they can get large, like the size of a plum cut in half and under the skin. The are fairly firm. I have lanced one myself, it comes out like white-grey toothpaste and smells. The vet I have first thought this one was not Caseous, because it stank. I think it was coincidence, because it was close to the mouth and may have had some mouth bacteria in it as well, that helped it stink. I am sure they were all Caseous.
I've done more searching today and read in more than one place about people simply injecting the cyst itself with 1ml of formaldehyde instead of opening them, draining, and cleaning the wound, and expecting to disinfect everything that hits the ground. That treatment regimen is in every "Scientific" report you can read on the web. The more home-spun formaldehyde approach reportedly kills the bacteria in their protective cyst, causes the cyst itself to dry up (of course), and eventually just fall off--harmless. Some breeders have reportedly tried it on many animals. It sounds almost too good to be true, but, since every other treatment involves exposing the area to tons of live bacterium--I'll give it a try. I've seen at least 3-4 of these cysts. One is active now on a ewe and I might try the formaldehyde, the other two on other ewes, one we treated, one we did not, and one on a ram, which we got to too late and it had opened up, leaked out, and dried up by the time we got to it. From my reading, if they are lucky, they get one on the lower face and develop some form of antibodies for any future infection. I suppose one is lucky if they catch a real obvious cyst on the face or elsewhere on the skin. Marley never showed any outward symptoms. It ravaged his body internally. Admittedly, with my new crazy-busy position I took at my job, I'd been operating on auto-pilot and not paying as close attention. He's always had strange issues with shedding too early in the end of winter and having a not-so-marvelous coat, so I became numb to trying to look for problems on him. I've now identified one other ram in imminent danger--normally hearty, he is also skinny, two more rams that might be in trouble, and two ewes in serious trouble (one is very old), and two, who have had cysts, I plan to isolate and treat them all with large doses of Pen-G for 30 days. The antibiotic regimen is a Hail Mary. Besides isolation, the papers I've look up simply recommend culling for the truly infected. My local sheep-herding Vet recommends it, because, I guess he has had some luck with it. The woman vet I usually use-- knows this regimen from him. She had not heard about the vaccine (efficacy of it is not really entirely known--again, it causes a small case of it, and the animal builds up antibodies), but I plan to try it ASAP and use it on any lambs I have here from now on. It is NOT tested or developed for goats. There's no vaccine for goats, yet. And I have 3 goats. The biggest issue is: leaving a pasture alone for 8 months or more, to try to let it no longer be infected. My property is too small to try to do that. There's a central place with the shelter, water, etc, and if the bacteria is present, it can thrive there. -Michael, Perino Ranch Blackbellies On Sat, Sep 12, 2015 at 2:32 PM, Carol Elkins <celk...@critterhaven.biz> wrote: > Michael, I am so sorry you are having to go through this. > > Coryne psuedotuberculosis is the bacterium that causes the disease Caseous > Lymphadenitis (CL) in sheep. There is no cure. See > http://waddl.vetmed.wsu.edu/animal-disease-faq/caseous-lymphadenitis and > other sources. > > An abscess on a sheep's jaw/throat is commonly the first symptom to appear > with CL. But it is very easy to confuse with bottle jaw and milk goiter. > I've read that CL abscesses are hard whereas bottle jaw and milk goiter > lumps are soft. What do the abscesses on your sheep look and feel like? > > Carol > > At 02:15 PM 9/12/2015, you wrote: >> >> Thanks for everyone's advice. The Vet came and did a necropsy on Marley: >> >> Coryne psuedotuberculosis. All through his body. >> >> I have had a few of the abscesses on my sheeps neck or jaw before and >> was aware this was contagious, but was not that aware of how >> devastating it could be.. Now I am. > > > _______________________________________________ > This message is from the Blackbelly mailing list > Visit the list's homepage at %http://www.blackbellysheep.info _______________________________________________ This message is from the Blackbelly mailing list Visit the list's homepage at %http://www.blackbellysheep.info
