# Clogged teat?



## noobiechickenlady (May 17, 2010)

Mods if you could move this to diseases-goats?
http://www.backyardherds.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=4751

Update: This weekend I took extra care in gently scrubbing her teat orifices. That seemed to help a bit, in that I didn't get the waterhose effect, but still not like normal.
It took me an addition 20 squeezes or so to get her milked out on her left teat, when before they were both milking out equally.

Any advice or should I just wait until I get the CMT in?


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## ksalvagno (May 18, 2010)

I"m not sure but hopefully someone can answer you.


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## noobiechickenlady (May 19, 2010)

Thanks, ksalvagno.

Does anyone have any tips or advice, please? My feed store suggested a milk needle? I'm not sure what that is (although I can guess) and I don't want to subject her to that if it is what it sounds like.


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## aggieterpkatie (May 19, 2010)

noobiechickenlady said:
			
		

> Thanks, ksalvagno.
> 
> Does anyone have any tips or advice, please? My feed store suggested a milk needle? I'm not sure what that is (although I can guess) and I don't want to subject her to that if it is what it sounds like.


They could be either talking about a teat slitter or a teat cannula.  The slitters are used for opening (cutting) the teat sphincter for better milk flow.  There are also tumor removers, that will scrape away scar tissue.  They could also be talking about the teat cannula (which looks like a needle) to get milk out.  Mostly they're for injecting meds in the teat, but they make a kind to let the milk flow out, like this one .  

Honestly, if it's just slightly slower flow, I wouldn't worry about it.  When you go playing around with inserting stuff in the teat, you have to be really careful or you greatly increase the odds of mastitis.


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## noobiechickenlady (May 19, 2010)

Yeah, the one they showed me looked like a meat injector. I do not want to do that to my girl.
I guess I'm just doing the new mommy bit, obsessing over a non-issue.
I'll just keep on with what I am doing unless the CMT comes back positive. I really just wanted to make sure I didn't do anything to make it worse.

Thanks


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## aggieterpkatie (May 19, 2010)

noobiechickenlady said:
			
		

> Yeah, the one they showed me looked like a meat injector. I do not want to do that to my girl.
> I guess I'm just doing the new mommy bit, obsessing over a non-issue.
> I'll just keep on with what I am doing unless the CMT comes back positive. I really just wanted to make sure I didn't do anything to make it worse.
> 
> Thanks


The one that looks like a needle doesn't actually pierce anything. It just looks intimidating.


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## freemotion (May 19, 2010)

When was she dried off last time?  I had some issues with Mya this time, and discovered a sentence somewhere online (probably fiascofarm.com) that stated that if they are dried up mid-pregnancy, they can still have some thick, unabsorbed milk solids.  With Mya, it was like milking thick strings of paste, then the milk would flow, then chunks would come out after blocking the teat.  Now, two weeks later, there is a tiny chunk that comes out of one teat with the first squeeze and that is it.  I dried her off about halfway through her pregnancy, and she didn't want to.  She always had a somewhat full udder.  Could this be your doe's issue?

There was an incident in the book Goat Song where one goat had something hard in one teat that needed to be massaged and worked out with fairly hard pressure, then everything was fine after.  I thought of that when I was getting all the frightening paste from Mya.  It was really bad for several days.


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## noobiechickenlady (May 20, 2010)

aggieterpkatie said:
			
		

> The one that looks like a needle doesn't actually pierce anything. It just looks intimidating.


All I could think was ouch!  Thanks 

Free, I'm pretty sure she was dried up before she was bred and her babies are 4 months old now. I'll double check with her previous owner. Just struck me as wierd that it just started, and then I coupled it with being kicky all over again, well, I guess I was freaking a bit.

I'd not read anything about clogged teats before, so I had no frame of reference. Clumpy poo, mastitis symptoms, dull coats, all of those I had at least seen referenced.

Just freaked me out a bit, since I had no clue about it. The warmer wash & scrubbing does seem to be helping, and I did notice that there was a residue of some sort before I washed her. When I scrub it off, drops of milk start to come, so I'm guessing I just wasn't being firm enough in cleaning. Live & learn!

It seems a bit better, as far as the flow. No more water hose effect, so that's a good sign, also easier to start the flow of milk. Still a bit kicky though


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