Disease Database L-O

• Lactational Ketosis
• Leptospirosis
• Lice
• Listeriosis (Circling Disease, Listeriasis, Listerellosis)
• Lockjaw (see Tetanus)
• Lumpy Skin Disease
• Maedi-Visna (Progressive Pneumonia)
• Malignant Catarrhal Fever
• Mange  (Acariasis)
• Mastitis (Inflammation of the mammary gland)
• Mastitis, Black  (Gangrenous mastitis, Blue bag ) 
• Melloidiosis (pseudomonas pseudonallei)
• Melanoma (See Cutaneous Neoplasias)
• Metabolic acidosis without dehydration (See Floppy Kid Syndrome)
• Milk Fever (see Hypocalcemia)
• Orf  (see Contagious Ecthyma)
• Overeating Disease (See Enterotoxemia)

Lactational Ketosis

Causative Agent: Metabolic disorder due to under nutrition or over nutrition, where the animal is in negative nitrogen balance, and the liver is making ketone bodies.  Occurs in the last six weeks of pregnancy and during early lactation after birthing.

Clinical Signs: Last 6 weeks of pregnancy?  See Pregnancy Toxemia.  Newly freshened? See Lactational Ketosis.  Ketone bodies are detectable in milk, serum or urine.  You can test for ketones using diabetic test strips.

Treatment: 50-60 cc. Propylene Glycol or Molasses or Karo Syrup given by mouth two- three times a day for an average-sized doe until she gets back on feed. (Store propylene glycol indoors.  Freezes easily.)

Prevention: Do not under feed or over feed goats  Keep BCS at 3. Follow nutrition guidelines for stage

Contagious To Humans: no  

Contagious to Other Goats: no  

Links:

Leptospirosis

Causative Agent:

Clinical Signs:

Treatment:

Prevention:

Contagious To Humans: 

Contagious to Other Goats: 

Links:

Leptospirosis Fact Sheet http://www.cfsph.iastate.edu/Factsheets/pdfs/leptospirosis.pdf

Lice

(Summarized from Suzanne Gasparotto, Onion Creek Ranch.  http://www.tennesseemeatgoats.com/articles2/stomachwormsLice.html)

Listeriosis (Circling Disease, Listeriasis, Listerellosis)

(Summarized from Merck Veterinary Manual 8th Ed. )

Sheep photo from U. of S. Carolina Medical School

Lockjaw (see Tetanus)

Lumpy Skin Disease

Maedi-Visna (Progressive Pneumonia)

Causative Agent: 

Clinical Signs:

Treatment:

Prevention:

Contagious To Humans:

Contagious to Other Goats: 

Reportable disease: 

Links:

Malignant Catarrhal Fever

(Summarized from: )  

Causative Agent: 

Clinical Signs:

Treatment:

Prevention:

Contagious To Humans:

Contagious to Other Goats: 

Reportable disease: 

Links:

Power Point Slide Show  http://www.cfsph.iastate.edu/DiseaseInfo/ppt/MalignantCatarrhalFever.ppt

Mange  (Acariasis)

Causative Agent: Mites. 

Three types: 1) Psoroptic Mange caused by Psoroptes cuniculi.  Affects young stock as early as 10 days to 3 weeks old. 2) Sarcoptic Mange, caused by Saroptes scabei   3) Demodectic mange, caused by Demodex caprae.

Clinical Signs: 1) Psoroptic type: Head shaking, ear scratching, flaky or scabby lesions on the ears with yellow-white debris.  Can see mites on ear swab. 2) Sarcoptic type: Severe itching, skin becomes red, raised, wrinkled and hairless. Found on head, body, vulva and udder. 3) Demodectic type.  Mild itching, hair loss, crusts and scaling of neck, face, shoulders and sides.

Treatment: Psoroptic type: Treat with small animal ear mite medication, applied topically. Sarcoptic type: Ivermectin 10 mg./50 kg SQ every 10 days.. Give antibiotics only if infection sets in.  Can give antihistamines to relieve itching. Demodectic type: Amitraz 0.025% solution by spray or wash or dip every 10 days, or Mitaban, keratolytic shampoo.

Prevention: Quarantine all new goats. Isolate infected goats from the herd immediately. 

Contagious To Humans: Yes

Contagious to Other Goats: Yes

Reportable disease: Sarcoptic mange

Mastitis (Inflammation of the mammary gland)

Summarized from Smith, Goat Medicine, P. 469-483 and Haskell,  Caprine Milk Quality and Mastitis  (Click here to access this PDF document)

Causative Agent: Bacteria, retrovirus.  Multiple causes. Milk sample culture, Gram stain, will determine cause.

Clinical Signs: Fever, lack of appetite, depression, decreased milk production, swelling, heat and redness in udder, lameness due to the goat trying to avoid touching sore udder with her legs.  Recent mastitis will be swollen.  Long-term condition will be hard.  Somatic cell count of milk may increase substantially from even one case in the herd.

Treatment:  

Supportive therapy: Frequent stripping of the udder is helpful.  5-10 units of Oxytocin and hot compresses can assist milk let down and may help ease the pain.  10mg./kg Phenylbutazone, by mouth, once a day (or) 1 mg/kg Flunixin megalumine once or twice a day by IM injection (or) corticosteroids can be given for inflammation or toxemia.    Severe, or chronic cases may require systemic antibiotics.

Prevention:

1) Avoid teat irritation.  Make sure vacuum pressure is correct, and that there is no slipping of inflations, or wear inside the inflations.  Ask the manufacturer when you should change inflations.  Usually this is given as a number of uses.  See Building and Planning under "Inflations" to find out how to figure this. 

2) Teat dip all dry goats the first five dry days to avoid mastitis. (Levesque 2004).  Teat sealants are also a good idea. (Haskell)  Milk young, healthy goats first, then older goats, then sick goats and goats with mastitis last to prevent spread of disease  (Haskell)

Contagious To Humans:

Contagious to Other Goats: yes.  Do not let kids suckle

Links:

Smith, Goat Medicine (1994) P. 469-483

Haskell,  Caprine Milk Quality and Mastitis  (Click here to access this PDF document)

For management changes to prevent bacterial mastitis see Smith, Goat Medicine at p.482-483

For diagnosing mastitis see Smith, Goat Medicine at p. 12, and 469-474

For treatment of mastitis see Smith, Goat Medicine at p. 479-481 and 586

For bacterial mastitis see Smith, Goat Medicine at p. 476-483.

For viral mastitis (hard udder) see Smith, Goat Medicine at p. 474-475.

Mastitis, Black  (Gangrenous mastitis, Blue bag ) 

 (Summarized from: Smith, Goat Medicine (1994), 57, 480-481)

Causative Agent:

Clinical Signs: The skin just ahead of the udder becomes swollen and puffy.  It is cool to the touch and may fill with fluid.  There may be red, watery secretions from the udder.    Eventually skin may turn black and slough off.

Treatment: Successful treatment may be achieved if the goat is treated while the secretions are just blood tinged.  There is less hope of recovery if coolness, pitting edema, loss of skin sensation and a water red secretion are present. 

A study on 81 goats in the Sudan showed 91% completely  recovered using Oxytetracycline IV 5 mg/kg, and intramammary at 426 mg daily times 5 days.  (Smith advises that Cephapirin may also be used.)  A sterile teat cannula was used to drain the fluid, and 40 mg. of Furosemide was given every day for 5 days. An antiseptic cream was also applied to the udder. 

Amputation of the udder may also be considered.  See Smith, Goat Medicine at P. 480-481 for procedure.

Prevention:

Contagious To Humans:

Contagious to Other Goats:

Links:  

Gangrene Mastitis Smith, Goat Medicine (1994), 57, 480-481  

Melloidiosis (pseudomonas pseudonallei)

(Summarized from  ):

Causative Agent:

Clinical Signs:

Treatment:

Prevention:

Contagious To Humans:

Contagious to Other Goats:

Links:

Melanoma (See Cutaneous Neoplasias)

Metabolic acidosis without dehydration (See Floppy Kid Syndrome)

Milk Fever (see Hypocalcemia)

 Orf  (see Contagious Ecthyma)

Overeating Disease (See Enterotoxemia)