So let's say you're looking to expand your meat goat herd. You find another breeder in your area who is selling decent looking doelings, for a breeding program. They say they've tested, they claim to have never seen an abscess (now I know they're lying because goats get random abscesses all the time.), you take their word for it and buy these animals. You do everything you're supposed to do. They go through a 3-month quarantine time before being introduced to the herd. You ran their bio-security tests, ran the fecals and updated the vaccines. Everything is great, they look good, and it worked out in your favor. You're really looking forward to seeing what these new girls can do with that pretty buck you have sitting in back, just waiting to get to work.
Except this morning you walked out to do your morning head checks and noticed a suspicious abscess on one of your new goats. You separate the animal in question and call the vet so they can send a sample in. You're nervous, it's one of the worst-case scenarios for your herd. By the time you get the results back you've already read every article on google and Bing and every other search engine you can think of, about Caseous Lymphadenitis or CL. What it is, how to treat, how to prevent. It all seems impossible. You're full of all kinds of mixed emotions, some of which you can't even identify. All of your hard work, time and effort is now wasted because of one slip up. If you do stay with goats, your reputation as a breeder is ruined. This is it, it's over, your herd will never recover from this...You're Wrong! It's not over, you can recover, there are things you can do to bounce back stronger than ever. What happens now that you know you have been exposed to CL? You move forward. You can eradicate CL from a herd. It's doable. It takes time and a few heart breaks, but you can get rid of it. I promise you can. This scenario is actually what happen to us few years back.
As you can guess the blood test for CL can fail to catch it, as it happened to us. If it happens to you, it's what you do with that information that matters. Having caught it early, we separated and culled anything with a suspicious abscess and vaccinated the rest of the herd for with the CL vaccine. Any animal that came up with an abscess not at a vaccine site (the vaccine causes it's own abscess) was tested. Our shoes and equipment were sanitized after each use. The vaccine works pretty well at protecting uninfected animals. As a person in this situation though, it's hard to put your trust in a vaccine everyone tells you not to use because it'll show up on the bio-security blood work. Well guess what, the blood test isn't the best anyway so, what do you have to lose? I will testify that the CL vaccine works. It's perfectly acceptable to be skeptical of it at first. It's new and scary and not talked about enough.
Lately on our local social media groups I've been seeing a lot of questionable animals being sold. It's really concerning. I think the ones that really stand out for me at the people who are selling animals with clear abscesses that are a very nerve-wracking sign of a now common disease for goats and sheep, Caseous Lymphadenitis or CL. I've also noticed string of posts asking about why this goat has abscesses and what to do. I'm finding that most people just don't know about it or what to look for. No herd no matter what they test for or how often is guaranteed to be a clean herd. Anyone who claims to be, hasn't had a false negative test result get them yet. Something to keep in the back of your mind when shopping for new stock. I feel maybe it's not something that is talked about enough in the goat and sheep community. No one wants to admit to being the person whose goats have CL if they do know about it. It's a pride thing.
CL is not a death sentence for your back yard pets, it can be managed. A conversation with your vet should help you learn how to manage it should you want to, but I warn you, it's tough and you have to be able to stay on top of it to prevent it from being spread. How to treat these CL abscess, I won't tell you. I don't do it, but I've met a few people who do, and I know it can be done. However, if your herd is for production, whether be for pets, show stock, dairy production, weed eaters, or meat production it will have a huge impact. Most people generally don't want to buy a goat with CL, it'll effect your sales. For dairy goats, those CL abscesses can actually affect and infect the dairy product. Goats used as weed eaters who have CL can spread it to other people's properties and ultimately their animals. For market animals, a CL abscess is part of the carcass that would be removed and tossed, losing you valuable product. Some lockers won't process it at all. So, while it's safe to say while it's not necessarily a death sentence, it is kind of a big deal.
CL abscesses can show their ugly faces anywhere that lymph nodes are located or on major organs, but their most common location for goats is the area around the face that is under the ear, around the jaw. Not every abscess that turns up in these locations are CL abscesses though. Often times sheep will even carry abscesses internally making it difficult to diagnose. There are many reasons as to why one might pop up, so don't lose your nerve before you get the test results back. CL spreads very easily. It can be passed from goat to goat, your infected equipment and even your shoes. How your herd got exposed isn't always clear either so don't go around pointing fingers. There are two ways to test but only one is actually efficient. The blood test that so many people swear by, sorry, it's completely unreliable. False positive and negative results happen all the time with these tests. The only sure way to get a solid result for CL, is by testing the contents of the actual abscess. So, if you get a positive test on a goat whose never had an abscess, run it again. The same will go for CAE, and Johnes. Johnes is also best tested by fecal instead of by blood.
We've chosen to close our herd down for the most part, meaning that goats don't come on to our property anymore and we don't show. The exception being when we really need new genetics for our herd. The incoming buck will go extensive quarantine time and multiple rounds of bio-security testing when we do. It might change later but for now, it's how it's going to be. This is not only to protect our herd but the House Goats dairy herd staying with us as well. We don't need any more accidents like that. It's been well over 2 years sense we saw an abscess here. We will probably continue to vaccinate for CL for as long as we have goats. Yes, it's an extra expense and many people frown upon it still, but it's a bit of extra peace of mind for our herds knowing they've been vaccinated. With this adventure, we've learned a lot and managed to improve our herd's overall quality. There are goats that I should have never kept for our breeding program that had gotten weeded out. It gave us the chance to really step back and reassess a lot of what we were doing. While the experience, was stressful and a little traumatizing, good came out of it too.
This blog doesn't have all the CL facts in it, I'll post that a few links with that information at the bottom of the page. I won't tell you how to treat CL abscesses or what version of the vaccine to use. Yes, there are a few companies who make it now. I really just wanted to get across that it's more common than you think. That it's something that you can work through. The vaccine will not cure CL, it won't help an animal who already has it. If the vaccine doesn't work for you, there are options for these companies to make a vaccine with the bacterium that came from your own herd should you need. For most herds, the vaccine available works great at protecting uninfected animals. As far as treatments for infected animals, there are many theories. Do your own research and bounce that info off your vet for an efficient plan forward. I won't give out information that could potentially hurt another's animals should it be misused. One of the biggest reasons I hate goat care or goat vet groups on social is that they're full of information that is incorrect, I don't want to unintendedly do the same. I'm sorry if you read this hoping I'd give you all the secrets for treating and getting rid of CL. I'm not a veterinarian.
Caseous Lymphadenitis (wsu.edu) - Testing info, from WADDL
Goat CL Testing | Sage Ag Labs - Sage Lab testing info
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