Day 3 with our new boy, Nick

[hihobaron]

Hello Nanno
RE: CL /Pigeon Fever in horses.
I have when working on a Ranch in Texas had to deal with a horse with Pigeon Fever, Had never seen back east here.
They just put it out to pasture with a fly scrim on it and checked it every so often for infections. They did tell me what it was, and I looked up some info on it, I would not have managed the treatment like they did. Oh Well
Happy Trails
hihobaron and the Troops in South Carolina

[Nanno]

A friend of mine had an old mare get pigeon fever so badly it had to be put down. One or both of her younger horses got it as well but they recovered with antibiotics. Then one of my horses got it, probably from hers--the CL bacteria is very, very contagious and I don't think I disinfected myself and my trailer well enough after taking her old horse to be euthanized. I didn't know enough about it at the time to be extra cautious. Anyway, my poor horse had a horrible ordeal. He formed an abscess in his sheath. I thought he had an infection from a dirty sheath and had him cleaned by a vet. Vet said he wasn't all that dirty but put him on antibiotics and thought it would clear up. As soon as he was off antibiotics the sheath swelled again, bigger than ever. Took him to a different vet and got a proper diagnosis for pigeon fever. We got him on a course of more powerful antibiotics and the same thing happened--swelling went down during treatment then came roaring back with a vengeance. Next the vet found and drained the abscess. It had an incredibly thick wall and was high up in there. He couldn't get it all but we hoped that opening and flushing would allow it to drain.

Not so. My poor horse eventually got so bad he could hardly move. His right hind leg swelled from stifle to fetlock. We first discovered the swollen sheath around Thanksgiving and it was in late February when we realized he was going to need an operation. The vet put him under so he could properly get into that abscess and it turned out to be not just one, but an entire chain of abscesses going from the sheath all the way up as far as the vet's elbow almost to the anus. No wonder it wouldn't clear up! After the operation I had to keep the huge wound flushed out and Skokie had to be on penicillin for two months. It didn't totally close up and heal until early May and the sheath didn't really look normal for several more months after that.

Moral of the story: CL/pigeon fever abscesses are NASTY business! The pus is very thick and the body tends to wall them off very well, which is why they often take a very long time to come to a head and burst. So quarantining a goat with a visible abscess is no small matter--it may be months before that thing eventually ripens, but you don't want to take the risk of having it run with the herd in case it bursts early from getting rubbed on a nail or something. Thankfully, the CL bacteria is species-specific so the horse kind doesn't affect goats and vice versa. My friend with the horse who died was terrified at first because she's got a beautiful string of LaMancha show goats and when the vet diagnosed her horse with "Caseous Lymphadinitis" she almost hit the floor. Luckily the vet got it a little wrong. The bacteria that infects horses is not quite the same as the goat kind and usually goes by a different name.

[hihobaron]

Hello Nanno
Good info
The same type I got when I did my research on it in Texas.
I tried to tell them the above information you related, Result, I ended up back in SC. No problem like it here better.
Happy Trails
hihobaron