Response to C.A.E.

Doreen, Does can get abcesses from shots, stickers etc. They are not all CL. But I can tell you that a lump on the lymph glands (down the neck, flank, point of elbow, udder and rear leg) are probably CL. Especially at the base of the neck. The problem with CL is that she can burst tiny abcesses that you would not even see unless you shave your does. They also can burst them in the mammary and infect whatever her milk touches. We have seen abcesses on butcher goats, so it has to be pretty common. Goat Medicine is the newest Vet Text we have on goats. It does not at all agree that they become immune to it. You do not build immunity to a virus, you either have it or you don't, unless you are vaccinated to build immunity, and we do not have vaccines for CAE or CL. The look of a CL abcess, when ripe is usually cottage cheesey (I have never noticed the smell) it also has layers and layers in it like onion skin. An abcess that is lanced early I have never seen. When we managed does with abcesses we always cut the abcess out whole, you would have to quarnateen the doe with her site draining, until it is completly healed. We are very happy to be CL free. We have all pasturized and heat treated animals on our farm. My oldest doe is 10. I am CAE negative on the animals we have now, not counting the kids from this year. I do not believe that the CAE tests are accurate and I will continue to heat treat and pasturize. Though I only live a few hours from Bastrop (if you are talking about Bastrop in Texas) I do not know who you are talking about. I would be more impressed with how long she has had goats, not how many she has. I do know that when we first started in 86, CAE was mostly about the arthritis part of CAE, now we are seeing the devistation of the udder, hard no milk. CL was thought to be a cancer. Has the CAE virus mutated? Perhaps. CL is easy to get rid of with management. Stress causes CL abcesses to form and is why you see them in does kidding, just purchased, another reason to buy carefully, and to quaranteen new does on your place for long periods of time. We have just now opened back up our 7 acres where our orginal barn was. We ran a group of Boer goats on it for the last 2 years, with not one abcess, not even on butcher. So I am going to pray that this pasture is free of CL now. The barn was removed. Vicki

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