Friday the 13th and the Big Bad MRSA

So, goats get sick. As evidenced by my earlier post, sometimes they get mysterious sores. But, if there is no discomfort, and the sore heals well, one might think little of it. Until another goat gets a sore a week later, but maybe not the same type of sore. And it scabs and hangs on being sore, and losing a bit of hair with the scabs.

So you take a sample and send it to a lab for testing. Is it bacterial, virulent, or fungal? And what if the lab comes back saying it is bacterial, a staph-type bacteria, and as a courtesy to those who use the ranch, you have isolated the infected goats and posted signs that while you are investigating the problem, please remember what should be your usual care of general cleanliness and handwashing.

"Have you had a vet in to look at them?" People will ask. No, I called the local animal hospital for advice, took pictures, sent a sample off for testing. "But what about the health hazards?" What health hazards? We isolated the affected goats, we are using extra precautions in handling them. "We'll get our vet to come out!" Thanks, that's not needed. "Our vet will do the exam, we'll pay." Really, not necessary. "No, we insist."

We just got our results back from the lab, which show large numbers of staphylococcus aureous. Ok. A staph infection. Is it serious? Lab report says the staph was sensitive to every broad spectrum antibiotic, so easily treated. "Oh no, don't treat until our vet comes and checks it out! Kids use the ranch, we should know what it is before we treat it." But my vet says it is treatable. "The county council is involved now. We will examine your goats. You will cooperate."

This is weird. Why do I listen to this nonsense? Did they hear anything I have been saying? Oh, I get it, I'm not a vet, so of course, I probably contaminated the scab or something. That's it, the sensitive staph was mine. Whatever. Let him come. Not today? Three days from now? I thought it was an emergency for you. Poor boys. Delaying treatment and release from confinement because Daddy is too timid to believe in his own research, even when confirmed by a peer and a mentor. I'm not a trained vet. Neither are they. Maybe we don't know what we're doing.

So, the big day came--three days later. Not only did he examine the four isolated goats, but all goats on the premises. Found two fresh cases by then. Looks bad. "It may be staph aureus, but I want to speciate it." Huh? Staph aureus is the species, is it not? "Looking for subspecies ... Mersa is a big problem ... overuse of antibiotics ... should minimize exposure to children ... "

Sounds fishy to me... like someone who has been recently to a seminar on health problems in hospitals... but what do I know? Ok, so lockdown at the barn. No children. Minimize exposure. Only 1-2 people in barn to do the chores that once were shared by a dozen. Use chlorhexadine boot bath coming in and going out. I'm dying here. What happened to our cooperative educational ranch? What is "mersa" anyway??? Well, no time to find out, too much work shifting all our routines around to comply with biosecurity guidelines instituted by the officious, and turning our ideals of positive interaction and cooperation out with the footbath water. Vigilance committees report on violators to officials who have no jurisdiction, but who can make life uncomfortable... and do.

How long will this take? A few days for the culture to confirm staphylococcus aureus, another day for ... what was that? ... "speciation"? Repeated in a phone call. Yep. "Speciation".... "mersa". Do you mean by "speciation" the identification of the strain of staph? Looking for... MRSA? The strain of staph that has killed people in hospitals because it is so hard to kill?

But how could it be MRSA if it is not resistant to even the most commonly used antibiotics????

Sigh.

Mystery of the Sore Head

About a week ago, one of our two 9-month-old Oberhasli wethers, Tom, exhibited a raw sore on the top of his head. Now, seeing a bit of red on the head of young goats who butt heads together is not a new thing. But the placement of these sore spots is further back than usual, so it made the ranch manager bring it to our attention. By the time we got to see it, Tom's head had a circular raw bald spot on his poll, well behind the usual injury spot around his disbudding scars. Thinking this was simply an odd wound, we patted it with disinfectant wound powder and went on with our lives.

A week later, we see his brother Huck, who has been showing an occasional runny nose without fever in the chilly (for California--lows just above freezing) and rainy weather we have been having, now has something going on on the same part of his head. Though I have not seen them playing head-butt recently, I don't see all, so it could be a physical injury. Yet Tom's "wound" has not re-opened, as I would expect if they had been going at it, but looks like a crusty scab (no photos yet). Tom and Huck share the same enclosure and feeders with 8 other kids (2 wethers, 6 does) of 3 different dairy goat breeds (Nubian, La Mancha, Saanen). None of their pen-mates exhibit anything like this.

The ranch manager is suggesting that they have ringworm. It doesn't look like cases of ringworm I have seen before, so I'm dubious. On the other hand, I'm a relative newbie to raising goats. Could it be the fungus known as ringworm? What else might it be?

Huckleberry's head, January 24, 2009. New trouble is behind the (admittedly large) v-shaped disbudding scar. (Click for a larger image.)

A Fish Climbs a Tree

"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."

Life's experiences have led me to reject fighting and war over and over again. When feeling threatened by real or imagined enemies, challenged by physical or emotional cruelties, how can we respond in ways that don't lead to escalation of conflict or resort to violence. Some folks train constantly for battle by working out, punching bags, training in external or internal martial arts. Does it make me or the world more peaceful if I let my mind and body go weak so that I cannot take advantage of others? When I feel taken advantage of, what do I do? My only option is to take the hit, which wears down my self-esteem... Or could this be an imbalance in my thinking?

Practicing martial arts like tai chi, wing chun, ba gua, hsing yi can lead to a martial thought process. Martial arts films are about fighting so well that you can take on every opponent. But is the martial arts film genre a good measure of the benefit of actual practice of the arts?