated with CD&T twice a year and still had entero problems out the wazoo (you are supposedly to do it just once a year for protection). I have quit vaccinating with anything but if I had to recommend a vaccine I would go with covexin eight and just lance the abcesses that form after the shot is given. Wash them out well and put some peroxide on them or maybe some antibiotic cream so they'll heal up nicely.

[jill.costello]

Thanks everyone-

I'm a vet tech, so you'd think I'd have a handle on this kind of stuff, but they only teach us how to deal with issues AFTER the diagnosis.....

Bob; I will definately look up CL and treat this abscess with the respect it deserves. Unfortunately, with just the two goats, when I tried to seperate them, they screamed bloody murder and one practically broke both her legs trying to climb the manger while the other one hyperventilated and got that LOOK in her eye like I was ripping her heart out through her bellybutton.... For the sake of peace in the world and with DH, I had to put them back together...

I will "glove-up" and get down to business this afternoon; it's going to be 68 and sunny, so I can lead Cayenne to a gravel area on the far side of the driveway, wash the area with Betadine and get the lancing/infusion completed there. I intend to put down bleach solution in the gravel when I'm done.

After the abscess is drained and flushed with iodine, I intend to do a saline flush and then pack the pocket with mastitis treatment (you know- the teat treament that comes in a little plastic syringe?..). It's the "miracle" treatment I have always used for small puncture wounds on the horses... you can slip that catheter tip right into the wound and dispense the cream into all the nooks and crannies.... Anyone else ever done this?

-Jill

[Goatladywebb]

My one doe occasionally gets abscesses,but has been tested and is fine. I treat her abscesses with gentamycin cream. It works wonders. I lance,clean out,then apply the cream into the wound.