Caseous Lymphadenitis - natural treatment?

[fnmz-camels]

I have a young bactrian camel (he's 2 years old) that has an abscessed mandibular lymph node that our vet has diagnosed as Caseous Lymphadenitis.

I'm looking for natural treatment that will help empty and heal the abscess, and also allow him to have limited separation from the herd, as well as alleviate most of the risk of him infecting the rest of the herd.

I'm looking into herbs, homeopathy, poultices, and whatever else can be found.

Do you have experience or suggestions with any treatments or advice for the ongoing care?

If you have any information you can offer on this it would be very appreciated!

[sinbad]

Colorado Serum Company www.coloradoserum.com has a vaccine for the prevention of Caseous lymphadenitis that is not labeled for camels, but has been used in camels with success. You should also vaccinate any goats sheep etc on the farm. The vaccine is called Case Bac

[bactrian]

Lymphadenitis ist a typical young animal malady. With horses you let the Abscess mature and let it open by itself. In case the animal has fever, treatment with antiphlogistics can be done (Non-steroidal antiinflammatory drugs) e.g. Ketoprofen. Should work as well with camels. Antibiotics inhibit the maturation of abscesses, so mostly not used in those cases.

[camel4ever]

I have a young bactrian camel (he's 2 years old) that has an abscessed mandibular lymph node that our vet has diagnosed as Caseous Lymphadenitis.

I'm looking for natural treatment that will help empty and heal the abscess, and also allow him to have limited separation from the herd, as well as alleviate most of the risk of him infecting the rest of the herd.

I'm looking into herbs, homeopathy, poultices, and whatever else can be found.

Do you have experience or suggestions with any treatments or advice for the ongoing care?

If you have any information you can offer on this it would be very appreciated!

Case Bac vaccine does not work once the animal show symptoms of lymphadenitis, you may try to drain the abscess as best as you can (peroxide water etc ) but is a frustrating task since the pus is often thick and creamy and the job will often not be done sufficiently well to prevent the abscess to reform. The disease is moderately contagious so a camel with an open draining abscess will contaminate the paddock and facilitate the disease to occur in other animals. So better to isolate any affected animal. Mortality is minimal.

Homeopathy work in man simply because of the placebo effect so you may dismiss it in animal treatment, "herbs" may well work, ask your local indigenous people: red Indians, I am sure they can suggest some herbs for this pathology

[camel drover]

HELLO ...ANYONE HOME........ S.

Case Bac vaccine does not work once the animal show symptoms of lymphadenitis, you may try to drain the abscess as best as you can (peroxide water etc ) but is a frustrating task since the pus is often thick and creamy and the job will often not be done sufficiently well to prevent the abscess to reform. The disease is moderately contagious so a camel with an open draining abscess will contaminate the paddock and facilitate the disease to occur in other animals. So better to isolate any affected animal. Mortality is minimal.

Homeopathy work in man simply because of the placebo effect so you may dismiss it in animal treatment, "herbs" may well work, ask your local indigenous people: red Indians, I am sure they can suggest some herbs for this pathology

question for everyone
i was at a goat sale when i first seen caseous..... and ask questions about it! i was told inoculate all goats and sheep with case-bac and i did the label says "sheep only" this i read after 50 goats were laying on the ground, lathargic, mucle sore, off feed probably "depressed" (that's for the tree &bunny huggers etc...!) I called Fort Dodge and talked to there head guy over research on case bac and told him what i had done! the first thing he said was "they ain't happy" and he was right! he also said i had a larger case study than fort dodge did during trials of case bac on goats adverse reactions were 99% on goats they dropped the study!!!! he said same results as i was finding and they new the "tree,bunny,bleeding hearts and assorted other huggers would have a fit!!! so they droped further research on there study!! and he could not tell me if the goat study built immunity or not (that is ashame)! well i think it's clear I'm not what most folks would call a "bunny hugger" but the symptoms were ugggy the goats just laid around and hollered would not move around and limped when they did move! but i think it did work when they got over the vaccine injection!!!! my question is has anyone used case-bac on camels and what kind of side effects does it cause in came lids think about it $40 (us) goat compared to $$$$$ camel ! i don't think i lost any goats but for two weeks i was wondering had i depopulated the farm!!! S.

[camel drover]

has any one seen a camel injected with case-bac refer to post#5 thanks S.

[sinbad]

You may find this interesting: http://www.scipub.org/fulltext/AJAV/AJAV3368-72.pdf [/URL]

Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis Infection (Caseous Lymphadenitis) in Camels
(Camelus dromedarius) in Jordan

[sinbad]

Suri Network News October, 2009 —Page 13
Diagnosis of C. pseudotuberculosis as the cause of an abscess
is best obtained by bacterial culture of the contents of an
abscess prior to drainage if possible. A needle aspirate may be
used to obtain a sample of the abscess for culture. Because C.
pseudotuberculosis has significant herd health considerations, it is
important to culture any suspicious abscesses before drainage in
order to minimize the risk and extent of contamination on the
farm. Cultures can also be taken directly from draining abscesses.
Animals in a herd can be screened for previous exposure or current
infection using the Synergistic Hemolysis Inhibition (SHI) test
that detects antibodies directed against the sphingomyelinase
toxin that is released by the bacteria (Texas Veterinary Medical
Diagnostic Laboratory, $10 per sample, serum). Since this test
detects the animal’s antibody response to infection, it cannot
differentiate between animals with a current infection versus those
that were previously infected but have now cleared the infection.
Both surgical and medical options are used to treat C.
pseudotubercuolosis infections. Horses and cattle will generally clear
the infection with surgical drainage of abscesses and antibiotic
support. Resolution of superficial abscesses in alpacas has been
described following complete surgical removal, however, infections
have persisted with conservative drainage and lavage.6 Complete
surgical removal of superficial abscesses is recommended in sheep,
goats, alpacas and llamas in order to minimize the contamination
of the environment and improve treatment success. Supportive
antibiotics are also recommended to help ensure clearance of the
bacteria. The bacterium is susceptible to many antibiotics including
penicillin, trimethoprim-sulfonamide, tetracycline, erythromycin,
and cephalosporins (i.e ceftiofur). It is likely also susceptible to
florfenicol (NuFlor) but specific susceptibilities have not been
reported.
Prevention should first focus on biosecurity practices that
screen animals for superficial abscesses before entry on to the
farm. Incoming animals can also be screened with the SHI test
although animals can still be infected and have a negative SHI
test if the infection is early (<30-60 days). Animals that have
closed or draining abscesses should be isolated (biocontainment)
from other animals and cultured to confirm whether they are
C. pseudotuberculosis or not. Equipment that comes in contact
with the exudate should be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected.
A vaccine is available for sheep (Caseous D-T, Colorado Serum
Co., Denver, CO) and has been shown to decrease the number of
infected sheep and the number of abscesses per infected sheep. Use
of this vaccine in alpacas has not yet been reported in the scientific
literature. However, an experimental vaccine containing cell wall
and toxin antigens has been studied and did show efficacy in
alpacas.7REFERENCES1. Bedenice D, Mazan MR, Kuehn H, et al. Diaphragmatic
paralysis due to phrenic nerve degeneration in a llama. J
Vet Intern Med 2002;16:603-606.
2. Van Saun RJ. Nutritional requirements and assessing
nutritional status in camelids. Vet Clin North Am Food
Anim Pract 2009;25:265-279.
3. National_Research_Council. Nutrient Requirements of
Small Ruminants: Sheep, Goats, Cervids, and New World
Camelids. Washington DC: National Academy Press,
2007.
4. Cebra CK. Disorders of carbohydrate or lipid metabolism
in camelids. Vet Clin North Am Food Anim Pract
2009;25:339-352.
5. Braga WU, Chavera A, Gonzalez A. Corynebacterium
pseudotuberculosis infection in highland alpacas (Lama
pacos) in Peru. Vet Rec 2006;159:23-24.
6. Anderson DE, Rings DM, Kowalski J. Infection with
Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis in five alpacas. J Am
Vet Med Assoc 2004;225:1743-1747, 1702.
7. Braga WU. Protection in alpacas against
Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis using different
bacterial components. Vet Microbiol 2007;119:297-303.