Thinking out loud here:

With horses, strepptoccus is highly contagious. It forms as a pocket of puss, generally in the neck. While it is mainly found in horses, do you believe it could have anything to do with Lumpy Jaw? As stated in a post by Danic, he culture came back identifying one of the streps (which one is being researched) That got me thinking.

Horses deal with stangles, a form of strep Equine Strangles and I have delt with it often. The symptoms of lumpy jaw in gliders remind me of the symptoms a horse has with strangles. Normal demeanor until the time right before it 'pops' The main differance is that Stangles will sometimes affect the respiratory systom, making a horse blow mucus.

Still, I wonder how differant a culture would be from strangles mucus to lumpy jaw mucus. Dr Thomas is familiar with Horses also, I think maybe I'll ask.

Well, the "original" lumpy jaw was from cattle, and is caused by Actinomycosis. It actually invades the bone. Facial abscess can be from many causes, but Staph is an expected pathogen in skin and soft tisue abscess. If sinus and respiratory tract is the origin of the abscess, then the Strep family figures prominently, as Strep is number one from sinus cavities in many species. I've never seen an aspiration of a sinus from a glider to specifically identify the germ, or a great image from a glider to even prove the sinusitis in the first place.

Osteomyelitis is predominated by Staph, but other germs do occasionally show up. Those gliders out there that have been difficult to clear or keep clear haven't always had a culture either to identify the germ.

The term lumpy jaw has also been used indescriminantly to refer to many things. Without exactness and accuracy in diagnosing, it makes it difficult to categorize and learn cause and treatment. But I suspect that some oral and facial infections are from the Streps.

Thanks Shlep, I was hoping you would be around.

Sometimes it shows up in respiratory in horses. Othertimes, they just blow out an abcess, in their face, a leg, neck, forehead... I think it beds itself in the mucus type tissue best, but anything will do in certain conditions. It was a 50/50 that you would even know it was strangles without the cultures/bloodwork, as it doesn't necessarily show up as mucus/respiratory inhibitor.

One thing I have noticed in our largely grouped 'lumpy jaw' cases, is that it isn't starting in the sinus cavity, but may get in the area due to extensive infectious goo. (Exept maybe XFileFans Riker, but that poor man just had it everywhere)

I just thought of it with Danic saying there was a 'Strep-baterium' in the culture. Which one still needs to be identified. In cultures that are identifiable, I wonder what the predominant bug is.