mastitis?

Reauxman · #1 05/01/06, 06:30 PM

OK, so one side of my new doe the milk is fine, tastes good, strained fine, etc. But the other side kept getting caught in the strainer, tasted slightly soured(but I tried a bit right out of her, so may be because it was hot). Would this be mastitis? She hasn't been milked in that side since she dropped a few weeks back, but I swore I saw the kid sucking from both sides.

How can I treat this, and wht is it? This doe is a handful to milk(as in hold one leg, have her lean on you and put the cup on the stand and milk with the other hand). It's either that or milk holding the cup and her rubbing her leg against he udder and all over your hand. She surely isn't the "easy milker as long as she has feed" she was sold to me as.

I have a machine coming soon, but with her trying to get my hands off her, I'm sure she won't have a problem getting the suctions off.
Lance

kesoaps · #2 05/02/06, 10:09 AM

Sounds like mastitis to me. No expert, but bumping it up so others can answer!

Reauxman · #3 05/02/06, 05:17 PM

Thanks.

Wanna share some soap recipes with me? Think I may give it a go as well.
Lance

**mygoat** · #4 05/02/06, 05:55 PM

Push your milking stand against the wall, and lift up the doe's leg which is closest to the wall so that it is vertical. Put a nail directly above the hock joint about 6+ inches up into the wall. Attach bailing twine and loop the doe's leg in it so that it must stand on 3 legs, the bailing twine holding up the one leg. Make sure it is a loop and not a tie. You can tie it but be careful it is not a slipknot or whatnot. This will make her easier to milk, as she has to work on balancing with only three legs and means she cannot go kicking around too much. Good luck!

With the mastitis, Either give her pennicillin shots for quite a long time, or you can go to your local feed store and pick up some "ToDay" which is infused directly into the udder. I believe it is also pennicillin. I would do both sides of the udder for good measure. You do it twice a day at milking, 12 hours apart, and I believe there is like a 96 hr milkout. If this doesn't take care of it you can also try biomycin injections, I believe. (oxytetracyline, isn't it? LOL)

To prevent this again, make sure you wash her udder and use teat dip... Fiasco farm has excellent instructions to make your own udder wash and teat dip. I trust them and it will be what I use when I milk my does!!

Once again, Good luck!!

Reauxman · #5 05/02/06, 06:26 PM

Thanks. I was hoping this was something that would clear itself up without interfearing, but guess not. I'll have to order the ToDay as I'm the only one with milk goats within 100 miles of here(or so the feed stores say).

I'll take the advice on tying her leg, someone here tried to explain, but I didn't understand. Will try again.
Lance

homebirtha · #6 05/02/06, 07:40 PM

If she doesn't have a fever and the udder isn't hot or lumpy, it's probably not mastitis. You can get a CMT mastitis test kit to check the milk. But usually, if it's mastitis, they will be pretty sick. Do a search here on mastitis and you'll get lots of info.

If she hasn't been milked, she could be drying up and that would cause the lumpy, stringy milk.

The Today product is for cows, so if anyone near you has cows, your feed store probably have Today. It's a very common med.

Reauxman · #7 05/02/06, 07:47 PM

Thanks. She is acting fine, and doesn't appear to be sick. She just came here(2 1/2 hour ride) Sat, so I wouldn't say a fever would be anything more than stress now, but she doesn't even have that. I think I'll continue to milk out that side and see if it clears up, if not I'll look for a produce to treat it. I assume I can stil take and consume milk from the other half? Could I make soap with the half in question maybe?
Lance

**mygoat** · #8 05/02/06, 09:45 PM

My doe was perfectly fine... Dried up and normal. Then I was about to have her pull me around in the cart. Noticed her udder looked funny and on impulse reached down to see if it was just me. Felt like a beanbag!! clumpy gunk came out. She was perfectly normal. No fever, not off feed, no other symptoms. I might just as easily not noticed it!!! I would say get that CMT test, but don't rely on just one test as it is designed for cows. Do two or three.

homebirtha · #9 05/02/06, 10:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mygoat

My doe was perfectly fine... Dried up and normal. Then I was about to have her pull me around in the cart. Noticed her udder looked funny and on impulse reached down to see if it was just me. Felt like a beanbag!! clumpy gunk came out. She was perfectly normal. No fever, not off feed, no other symptoms. I might just as easily not noticed it!!! I would say get that CMT test, but don't rely on just one test as it is designed for cows. Do two or three.

I'm curious then, what makes you think it was mastitis? Wouldn't a doe who was in the process of drying off have clumpy gunk. That's what happens as the milk in the udder is reabsorbed.

For Rooman, here's a link. Read what Vickie says about mastitis in this thread.
http://homesteadingtoday.com/showthr...light=mastitis