# question about swollen udder



## petmom (Jan 7, 2012)

:/ I recently aquired a nanny with triplets from a friend. She has an extremely swollen right udder. The other side is normal. The babies are nursing both sides. I decided to put her on the milking stand for closer inspection. I cleaned her up real good and disinfected the udder. I milked the swollen side but didn't get much milk. She threw a tantrum when I started massaging the hard lumps in the udder. The milk looked normal and she has a great appetite. I repeated this this evening and it is still larger but better than it was. Any information or suggestions would be greatly appreitiated.


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## poorboys (Jan 7, 2012)

I would keep massaging and maybe use a warm towel pressed on her udder, she may have mastis if its lumpy, sometimes it's lumpy before you see red, I would treat her with to-day infusion and 2x once in the morning half of the tube and other half  that night, give her pen g for 5 days. should clear it up for you. good luck,


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## Roll farms (Jan 8, 2012)

poorboys said:
			
		

> I would keep massaging and maybe use a warm towel pressed on her udder, she may have mastis if its lumpy, sometimes it's lumpy before you see red, I would treat her with to-day infusion and 2x once in the morning half of the tube and other half  that night, give her pen g for 5 days. should clear it up for you. good luck,


x2.

Nother thing you can try is peppermint oil mixed in to the udder balm you use, (or mint-based udder balm, TSC carries one now).  I like to use that on congested udders.


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## Blue Dog Farms (Jan 8, 2012)

Mollys Herbals also have an udder balm that has peppermint oil in it among other things. I used it on my doe with mastitis, massaged with it several times daily and she got better. It could have been just the massage or it could have been the balm but it worked. She had clumps but no blood and within a few days she was clear and it didnt come back. I keep the stuff on hand to use occasionally after milking just because it cant hurt, and the girls enjoy it. Good Luck.


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## petmom (Jan 8, 2012)

What is to-day infusion? I know how to give pen g. And I should get some udder balm? The babies are thin but seem healthy and playing. As large as her udder is, she should have plenty of milk. I tried relieving the pressure this morning but she was dry as a bone. I should take a pic and try posting it if I can figure out how.


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## Roll farms (Jan 8, 2012)

If her udder's big and nothing's coming out, chances are she has mastitis.  Sometimes it's just congestion, that's usually when they've first freshened.
You really can't diagnose mastitis w/ a picture...a vet could take a sample and culture it and tell you what strain of mastitis she has...or you can get the ToDay from TSC or order it online from Jeffers or another livestock supply dealer.  It's medication in a tube you squirt up in the udder and rub / massage up into the udder.


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## zzGypsy (Jan 8, 2012)

if it's lumpy feeling, enlarged, sore, warm and not making much milk, you're probably looking at mastitis.  you can get mastits test cards from hoegger's goat supply, they work pretty well - just squeeze a little milk directly on the card and if it goes green you've got mastitis.  http://www.hoeggerfarmyard.com/xcart/product.php?productid=3470&cat=63&page=1

if she's got triplets, and she's only producing fully on one side, you're probably going to need to supplement the kids.  they run the risk of stunting or starving if they can't get enough milk off the one good side.  the mastitis milk won't hurt them, and it does help the mastitis to keep that side milked down as frequently as you can, so letting the kids work it is a good thing.  if she's really sore, she might be kicking them off that side, which contributes to the spread of the mastitis inside the udder.

we had a doe last year with persistant mastitis on one side, and mastitis that cleared up easily on the other.  did two rounds of antibiotics, and two 5 day rounds of twice a day treatment with to-day on the bad side.  still didn't clear it up completely - but once it was down where she was no longer sore and booting the kids off, they kept her milked down and over the next month it cleared up completely.  there are some strains of resistant mastitis out there, we apparently got one.

on the to-day treatment, for it to work it has to stay in the udder, so if you're using that, you'll have to tape that teat so the kids can't nurse it out.  our vet didn't think the to-day would hurt the kids if they got some of it, but thought it might give them some soft poop, and would need pro-bios after.  but if they're milking it out of her, even if it doesn't hurt them, it won't be in there to help her udder infection.

we taped and it wasn't entirely effective, so we ended up separating the kids and putting them in to nurse 6 or 8 times a day while we kept that teat out of their reach.  what an enormous pain but it did ultimately work and we recovered nearly all of the milk capacity on that side.  at it's worst, the udder, which is easily the size of a bowling ball, felt maybe 70% hard, and we ended up with just 3 or 4 pecan sized hard spots that the vet says are scar tissue inside the udder.


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## petmom (Jan 9, 2012)

I appreciate all the good info. I will do what I can and hope she gets better. The deal with my friend was to take the goat and return the babies when weaned. I wanted her for a milk goat. But if she is going to have recurring problems I guess she will go in the freezer. I really hope she works out for a milk goat. I don't think my friend would bottle feed the babies but I will if I have too because I refuse to allow anything starve.


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## petmom (Jan 9, 2012)

I forgot to ask how many cc's pen-g to administer.???


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## zzGypsy (Jan 9, 2012)

pen G amount should be by weight I think, so estimate what the goat weighs and check the bottle for dose.  you can probably go a bit over on the weight if you're not sure.  maybe someone else can give you specifics - I'm not where my meds are at the moment.

you may be able to recover her milk capacity if you get after the mastitis and are persistant.  the to-day does help if you get after it.  
probably 3 days, twice a day, milk the side all the way down, insert the canula and squirt the to-day up in there, then milk it backwards up into the udder and massage it around to distribute it as well you can inside the udder. keep the kids off it.  repeat.  after day 3, milk the to-day out and put the kids on that side to keep it milked down as much as possible.  check it again on the mastitis cards in 3 or 4 days. 

if you're persistant you may get it cleared up.  watch for losing ground.  

the folks at hoeggers sell a "goat serum" they use the same way as the to-day, they like it and have success with it, it didn't work on our doe but what she had was pretty resistant.  I think the antibiotics and to-day brought it in check but it was the continuous milking down by her tripplets that finally allowed her to clear it up.

ETA: good for you on bottle feeding.
and do get some of the mastitis cards anyway - you'll want to test your milk from time to time anyway once you get her milking.


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## poorboys (Jan 9, 2012)

PEN G IS 5 CC PER 100#, SHE MIGHT JUST HAVE THIS PROBLEM ONCE, AND SHOULD CLEAR UP, THEY SOMETIMES GET IT BUT i WOULD'NT GIVE UP ON HER SO FAST, SHE MIGHT MAKE YOU A PRETTY GOOD MILKER ONCE SHE GETS GOING.


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## zzGypsy (Jan 9, 2012)

poorboys said:
			
		

> PEN G IS 5 CC PER 100#, *SHE MIGHT JUST HAVE THIS PROBLEM ONCE, AND SHOULD CLEAR UP, THEY SOMETIMES GET IT BUT i WOULD'NT GIVE UP ON HER SO FAST, SHE MIGHT MAKE YOU A PRETTY GOOD MILKER ONCE SHE GETS GOING*.


our doe Misty has done fine since we got her squared away, has not reoccured in two years.  she's in the 3/4 to1 gal/day range for production, and will raise tripplets without help.


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## petmom (Jan 9, 2012)

OK, The feed store had the Today cream and the pen-g. I milked her out which wasn't much and inserted the proper dosage into the udder. She already seems better from the massaging I have been doing. The babies had nice full bellies this morning. I also gave her the first shot. Thanks everyone for the info. I will update you on the outcome.


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