"United we bargain, divided we beg."

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

What The @$&! is That? (WARNING-graphic picture)

My doe Django has something horribly, horribly wrong with her. You are all going to judge me for letting something so terrible go on for so long, but I swear I knew nothing about it until yesterday. In my defense, it is in a very difficult place to see - on her chest, low down between her front legs. This spot is not visible with a goat in any normal goat-postures. I even trimmed her hooves last week without seeing this awful thing. Homero is the one that finally noticed it.

Here ya go - if anyone has the faintest inkling what the heck is wrong with my goat, please let me know!



I e-mailed this photo to my vet, along with the information that Django is eating and behaving normally, nursing 12 week old twins, afebrile, apparently not in any pain, and five years old. The wound itself has clearly been there for a while - it has thick, indurated edges and is non-tender. Django didn't move a muscle even when I stuck a q-tip a full inch inside her chest and wiggled it around to get a sample of exudate for the vet. There pretty much isn't any exudate - neither blood nor pus. Nor is there any smell.

It's just a great bloody baffling hole right in the middle of the goat.

So far no word from the vet. I think I'll call.

6 comments:

dilli said...

looks like what we call a wolf here.. can you see something really gross in the hole? looks sorta like it is breathing but looks like a grub? if it is that what you have... take two spoons that you never wanna use again and pop it out. treat it with antibiotic and it should heal fine.. if i had to guess what it is thats my guess.. you wont notice anything but an odd lump if at all until they start to make their way out and this is what they open up and look like.. grosser than this is when humans get them

el said...

Aimee, that could be, but I hope it isn't, CL (caseous lymphadenitis). Really flipping serious shit. You need to isolate her as soon as possible or all your goats may get it.

I hope you hear back from the vet tout suite.

http://www.aces.edu/pubs/docs/U/UNP-0085/

Aimee said...

CL is what I'm worried about, of course - but it doesn't look like any CL I've seen photos of before. For one thing, it's not near any lymph nodes (I don't think - certainly not on any of the high frequency spots).
Also she tested negative when I bought her, and other goats I brought into the herd were also tested or from closed herds. I know that's not a guarantee - and I have had a couple of untested bucks on the place now and then. I am definitely having all the goats tested again.

Dilli - a WOLF? Holy crap. I dug around in there pretty good and didn't see anything in the wound at all, but maybe it's already gone?

Tonia said...

Its not in aplace common for CL abcesses at that is in Lymph node areas and they will have a cheesy stuff. It could have been a splinter that go infected and then ruptured. I would spray it with iodine for a few days and see if that changes anything. As nasty as it looks I bet its nothing serious..

dilli said...

i blew the picture up and yes Aimee it looks like it may have already made its way out..i would just treat it as a wound of any other and see how it goes if the vet doesnt seem to be overly worried.

Unknown said...

I second the iodine rinse suggestion - we use that on all wounds here (even really disgusting pus oozing wounds) and have had more success with that than anything else.

Diluted in water and shot in with an ear syringe seems to work well - you can get a decent 'pressurized stream' with an ear syringe.

Eww. However - no pus is a good sign, blood means a clean wound. Rinse, rinse, rinse and hope for the best!

(Definitely not CL - there'd be all kinds of white guck.)