There's a thingamajig in 'er whatchamahoosit.

[ThoughtfulFox]

*sheepish grin* Sorry. I wanted to get some new eyes on my questions. A good title seemed the way to do it.

For those I haven't met: New shepherd, dairy flock, East Frisian, Northwest Georgia. It's getting hot here but we're still milking our three ewes, by hand.
And by 'We' I mean I'm doing it.

And if we've met already: Yeah that moronic novice is back with a hundred more questions.

But I'll try to keep it simple.

Two of my three girls have "nodules" just above their udders. If I squeeze a little higher than the udder, I can feel them plainly. They're all between pea and marble sized, and remind me of a lymph node. They move if you squeeze them, and some can slide into the udder while milking. They don't seem to hurt the ewes when I find them.
Does anyone know what these are? Do I need to take extra care to avoid them?

How common are injection-site abcesses, and what can be done to heal them?

Is anybody else trying to function on two hours of sleep in the morning and two hours of sleep at night?

...okay, I'm veering wildly off-topic.

Any answers and insight you might have will be appreciated.

~Fox

 

[aggieterpkatie]

I'm not sure, but it sounds like lymph nodes maybe. Now go get some sleep!

 

[ThoughtfulFox]

That's pretty much what I was expecting, but wanted to hear from more experienced shepherds before ignoring the anomalies. Thank you.

So any thoughts on injection-site abcesses? One of my girls is clearly disturbed by a spot on her side. (we last gave injections three weeks ago. I think these really should have cleared up by now.)

 

[aggieterpkatie]

Sometimes they'll get abscesses or little hard knots from injections that stay for quite a while. There isn't really anything you can do about it. I try to rub the site after I give an injection, but I'm not sure if it helps or just makes me feel better.

 

[kfacres]

quite often dairy animals will get small locations of 'mastitis' spots throughout their udders, especially on older animals. It's not uncommon for every single dairy animal on the place to have these-- nothing to worry about-- most are just 'scar' tissue from prior minor, or major mastitis problems.

 

[ThoughtfulFox]

Thank you, kfacres. That does put my mind quite a bit more at ease.

As a follow-up on the abscesses: We spoke with a couple of veterinarians about the situation.
They immediately asked if we had given them injections of covexin 8. That was indeed one of the medications we gave them.
It seems that these sorts of abcesses are a well known side-effect of giving covexin 8 injections too quickly.
We were told to try aspirating the abcesses (sticking a needle in to relieve fluid inside the abcess) but when we did, nothing came out of the site. Otherwise the abcesses slowly go away on their own. (which is happening)

I apologize for not updating this sooner, but hopefully the information will help somebody else in the future.