Mastitis and Penicillin injections

[rn71953]

Hi, needs some info have an elderly goat with mastitis, I called the vet and she said to give her 3 cc of penicillin for 4 days, wash her bag with epson salts water and apply bag balm. So I went to the farm supply and bought a bottle of penicillin and it states 1 cc per 100 lbs, my goat weighs app.125-150 lbs so I think I should only give 1 1/2 cc but I read on several web sites that goats are sensitive to penicillin and could go into shock and die, now I'm afraid to give my goats this shot, I don't have any epinepherine. Please suggest what to do, and is the neck really the best place to give the shot? Thanks

[Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians]

There is no mastitis that will clear on just penicillin. The dosage for penicillin in goats is 3cc per 50 pounds given subq, pull out the skin over the last rib and give the shot under this skin, twice a day if the goat is ill (fever etc..) once a day if the goat is over the acute phaze or you are using this to prevent wound infection or uterine infection after a hard delivery (really the only two things penn works for anymore.

Without infusions of antitiotics into the udder, and injections of a much stronger antibiotic, or something like gentamycin with penn, you aren't going to clear her anyway. What he is doing is keeping bacteria at a minimum until her udder scars and dries up that half. Once a side is ruined and no longer milks it usually walls off the bacteria in the dry half. This is an unacceptable way of dealing with mastitis for me, I want the doe milking cleanly out of each half.

What are her symptoms that you think she has mastitis? Before you do anything you should freeze a sample of her milk, because after you give meds you can't send in a milk sample until all the antibiotic residue clears. And there are some diagnosis of certain mastitis that you should put the doe down, or if she is valuable have her half removed, rather than treat. Sorry sure it isn't what you wanted to hear. Vicki

[rn71953]

Thanks for your reply, the goat is just a pet 12 yrs old, never been bred. Her teat started swelling and just kept getting bigger and bigger it's very large & warm to touch, haven't been able to milk anything out of it, she shows no signs of illness, but this has been going on for a week at first I thought she might have been snake bit but there is no signs of anything other than the swelling and it just looks angry. I'm going ahead and give the penicillin this morning along with the epson salt and balm that the vet recommended. At least I've tried and don't want her to just die because I didn't try.