# Mastitis...UGH!



## babsbag (Feb 17, 2016)

One of my Alpine does freshened on 2/14 with a single doeling. On 2/16 the doe did not fight for her hay so alarms went off in my head. First thing I took her temp...102.4, normal. The after birthing discharge looked and smelled normal, (yes, I smelled it) so next step was checking for mastitis. I was going to do a CMT test but the first squirt was BRIGHT red "milk".    No need for the test. Only one side is affected and her daughter is still nursing on the good side.  

Her udder is not hot, which makes me nervous as I worry about Staphylococcus aureus, also known as "blue bag" or gangrene mastitis. I took a clean catch in a red top tube for a culture and started her on Today, Bio-Mycin, and Banamine and teat taped her teat.  I really expected her to be dead this morning. But she isn't.

I milked her out the best I could, repeated the treatment, and the culture is in the mail.


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## norseofcourse (Feb 17, 2016)

Sounds like you caught it early, whatever it is.  Best thoughts that she improves fast.


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## OneFineAcre (Feb 17, 2016)

Good luck with the doe.
Oh, as far as "smelling" the afterbirth, you can tell a lot from smell.


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## Goat Whisperer (Feb 17, 2016)

So sorry you are dealing with this Babs 

I remember when our kiko had it, the smell of the milk was so horrific. Even after a few years that smell still "sits" with me. 

Hoping your girl can get over this with no damage to her udder.


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## Latestarter (Feb 17, 2016)

Sorry Babs. Hope you caught it in time. Hope she recovers.


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## Pearce Pastures (Feb 17, 2016)

That really bites Babs.  Keep us posted and let us know how treatment is going.  You are always on top of things and detailed so I am sure she is going to be better in no time.


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## Southern by choice (Feb 17, 2016)

hoping it is not bluebag- doesn't sound like it... no fever no stinky milk


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## babsbag (Feb 17, 2016)

The milk doesn't smell and she is not running a fever but boy is that udder rock hard. I have only dealt with this one other time and I had some udder balm that was peppermint, and it was very strong. I still have that balm and it doesn't smell like mint anymore. I am wondering if I could whip up my own balm, I make lotion and creams all of the time. I was thinking something along the line of tiger balm or Ben Gay. I don't want to burn her skin but I need to break up that mass somehow. Any ideas? 

Her other side seems to be drying up as well.    I was warned this might happen so now it looks like I have a bottle baby. Tonight I stuck another doe on the milk stand and baby got a good meal to get her through the night. She is so bonded to her mom though, it is cute to watch. I just hope that the mastitis stays confined to one side.  

And I hope that UC Davis cultures it in a hurry. I wanted to change drugs to Naxel or Erythromycin but my vet said to wait for the culture.


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## Southern by choice (Feb 18, 2016)

One of our old timey vets when our Kiko had bluebag told us to do *COLD* compresses first then do warm.
*The cold reduced the inflammation and we were able to get the junk milked out*... after milking we did warm compresses.
I had never heard that before but we had never experienced mastitis before either... had always heard warm.... 
It worked VERY well. The cold compress was  what allowed us to get it  out!

I have tucked that away in case I ever need to do that again..I hope not to ever have to do that again.


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## Sweetened (Feb 18, 2016)

Have youtried Cabbage leaves? You boil them so they are tender and warm but not so much that they rip easily anddrape/hold them on the udder. It releases pressure, for whatever reason, and is a touted remedy for humans as well. I know someone who has used it on themselves with great success.

Youll need hot oils, like oregano, cinnamon, maybe even clove and peppermint. Hot herbs create a tingling to stimulate bloodflow, peppermint does the same and would help create a residual cooling effect. Put some of your unsmelly balm on your hand and blow on it, does it still cool? If so the peppermint properties are still working, only the essence is gone.

We lost tootsie to blue bag, and her milk smelled like rotten flesh, for lack of better descriptors. Lavender, who apperently had mastitis the year I bought her, had one side come back blind. It was HARD but once I got a couple streams of bright red milk out of it, the hardness went away.

A woman i bought a goat from a couple years ago, bottleraised her babes, but kept them on the dam. Ie, she raised them, but they didnt associate her with milk, so didnt try. She found that to be a happy medium between having them bonded with humans and yet most of the worl being done by the dam, so they still got to be goats.

Good luck dear. Im sorry I cant help.


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## Sweetened (Feb 18, 2016)

Oh, and oregano oil can be injected right into the teet same as you would today tomorrow those kinds of things. Diluted of course. I have done this myself several times with excellent results with 60% oregano oil cut with olive.


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## babsbag (Feb 18, 2016)

I will try the cabbage leaves and the cold compresses first. Cold is not hard to do at the barn, warm is a bit harder. I was thinking that hand warmers in a damp towel might be the ticket but cabbage leaves might work to.  Can't wait until the new barn has hot water.

I have hot oils; cinnamon, cloves, wintergreen, cajuput, peppermint, and probably all of the rest. I was working on making my own sore muscle rub.  I don't feel any cooling sensation in the balm I have left. I know when I used it before it would make my hands tingle so I think it is "dead". I have some of my muscle cream I made left, it is not hot enough for my sore muscles but maybe it will feel good on her udder.


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## babsbag (Feb 18, 2016)

Poor girl's udder is just tight and hard and compresses don't seem to help much. I got next to nothing out of her.  I will go to the store and get some cabbage. I don't have any oregano oil, probably the one oil I don't have, and probably can't find it locally. I will try the health food store though. 

@Sweetened ...do I put the cabbage leaves on her warm? Do you think the oregano will help break up the congestion in her udder?


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## Sweetened (Feb 18, 2016)

Yup. Warm,.

The oregano oil will treat infection, not congestion. Remember to make sure its diluted or you will need to cut it yourself.


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## babsbag (Feb 18, 2016)

My doe is hanging in there and honestly I am surprised. There is nothing but blood red liquid coming out of her udder and I have a hunch that the antibiotics are not working. Hope that the lab gets results to me tomorrow. 

I couldn't find oregano oil but than I remembered that a few years ago I had bought an herbal treatment from Fir Meadow called Udder Blast. So I massaged her udder with it and I infused her udder with it tonight instead of the Today. Hopefully it will do something different because I am having a hard time getting anything out.  I will do the cabbage tomorrow. The cold compresses seems to have helped a little but I need to figure out how to keep the warm ones warm at the barn; I put them warm into an ice chest but that didn't stay warm enough. I forgot the hand warmers in town today so maybe tomorrow. 

 The doe is eating and drinking and doesn't seem ultra depressed but I know that she is in pain. I didn't do Banamine tonight, they can't be on it long term so I am giving her a break. Her doeling is not getting much to eat and she wouldn't nurse off of the other doe tonight but she sure did try and get milk from mom.  Guess I am going to have to bottle train her to supplement.


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## samssimonsays (Feb 19, 2016)

Hoping everything is going ok this morning.


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## BlessedWithGoats (Feb 19, 2016)

I'm sorry Babs!! I hope she gets better soon!


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## babsbag (Feb 19, 2016)

The goat is alive and miserable. I feel so sorry for her. I just can't get the infection mass to break up and come out. I have tried hot, cold...cold, hot. Natural oils, and traditional meds. I have done teat cannulas inserted much further than suggested hoping to break the dam and nothing.  I am going back to the store for some hand warmers and some cold packs and I will cook the cabbage. Don't know what else to try. 

Have not heard from the lab so I think I am going to switch the udder infusion from Today (cephapirin sodium) to Pirsue (Pirlimycin hydrochloride). I hate just throwing the medicine cabinet at her but my vet won't swap drugs until the culture is done which looks like Monday at this point. So I have some Pirsue so I am going to use it. (Just shoot me).

She's a fighter and she isn't used to being hand milked. This is not fun for either of us.


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## Latestarter (Feb 19, 2016)

So sorry Babs  You're doing everything you can for her and I really hope you can get her through this. I don't blame you for doing all you can considering the situation... You have to try.


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## babsbag (Feb 19, 2016)

Thanks @Latestarter. I feel pretty useless out there right now and the hours I am spending with her is keeping me pretty busy; not that I'm not already. I have 18 kids to socialize so I can sell them and I am not spending any time with them. I need to hire them a playmate person.


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## Latestarter (Feb 19, 2016)

man, if I were closer you wouldn't even have to PAY me! I'd be there in a heart beat! Well, when I wasn't taking care of my own animals anyway... When I was at @Southern by choice 's place to pick up Mel, she had little kids floating around and I would have loved to just get down on the ground with them and let them bounce all over and around me.  Would have been/has to be right up there with puppies


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## Goatgirl47 (Feb 19, 2016)

babsbag said:


> Thanks @Latestarter. I feel pretty useless out there right now and the hours I am spending with her is keeping me pretty busy; not that I'm not already. I have 18 kids to socialize so I can sell them and I am not spending any time with them. I need to hire them a playmate person.



I would love that job .   And as @Latestarter said, you wouldn't have to pay me, it would be an honor.   But of course I'm way too far away.


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## babsbag (Feb 19, 2016)

I too wish you were closer.


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## babsbag (Feb 19, 2016)

Tonight I got nothing out of her udder at all and I am pretty sure that it is Gangrene mastitis, also known as Blue Bag and the real name is Staphylococcus aureus. There is a definite line of demarcation forming on her udder and she is MISERABLE when I touch it. My head tells me to put her down, no place for this in a dairy herd. My heart tells me to try and treat her. She doesn't act sick, no fever. She is off her feed a little but not completely and she does drink water. But I just don't know if keeping her is smart. This isn't contagious per say, but it can infect the environment. Fortunately she is in a kidding pen in the old barn and the pen she was in in the new barn is empty for now until I clean it out. This is an environmental bacteria so I will be fencing off the old barn area this week just to be cautious. The goats still go there during the day to hang out, it has been home for 7 years. 

Tomorrow morning I am getting a penicillin based infusion for her, hopefully it will work better. I just don't know if I have it in my to go through this process. She will lose half of her udder, it is going to be really gross and very labor intensive. I am torn.


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## norseofcourse (Feb 19, 2016)




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## Latestarter (Feb 20, 2016)

x2 sorry


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## BlessedWithGoats (Feb 20, 2016)

I'm so sorry!  x3


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## samssimonsays (Feb 22, 2016)

I am so sorry babs. I know this can't be easy.


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## babsbag (Feb 22, 2016)

My doe acts fine but.... Hopefully I will get the lab results today. I switched her to Amoxi-mast infusions for the weekend but I know that  half of the udder is lost. I haven't totally decided what to do. It will be a huge time commitment to see her through this and the rotten part about raising goats for a commercial venture is that I should go with my head and cull her. I am still building the dairy and believe me, that takes about all of the time I have.  But she is such a fighter and she has been so good through this that I have a hard time giving up. If she survives this I know she will still be good milker even with 1/2 an udder. She could also go on to be a family milker with 1/2 an udder. She is an amazing mama too.


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## samssimonsays (Feb 22, 2016)

That would make it all the more difficult. I will be praying for peace in whatever decision you make with her.


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## babsbag (Feb 22, 2016)

Thank you. She was never really a friendly goat and not on my "radar"...she was just a goat. Until now.


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## Goat Whisperer (Feb 22, 2016)




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## samssimonsays (Feb 22, 2016)




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## babsbag (Feb 25, 2016)

I have decided to keep the doe. The report from the lab is _Staphylococcus aureus_ and it is treatable with Tetracycline. Fortunately I was treating her with Tetracycline from the first time I noticed she was sick so probably that is why she didn't succumb to a systemic infection; however half of her udder will be lost. 

My vet says that the udder will form a really big scab over the entire dead area and that in a few months it will start to slough off and it will be gross. Just really hoping that it is fast and that the flies aren't too bad.  The doe is not contagious; the bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus, is found in the environment naturally so there is no danger in letting the doe into the general population.  She seems to be doing well and she is a doting mother so I can't put her down when she is such a fighter. She seems to be making plenty of milk on the good side. 

I am still waiting for the final report on the mycoplasma culture and that could still change everything but for now she stays.


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## samssimonsays (Feb 25, 2016)

That is "good" news, very glad you know what it is and where to go from here.  Still  for you!


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## Pearce Pastures (Feb 25, 2016)

Glad to hear it is treatable, despite the udder loss.


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## Hens and Roos (Feb 25, 2016)

and  for you both!


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## norseofcourse (Feb 25, 2016)

Glad she's doing well and has a good chance - maybe you can find her a place as a family milk goat.


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## OneFineAcre (Feb 25, 2016)

Just caught up on this
I've been dealing with a lot myself
I hope she makes it
Sounds like she will
Sorry you are dealing with this now
I know you already have a lot on your plate
Good luck


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## babsbag (Feb 25, 2016)

She seems to be fine. My vet and a few friends I know have been through this with their own goats so that gave me the courage to give it a try. There really isn't anything I have to do until the udder starts to slough.


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