Off flavor/blood in milk

[mygoat]

A buyer emailed me with questions on an alpine doe I sold her.

He is having off milk and a little bit of blood is visible in the milk.

the feed is corn, sunflower seeds, oats, and 38% protein pellet. (Is the off flavor from the super high protein?)

Her vet got her a CMT test, and she'll be using it as soon as she gets it...

Any other ideas? The doe's alone (isolated from their existing herd) so no damage from butting, no 'signs' of mastitis. She's being milked 2x per day, hand. Her kid was pulled at birth and bottle raised, so no kid damage.

She described the favor as 'goaty, manure -ish'.

[sungirl]

Are they washing her teats & udder before milking?
How clean is the milking pail?
Other then grain what is she eatting?
I haven't heard of an off taste from high protein grain. :shurg:

Patty.

[Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians]

Just fresh does who are increasing in production will break tiny capilaries under the skin causing pink to red milk. Most of the time it is sediment in the bottom of jars sat in the fridge, brown dead milk.

If she is further along than just fresh, than I would suggest that if they live close to go watch him milk the doe. Alot of men are very rough milkers, they also pull down like they think a cow needs to be milked cause thats how grandpa did it.

CMT is not a diagnosis tool like it is in cattle. It is a tool to look for change in goats. If this doe had not gelled at your farm and now gells at their farm than this will tell you that there is a problem. Goats have higher SCC than cattle do all the time, so you expect to see some gell in CMT. It's change in that doe that gives you a warning to send in a milk test.

It depends how much of the high protein soy pellet they are feeding if it is affecting milk quality. Most milk quality problems are handling. If he is pulling on her teats to the point she has now broken blood vessels in her teat or udder, than of course this is going to affect the quality of the milk.

The types of mastitis that cause bloody milk, she would be one very ill goat, so I think this is mechanical. Vicki

[nubiansinny]

I have a doe who has blood in her milk off and on.It starts @2 mnth fresh, nothing before then.No mastitis,swelling,heat, drop in production or fever.
Could she just have a sensative udder?
She's a great milker,nice udder, good teats.

[mygoat]

This doe is a FF, She's good in the milkstand. But if you pull/pinch she sure does let you know! They sent me an email a couple days after they got her and told me how good she was in the stand, etc - so I'm pretty sure she is being milked ok - the woman that bought her is milking. She milked her Saanens last year, too...

I wish I lived close, I believe they're 45 minutes to an hour - and I'm one who doesn't even drive 2 miles to TOWN if I don't have to because of gas prices.

She told me recently that she was using detergent and water for udder washing, and detergent/water/bleach on her milk bucket.

I suggest Fiasco Farm's udder wash/teat dip and the dairy trio from hoegger (soap, sanitizer, acid wash).

Apparently, the doe is otherwise healthy, eating, pooing...

[Lada]

My doe had a little blood in her milk for about a week when she was about 2 months fresh. I'm not sure what caused it - we were about 2 hours late milking one night, and we had also changed feed to a higher protein- I think it was a combination of those two things. The milk wasn't pink; you just would see the blood settle out in the jar after a day or so. It didn't taste off, though.

If they do the CMT, since there is blood in the milk, it will probably come up positive anyway, but from what I've read, this type of thing is usually not mastitis.

[mygoat]

yes, they're seeing the milk when they put it on ice - It settles to the bottom I'm assuming.

Dunno what to tell them! Their vet is probably trying but knowing vets... LOL