Swollen and hard milk bag.......help

[janceejan]

I have a nanny who kidded Wednesday morning, twins. She is a standoffish goat, and we only got to see her babies yesterday. She is nursing the buck, and walking away from the doe. Today the doe is almost gone, we have brought her in and have her on colustrum and replacer. She is picking back up.

Mom's bag is so swollen she can barely walk. I tried to milk her off some, thought it might be just too much milk. I milked off about a cup from both nipples. Her bag is hot and hard, even after milking.

Suggestions..........

[Blossomgapfarm]

Milk her out completely. Use hot wet compresses to help encourage milk let down. She is making way more than one kid can drink and you have got to get it out.

You saying hot makes me think mastitis rather than just congested or engorged. If she does not have it yet she will with the situation you have described. You need advise from someone with more experience than me as meds will be needed. But you will still have to milk her out - meds won't do it all.

Don't feed the kid replacer. From everything I have read on here, replacer can cause sick or dead kids though some people never have a problem with it (most do.) Whole cows milk from the grocery store is prefered over replacer -kids do great on it. Just warm it up to about 100* - our bottle kid takes it out of a regular baby bottle (or two ) with a regular nipple with an enlarged hole in it. Good luck. I am sure someone who has dealt with this more than me will be on soon.

Dawn

[DocM]

Has she been tested for CAE?

A congested udder can be caused by many things, some does just freshen that way, but I'd suspect either CAE or mastitis. If you don't have mastitis testing stuff, go to the store and get some regular dawn detergent, not the antibacterial or scented kind, and mix an equal amount of milk with the detergent. If it is clumpy, it's probably mastitis, but this test isn't foolproof.

You can treat for mastitis with an infusion product, but if you don't have that, then massage, heat packs, and penn G, 5 CC twice a day for a week might help.

If it's CAE, it's untreatable. Have her tested.

[Feral Nature]

Assuming it's just too much milk at this point (what breed of goat is it?), milk her out completely. Being as how she is a stand-offish goat, this may be difficult, but do it with someone to help hold her. You can examine the milk from each teat this way too and go from there as far as problems with the udder.

As far as feeding the kid. I use whole cows milk from the store, never replacer. Get plenty of colostrum in the kid and go with regular milk. Serve it up warm, not too hot or you will burn the throat and then the baby won't eat at all. Also, a pritchard nipple (red and yellow) works great.

[Idahoe]

I've also heard with mastitis and/or congestion, using oil to massage the whole udder several times a day (along with medical treatments) increases circulation, thus bringing in her natural infection fighters as well as any meds you're giving.

I know she isn't much for being handled, but she will be before long . My FFs who learned how to behave while being milked needed hobbles for a while, but their udders weren't sore and sensitive, so good luck.