Hard teat on doe?

windhound · #1 06/10/11, 02:36 PM

My son's 4-H goat ( Nubian doe, 2 years ) has got a hard spot in one of her teats. She gave birth to triplets on May 15th and despite a difficult delivery, everything has been fine since. Wednesday we noticed her udder looked very full and put her up on the stand to check her out. One teat has a hard knot in it that is causing her some pain as she kicks when you touch it. There are no lumps or blood in the milk and we used those paper test squares from Hoegger to test for mastitis and they came up negative. She is not running a fever and is eating well. There is a scabbed over cut on the teat so I'm wondering if someone stepped on her or she managed to cut it somehow.
We have been stripping that side out twice a day after washing it well with warm water. I am worried that the babies may not be getting all they need since I'm not sure how much nursing she's letting them do at this point, but so far everybody seems fat and happy.
So I guess what I'm asking is there anything else we should be doing? Does this sound like an injury or something else? Is there anything we should be watching for?
Thanks.

Alice In TX/MO · #2 06/10/11, 02:44 PM

Where is the lump? In the skin or in the milk canal?

windhound · #3 06/10/11, 02:48 PM

It's under the skin,seems to be to one side of the teat(not in the center). We are not having any trouble getting milk out

Alice In TX/MO · #4 06/10/11, 03:09 PM

My LaMancha has those at the start of lactation. It's a bit of misplaced mammary tissue, producing milk in a trapped spot. Kind of like a milk cyst, for lack of a better term. It may ooze milk or emit a drop or two.

Hard teat on doe? - Goats

windhound · #5 06/10/11, 03:52 PM

It doesn't look like those, you can't see it from the outside, only feel it. It's kind if a hard area that extends about halfway down the one side of the teat if that makes any sense. If that is what it is, should we just keep doing what we're doing and wait for it to go away?
Sorry for all the questions and thank you for taking the time to reply.

ARInc · #6 06/10/11, 03:59 PM

It may possibly be a cyst, or a tumor. I don't have much goat experience, but it sounds similar to the symptoms across several species, including humans.

Alice In TX/MO · #7 06/10/11, 05:17 PM

If the fluid is coming out OK as you milk the teat, I'd just keep an eye on it. Monitor it to see if it gets bigger or smaller. (take notes!)

Are you milking her or just letting her raise her kids?

windhound · #8 06/10/11, 06:08 PM

She had been nursing the kids and we were not milking her yet. This was what we did last year and she did fine with it. I am starting to worry about the kids, every time I see them start to try to nurse she kicks them away. I was going to have my son see if he can get them to drink her milk out of a pan after we milk her this evening. They are eating grain and hay some now but I know they still need milk.
I really hope it's just a cyst and not a tumor or something bad.
Thanks for the replys.

Goat Servant · #9 06/10/11, 06:35 PM

I'd like to hear more myself, one of my girls kicked one of her trips off at about 2 weeks. There was a lump low in that teat. I could milk her a little but it was obviously painful to her & I've been wondering how it going to go next year? This is a multi freshner.