I know it's not CL. But our FF Nubian has hundreds (thousands?) of small bumps on her skin. They started out marble sized and mostly on her face, neck, and front end. After the first 24 hours, her eyelids swelled up. I treated her with Benedryl, and the eyelid swelling went down. After a couple of days, the bumps on her skin became less raised, but there are more of them, now over her whole body, some on her udder, but not many, and there is a tiny crusty spot on the top of some of them. Yesterday, her legs started swelling just a bit, with the worst being her right front leg. She has lost probably 15 pounds in five days, and her hair is dry. The vet is coming this afternoon, but I'd sure like your ideas on this.
being where we all live, yellow jacket were my first thought too...but it could also be reaction to something she ate while out browsing.. if it were just one leg swollen, I'd be wondering about snake bite (with an over all allergic reaction, resulting in hives) Hopefully Marcus will know what it is, let us know what he says. susie, mo ozarks
The problem with this is treated agressively, immediatly with benedryl, lots of it and repeated every 4 hours, minor problems like this will go away. Now that it has become systemic with little crusts forming on the end of the hives, if you don't use a powerful steroid to kick start her immunity again in treating this you will end up with pemphgus. Her body bulding new tissue over the old before it sloughs alot like shingles in people except other than parts that crack and bleed it is not painful. Do you have history on this girl? The only two goats I have ever had immune crashes like this on, one was out of a FF dam and only recieved her colostrum (the reason my management changed to only feeding colostrum from older does) and a doe just this year who came from a herd who used cattle colostrum. Vicki
Dr. Mueller is thinking systemic allergic response to something, but we know not what. We don't have fire ants here, but we do have mosquitoes, ticks, midges, etc. I thought wasps at first, too, but the numbers of bumps have increased although we have changed her pasture. She's back on the Benedryl. What steroid? I have Prednisone - human variety. Actually, steroids suppress the immune system. Hubby's had a kidney transplant, and steroids are part of his immune suppression meds. What is pemphgus?
pemphigus Would help if I spelled it right. Read about it in animals so you have this in the back of your mind if this does not heal correctly. Steroids can also be used to break the bodies immune response when it goes hay wire then dosed back down the body goes back to normal. Dexamethazone is the steroid we use in goats. Be agressive with the Benedryl, we had GE about 200 pounds on 6 every 4 hours, then down to 3 every 4 hours the next day, then down to 3 twice a day. Vicki
Had a really good phone visit with the vet, and we have started her on the Prednisone, too. He has a horse who has the same problem, so he's very interested in what is happening and how the treatment works. My concern is that with the leg swelling, we were looking at some sort of system failure, and I don't want to lose this goat. She's a wonderful, goofy, airhead, sweetie. I'll let you all know how it goes. THANK YOU ALL!!
Wednesday AM Update The prednisone and benedry combination seems to be helping. The swelling is almost gone from her legs; the bumps on her face are less pronounced. Her temp is normal. We'll be keeping up this med routine for about a week.
Just in from the evening milking. She looks SO MUCH BETTER! Thank you, Vicki, for the steroid suggestion. It has made a huge difference. The bumps are almost flat, the swelling is dramatically down in her legs, and she just looks better over all. We are doing an eight day, step down course of Prednisone, plus the Benedryl.
