# Mastitis Opinions please



## ChksontheRun (Mar 30, 2012)

We have 2 mini nubians that both freshened 2 weeks ago, both with quads.  One is doing grand and is nursing her kids just fine.  All are gaining weight and look wonderful.  The second is really having trouble.  
2 days ago Wed., we noticed that she was off her feed, and was not very happy with all four of her kids diving under her to eat all at the same time.  She did not seem to be feeding them.  She seemed quite engorged.  That evening, we forced her to feed the kids, and she seemed to empty out nicely.   Temp 103.3 and poops normal.    

Yesterday am we forced her to feed kids again (holding her still for them to feed).  emptied out but not seemingly quite so empty.  Kids seemed really hungry.  Called a friend who suggested she might be overwhelmed with quads and to consider bottle feeding to suplement.

Today am.  Bottle fed all kids 4 oz of Vit d cows milk, forced mom to feed kids.  Moms temp 103.5, Poops normal, starting to eat a little bit and seen chewing cud for the first time in 2 days.  

Today 3:30  Came home to apparently starving kids.  (crying, thin, really after mom)  Fed each kid 4 oz of cows milk.  tried to milk out mom and found very very hard udders.  One milked out well after some message with basically normal milk, the other side never softened up and the only thing we were able to milk out was some clear liquid and a little bit of clumpy milk.

Called Vet who prescriubed Banamine and Naxcel by injection every 12 hours for 5 days.

Now my questions

Should we leave kids with this mom and let them continue to attempt to feed?  Momma gets very very upset when we try to take the kids away and I think the stress might be too much for her, but will it hurt the kids to drink the milk if they get any?

How often do we need to try to milk out the momma.  The vet said every hour except at night.  Both hubby and I have to go to our paying jobs tomorrow.  Do you think 4 times a day is enought after every hour tonight since the antibiotic will have set in by then?

How much milk would we expect a 2 1/2 week old kid to drink and how many times do we need to feed them.  We have never had to bottle feed kids before.  

Since she has this infection, do we need to quaranteen her.  I am a bit concerned that the other momma might get infected laying on all of the same bedding.

Any feedback or ideas would be really appreciated.


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## Roll farms (Mar 30, 2012)

I bottle raise all my kids so I'm not sure how much 'knowledge' I can offer, but I would probably try to put teat tape on the affected side (so the kids can't nurse) and milk out the good side / use that milk to feed the kids, mixing it w/ Vita D to make it go far enough.

I would guess 8-10 oz of milk, every 8 hrs (give or take - at least 6 hrs between feedings, though) would be sufficient for 2wk old mini Nubs.

Just milk her out / massage her as often as you can.  I like the peppermint udder balm TSC carries, but you can add peppermint oil to whatever balm you're using.

Give Mama probios to help keep the 'good' bugs going in her rumen, and a B shot wouldn't hurt her.

I've never had 2 does w/ mastitis at the same time, even having 12 does in milk all lying around together....but there are different types of mastitis caused by different bugs.


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## ChksontheRun (Mar 31, 2012)

Thanks Roll, even someone with a little experience with this is better than me.  Thanks for the feedback.  Would still love to hear if anyone else has experience that they could share......


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## ksalvagno (Mar 31, 2012)

4 kids on your doe may be too much for her. I had a Nigerian that had quads. I ended up having to pull 2 of the kids and bottle feed. The one male was constantly bugging mom and her teats were so red and chapped that she didn't feel like nursing the kids. I pulled the boy and larger girl and left the 2 smaller girlsl that weren't getting fed. Turned out great. Mom's teats went back to normal quickly and the 2 little ones that weren't being fed and now nice fat and sassy. Plus I ended up selling the male and female quickly since people are looking for bottle babies right now.

It may not be mastitis and just her uncomfortable and not wanting to let her kids nurse. Like Roll said, work on getting her milked out so she isn't so tight and then try just pulling a couple of the kids and see what happens.


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## ChksontheRun (Apr 3, 2012)

Things are going much much better.  Uhoh's milk from the bad side looks completely normal.  I have been supplementing the kids with whole cows milk, but she is now back to feeding them many times a day in short spirts like is more normal.  The fact that the two larger kids are not famished when it is time to eat means that the smaller two get more of mommas milk, and poor momma is much less stressed than when she had four very hungry babies diving under her all of the time.  She has 4 more abx shots to go, but is tolerating them really well.  We are making sure that she is emptied out completely either by babies or milking at the end of the day, and have been giving fresh clean bedding every day in her little isolation barn.  The large "mass" of udder tissue is about half of the size with lots of soft udder surrounding it so we are still messaging it twice a day.  I am truly happy with her progress.


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## Roll farms (Apr 3, 2012)




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## aggieterpkatie (Apr 4, 2012)

Just read this, so I'm late to the party but in the future I'd leave the kids with the mom. You want them to nurse even if it's mastitis, because they'll help "milk out" the udder. It won't hurt the kids, and you want the affected half to be milk out as much as possible.


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## Roll farms (Apr 4, 2012)

Not arguing at all....just askin'....but even if it's nasty old icky stuff coming out, it's ok for the kids to drink it??????


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## aggieterpkatie (Apr 4, 2012)

Roll farms said:
			
		

> Not arguing at all....just askin'....but even if it's nasty old icky stuff coming out, it's ok for the kids to drink it??????


Yeah, I mean, it's not the best quality I guess, but it won't hurt them.  The idea behind it is if they're nursing often enough it won't get that nasty/clumpy...but even if it's a smidge bloody it wont' hurt them.  If it was really nasty and clumpy and foul smelling, then I'd pull the kids because you'd want to infuse antibiotics and wouldn't want the kids to nurse it out.  But if it's just starting out, def keep the kids on it.  Many dairy farms feed their heifer calves waste milk (which includes mastitis milk).  

Think of it like rice pudding.      Ok, I just grossed myself out there.


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## redtailgal (Apr 4, 2012)

Yeah, ok, I used to like rice pudding.

No more, man. NO MORE...........


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## Roll farms (Apr 4, 2012)

I guess that's what I was gettin' at....b/c I've seen some NASTY stuff come out of udders of does who's owners didn't treat right away, and the thought of feeding that to a kid was grosser than gross.

*shudder*

And let's call it cottage cheese...do NOT ruin rice pudding for me, it's one of the few things I can eat when my stomach's bad.
But I hate cottage cheese.


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## redtailgal (Apr 4, 2012)

I like cottage cheese.

You folks are really gonna help me lose some weight if you  keep this thread goin.


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## Roll farms (Apr 4, 2012)

*sings*
Great green globs of greasy, grimy gopher guts, mutilated monkey meat, little dirty birdy feet....
And I forgot my spooooon.

(we used to sing that in the lunchroom at school)


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## marlowmanor (Apr 4, 2012)

Roll farms said:
			
		

> *sings*
> Great green globs of greasy, grimy gopher guts, mutilated monkey meat, little dirty birdy feet....
> And I forgot my spooooon.
> 
> (we used to sing that in the lunchroom at school)


Now that song is stuck in my head!  Thanks Rolls!


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## redtailgal (Apr 4, 2012)

lol, we had a similar one that ended with "please pass the gravy".

OK, back to mastitis


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## aggieterpkatie (Apr 4, 2012)

Roll farms said:
			
		

> *sings*
> Great green globs of greasy, grimy gopher guts, mutilated monkey meat, little dirty birdy feet....
> And I forgot my spooooon.
> 
> (we used to sing that in the lunchroom at school)


But I got a straw!     And you forgot the dusty eyeballs rollin' down a dirty street!


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## ChksontheRun (Apr 6, 2012)

This thread has certainly taken an interesting turn 

Put Uhoh back in with the other goats today.  She is feeding all babies.  One who seems to be the low man on the totem pole is not eating enough.  He is the only one who will not take the bottle.  We are putting him to teet on the stand when all of the others are separated, then milking her out once a day.  All continues to improve.   I think we might have even caught it before too much damage was done as she is back to her usual soft udder.  

Now I am wondering how long to continue intervention.  Seems like perhaps permanent till we pull the kids?


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