Mastitis in a dry doe?

[lilredhen]

I hope some of you who have been thru mastitis can help me out.

She's a Nubian, 4-5 yo, been dry a year, not pregnant. I just noticed her teat looked full and milked out (with difficulty) some yellowish goo, thick like toothpaste. Just the teat is swollen, not the udder. She does not feel feverish.

The vet says it's not necessarily mastitis and will call me back. I'm hoping they can culture a sample so I know what I'm dealing with. I did a search on here but just got confused. There seems to a number of drug treatments available but not a lot of agreement on what works.

Ordinarily I try to treat most things naturally, but this time I fear damage to her udder if I don't act quickly.

Has anyone had mastitis in a dry doe? Or milk thick as toothpaste? Can just the teat be infected?

[jBlaze]

I do not know the answers to your questions. But I think that "tomorrow" is the product for treating "dry" mastitis. Hopefully someone who knows more about it will post real soon.
(good of you to notice !)

[lilredhen]

Thanks for your reply.

The vet called back: they will culture a sample but insist they must take the sample themselves so it's not contaminated. so I would have to either bring her in or pay for a ranch call. They would not tell me the procedure for collecting the sample so I could do it myself.

In the meantime I went to the feed store and got the only thing they had which is called Today. (the lady there was way more helpful than the vet tech.) So for now I will apply hot compresses, try to milk out the goo then use the Today if she will cooperate.

[jBlaze]

I would suggest shopping for another vet. One that can work with you not alone. I just hate vet clinics like that!

[betsy h.]

I would not use anything at all until you get the pathology back on the sample- antibiotic use prior to taking a sample ruins any chance of getting a real reading of what pathogen you may be dealing with.

If you have a state lab, they can usually do it for you for FREE.

The way I have done it is to wash the teat with a chlorox solution, then dry. Take an alcohol swab and thoroughly scrub the end of the teat. Allow ot air dry thoroughly.

Squirt one or two squirts of milk out of the teat to clear the resident bacteria that may give a false reading. Then take a 12ml syringe with the barrel taken out and squirt about 2 or 3 good squirts onto the backside of the empty syringe. Put the barrel back into the syringe then take a red top blood tube (with chlorox cleaned and air dried top) and push the needle into the tube- voila! You have a sample.

Place in the refrigerator and then pack and ship to your state labs.

Why pay more for what you can do yourself?

[lilredhen]

Betsy - Whew, I'm glad you answered before I went out. Thanks for the instructions but I just want to clarify. Do I use a syringe with no needle? I must sound stupid but I don't know what you mean by red top blood tube. There's the syringe and there's the needle...

[lilredhen]

Ok it took me a few but I've worked it out-- a blood tube must be a sample container. I don't have one so I'll keep the sample in the syringe. Then I'll do a search for labs in CA and avoid that vet clinic. Thanks again.