Lump

[fortheloveofgoats]

If it is CL, does this mean that she will keep getting lumps? Can she give it to my other goat? Does that mean that I shouldn't breed her? This is so frustrating. Can I do anything to the person that sold her to me? He told me that he tested her. My other goat doesn't have any lumps, so he can't try to tell me that my other goat gave it to her. I thought that if a goat has CL, they lose there hair on the lump?

 

[Livinwright Farm]

If it is CL, does this mean that she will keep getting lumps? Can she give it to my other goat? Does that mean that I shouldn't breed her? This is so frustrating. Can I do anything to the person that sold her to me? He told me that he tested her. My other goat doesn't have any lumps, so he can't try to tell me that my other goat gave it to her. I thought that if a goat has CL, they lose there hair on the lump?

Yes, CL can pass through a herd, it can even "poison" your property for years if the lump bursts on your property. I pray that it isn't CL, and that it is just a plain bacterial cyst. We have learned that it is quite important to get the proof of testing & the test results for the animal being purchased. If there was no paperwork or email proving that they said it tested negative, then there isn't much you can do, other then asking the vet to deal with the goat before the lump ulcerates(bursts). Hope she comes back clean for CL

 

[fortheloveofgoats]

This is so frustrating because, I told him I am new to all this. He even told me that I could have one goat. So like a idiot, I believed him. Instead of doing research. When I told him, I read you have to have more than one, he said I have another goat you can buy. I knew, he wasn't someone that loves goats, he just wants to make money. I have tried contacting him for proof, and he won't respond to me. I know that this is my own fault, sense I didn't do research, but he still didn't have to lie to me.

 

[Goatherd]

That ain't milk goiter

Agreed. My one buckling had milk goiter and it looked nothing like that.

 

[Roll farms]

Yes it's contagious, and yes your other goat can, and likely will, catch it.
You *could* vaccinate to prevent it BUT the vaccine is only about 80-90% effective (here) and your other goat, if she came from the same place, may well already have it and just not have any lumps. Does no good to vaccinate if they've been exposed...the evil of the disease is they can "look" fine for months, and then *poof* there's a lump.

Mine tend to get 1 or 2 lumps a year. I cut them open, drain them, fill them w/ iodine or peroxide and drain again every 12 hrs until nothing 'icky' comes out, then let them heal. I keep them isolated until they're scabbed over.

Stress seems to bring on 'outbreaks'.

The puss is the contagious part. As long as that is destroyed / kept out of any area where they can get exposed, you can control it's spread to a degree, but you have to be very particular and you're goats will likely be miserable apart.

And humans can catch it if you get the pus in an open wound. ALWAYS wear gloves when dealing w/ an abscess.

I don't know if these are 'just' pets, or you intend to go into breeding, etc, but if they're just pets, IMHO, CL is not a 'deal breaker'. Inconvenient and nasty, yes...but manageable if you want to.

If you don't want to, cull them now before it bursts on your place.

I'm sorry.

 

[fortheloveofgoats]

Yes it's contagious, and yes your other goat can, and likely will, catch it.
You *could* vaccinate to prevent it BUT the vaccine is only about 80-90% effective (here) and your other goat, if she came from the same place, may well already have it and just not have any lumps. Does no good to vaccinate if they've been exposed...the evil of the disease is they can "look" fine for months, and then *poof* there's a lump.

Mine tend to get 1 or 2 lumps a year. I cut them open, drain them, fill them w/ iodine or peroxide and drain again every 12 hrs until nothing 'icky' comes out, then let them heal. I keep them isolated until they're scabbed over.

Stress seems to bring on 'outbreaks'.

The puss is the contagious part. As long as that is destroyed / kept out of any area where they can get exposed, you can control it's spread to a degree, but you have to be very particular and you're goats will likely be miserable apart.

And humans can catch it if you get the pus in an open wound. ALWAYS wear gloves when dealing w/ an abscess.

I don't know if these are 'just' pets, or you intend to go into breeding, etc, but if they're just pets, IMHO, CL is not a 'deal breaker'. Inconvenient and nasty, yes...but manageable if you want to.

If you don't want to, cull them now before it bursts on your place.

I'm sorry.

Thank you for all your information. This sucks! I was really hoping that it was just something else. I am glad you told me to wear gloves, I had no idea humans could get it. I will be getting her tested as soon as I can.

 

[Livinwright Farm]

That ain't milk goiter

Agreed. My one buckling had milk goiter and it looked nothing like that.

When I posted what possibilities there were for what it could be, was prior to knowing the age of the animal. Obviously, at around 1 year old, it would not be a milk goiter.

 

[fortheloveofgoats]

If my Boer goat has it, can we still butcher him? Can we get CL through eating the meat? Don't worry, we never planned on eating Lil Lady, we were planning on breeding her. If she turns out positive, not sure what we are going to do. Thanks again to everyone who commented.

 

[Livinwright Farm]

This is so frustrating because, I told him I am new to all this. He even told me that I could have one goat. So like a idiot, I believed him. Instead of doing research. When I told him, I read you have to have more than one, he said I have another goat you can buy. I knew, he wasn't someone that loves goats, he just wants to make money. I have tried contacting him for proof, and he won't respond to me. I know that this is my own fault, sense I didn't do research, but he still didn't have to lie to me.

I so hear & feel your frustration!

My farm learned the hard way, unless you know the herd, see the testing results and/or treatment history of the animal, NEVER take a "free" goat. "Free" goats are never free. Someone else on here told me, when our little "free" buckling died from pneumonia, breeders never give a good/healthy goat away. :/ It is sad that some people feel they have to be deceitful in order to get someone to take their problem away. If we had just been told that he had a bad respiratory issue, or that most of her herd does every spring/summer, we either would have told her that we would find a healthy buckling, or we could have gotten him the treatment he needed so he wouldn't have died.
I truly hope that it is just a plain bacterial cyst and not CL.

 

[Roll farms]

Abscesses are actually the immune system 'walling off' the bacteria, to keep it from spreading. When a goat w/ an abscess is skinned, the abscess can be seen / cut away w/ out bursting it, they're actually quite tough buggers until they're 'ripe'.

If you couldn't eat goats w/ CL, I would guess that about 1/4 the goats sent to butcher wouldn't get eaten.

It's a LOT more common, esp. w/ meat goats, than most folks will admit to. Most folks just send them off to butcher, unless it's a valuable show animal, then they keep em, breed em and THEN sell them for slaughter....after exposing the rest of the herd...and continuing the problem.

I kept mine / dealt w/ it b/c of sentimental reasons, and 10 yrs later I'm STILL dealing w/ it....if I knew then, what I know now...I'da culled the lot of them.

And for those who don't know, we 'caught' CL from boer does bought from another state, w/ health papers. :/