Blood in milk

[shepherdess1]

I have been milking my doe for 2 weeks. One side of her udder milks out very easily. The other side has a hard end of her nipple and the milk comes out slow. Today I noticed that the milk I got yesterday and put in a jar had just a little blood that settled on the bottom. Could this be mastitis, I don't see any lumps when I strain the milk or any flakes. I didn't even notice any blood while straining. What could this be?

[Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians]

It's likley not mastitis, sometimes when a doe has edema, or is coming into alot more milk than she had previously, she will break tiny capilaires under the skin and she can milk from blood to just sediment. This can also happen from rough milking, but in reality dont' know too many folks who milk rougher than kids nurse! Bright blood is new blood, dark blood found in the bottom of jars is dead blood. It's rarely ever mastitis. But boy when it is, she is milking blood, her udder is blue and cold and you KNOW, you would not have to come on here and ask that it is mastitis. Usually they slough that side of their udder.

So you wait and watch, keep her milked out, hopefully the teat is nothing more than a calcium deposit or an anomoly in the does teat, I had a doe once who had a segment in her teat just like she was an earth worm! She milked fine for years, although it was the weirdest thing I had ever seen, she didn't pass this on to her daughters. Vicki

[shepherdess1]

Thanks for the advice! I wonder if the end of that teat could have gotten frostbite. It has been extremely cold here, below zero. The end of it looks sore.