Udder "issue"

[Mini-M Ranch]

One of our does freshened about 10 days ago. The second day, I had to milk her some on one side because the baby was only nursing one side. She is a mini and I got 2 liquid cups out of one side (I didn't weigh it), which seemed like a lot. But I didn't milk her completely out, thinking it might slow down production on that one side.

After that, her buckling started nursing both sides and kept her pretty even. He is growing like CRAZY and looks about half as big as she is already. Yesterday morning, she looked "full", so I decided to milk her to get the milk out. Her udder was full and round, but not hard. I milked out about a quart, but her udder still looked "round" in the back.

This morning, I got her on stanchion again and milked out about 300 ML. I checked for mastitis with a California Mastitis Test and the results were negative. Additionally, the milk was thick, no flakes, no strings, no nothing. The front of her udder felt loose and her teats sort of deflated, but the back of the udder is still round and feels full. Her temp is normal and she is acting normal like it doesn't bother her at all. It is possible to have swollen udder tissue that isn't from an infection? Her udder is not red or "hot" - just round in the back. I can feel sort of a two long disk shaped swollen parts on the back of the udder. (Actually, I don't know if it is swollen tissue of the milk bag (is the milk in a bag even?)

I'm remembering back when I nursed my kids (TMI, I know) and I had some swelling for several weeks after my milk came in, but did not have mastitis. Do they ever have swollen udders just from newly having milk?

 

[ksalvagno]

I don't have too much experience in this area but my Alpine mix has a solid area in her udder near the top. Nothing swollen or anything. I think it is just part of her udder. It just may be the shape her udder is. If you milk her, I would go ahead and milk her out. A friend of mine who was in the goat dairy business said it is not good to try and dry off a doe during the time when the daylight is long. It could cause mastitis. Especially if they are heavy milkers.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

when you milk her out gently massage her udder around her teats.... can you feel the structure in her udder (should feel like big veins and such)? her roundness might just be her but i check the front to make sure she's let her milk down.

you can also massage her udder about 3/4 of the way thru milking to make sure she isnt holding her milk in.

 

[Mini-M Ranch]

Ok, thank you both for the suggestions and replies. I will definitely try to do a more thorough job next time.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

It could be some edema left over from kidding. You can always use an udder balm and massage it.

And were you wanting to slow production on the one side? Because milking out encourages production. I was confused as to whether or not you meant you wanted to slow production.

 

[Mini-M Ranch]

Sorry, I wasn't clear. I DON'T want to slow down production. What I meant was that I didn't completely milk out the one side in the beginning because I was hoping if I milked out enough that it looked exactly the same as the other side, the little buckling would start nursing both sides, which he did.

No, I am NOT trying to dry her off. I'm super excited to finally be getting some milk from my girls.

 

[RockyToggRanch]

I don't have a ton of experience milking, but...

When I milk my girls to the point that their teats are totally deflated and I've bumped them to let down, they still look huge from behind. I assume that it's the milk making machine part that's so large and not all milk.