All your natural Mastitis treatments *Update pg 4*

[FlightsofFancy]

Relics....great advice! However, the vets around here are confirmed idiots and goat killers. :/


Edited to add: Her udder started getting hard well before she was possibly bred. The vet looked at it about 4 months ago ( I had her in for something else) and he just shrugged. I believe at that time, while he was examining her, he dislodged the seals in her teats which in my mind opened them up for infection.
I am a watch and wait type of person, believing that if I messed with her udder too much it would cause more harm. However, this situation is getting worse and how fast it changed...like over night! I can not tell you how knotty her udder is....all these little walnut sized bumps on a cantaloupe is my best explanation.
I have contacted local producers, her breeder, and I have even put a call into the Vet. I am reaching out in every direction to educate myself on precocious udders and the possibility of mastitis. We don't have an actual diagnosis yet, but I am not just going to sit around and wait for her udder to fall off until someone calls me back. (OK, I know a bit over the top.)
That is where the natural therapies come into play. Peppermint oil, tea tree oil, etc, will at least be doing something that will not interfere with antibiotics, until we get some answers.

 

[()relics]

I have 3 vets...1 for my horses...1 for my dogs....1 for my goats...My goat vet has a fullblood boer herd, his animals have won distinctions at every level...What he tells me I usually believe and fortunately his office is less than 10 miles from my house and I have his cell phone number on speed dial , along with the other 2 vets....He understands that I want to try to stay away from the "drug makers" solutions and usually has some less harsh treatments for me to try....
Your other option would be call a dairy cow vet...They may be able to help.

 

[FlightsofFancy]

Well, I finally spoke to the Vet. He is completely puzzled. (Big surprise!) He posted on his own Vet forum and the recommendation is to ultra-sound the udder or/and do a needle biopsy. However, he would prefer to just wait and see. Wait and see for what...he doesn't know. He suggested I keep doing what I am doing..... wash the udder with warm soapy water, apply the peppermint oil and spray the teats w/ Fight Bac. I am not going to milk her because I do not want to encourage milk production.
I sent off the blood work and should get pregnancy results by Wed of next week. Lets hope she is preggers so we can be done with this in 5 months or atleast have a better idea of how to treat her.
Thanks for all your support. I will keep you updated on changes.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

If she's never been bred then there should be no udder. My sister had a yearling doe that started developing an udder (had never been bred), and it turned out to be a tumor and we had to put her down.

Something sounds wrong. She should just have small teats with no udder development at this point. :/

 

[no nonsense]

Edited - if you don't want to discuss organic animal husbandry then don't open these threads, this section is for those who want to treat their animals organically

 

[FlightsofFancy]

To those wondering about why she has an udder......Have any of you heard of a precocious udder??? Very common in high lactating breeds like Alpines. Very common in my does bloodlines. Alpine Bucks have also been known to produce milk in this bloodline. We are talking heavy dairy here!

As I stated earlier, I am working with a Vet, with dairy cow background, but goats are VERY different. He supports the natural approach because at this time he doesn't know what to do that would not be invasive....like a biopsy that would open her up to infection and a slew of other issues. The last breeding didn't take....we will be re-breeding her after Christmas. Everyone involved...Vet, her breeder and I believe that is the best solution.
I would like to add.....we have seen improvement from the cleaning, fight-bac and peppermint oil massage.

*There is a balance between holistic and western medicine and just because you start with "natural" doesn't mean you are with-holding proper care.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

To those wondering about why she has an udder......Have any of you heard of a precocious udder??? Very common in high lactating breeds like Alpines. Very common in my does bloodlines. Alpine Bucks have also been known to produce milk in this bloodline. We are talking heavy dairy here!

As I stated earlier, I am working with a Vet, with dairy cow background, but goats are VERY different. He supports the natural approach because at this time he doesn't know what to do that would not be invasive....like a biopsy that would open her up to infection and a slew of other issues. The last breeding didn't take....we will be re-breeding her after Christmas. Everyone involved...Vet, her breeder and I believe that is the best solution.
I would like to add.....we have seen improvement from the cleaning, fight-bac and peppermint oil massage.

*There is a balance between holistic and western medicine and just because you start with "natural" doesn't mean you are with-holding proper care.

Well if you think it's precocious udder and not a tumor (like I stated we had a yearling doe develop a mammary tumor that made it look like a full udder), I would milk her out frequently. Frequent milking is one of the best organic ways to combat mastitis. Just make sure you'd follow the procedures like you would normally do, wash the udder first, have clean hands, milk out, dip teats in teat dip to seal teats.

I'd do this as often as possible. And keep massaging the udder.

Once the mastitis is under control, you can follow dry off procedures to stop production.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

Thank you for the suggestions/links. Last night I washed her udder, like I would if I was milking her, then massaged it with peppermint oil. Her temp is normal and her udder is not hot. I have never seen an udder like this before. It is so hard and lumpy and about the size of a large cantaloupe with walnut size lumps. BTW: she is an Alpine/Nubian that has never been bred.

The bolded part is what makes me think it's not mastitis. It really would be good to milk her out and see what's coming out of the udder. I know you said you're worried about stimulatic milk production, but as long as you dry her off properly there won't be a problem. I think it'd be worse to not milk her out than to milk her out and then dry her off.

And I know you said goats and cows are very different, but they're really not THAT different. There are a lot of commonalities between species when looking at mammary systems.

 

[helmstead]

I have a doe with a precocious udder, that may have mastitis. I am unable to get a good milk sample to do an accurate CMT test.

Okay, so here you see that mastitis is NOT confirmed.

I am not going to milk her because I do not want to encourage milk production.

And here you see she does not plan to milk the doe.

we have seen improvement from the cleaning, fight-bac and peppermint oil massage.

And here you see she's seeing improvement.

LOL

I think cabbage leaves in a goat bra, that's MY vote

 

[no nonsense]

Edited for flaming reply