small round pustules on doe's udder

[Jcran]

We just were given a Saanen from a friend. She is a heavy milker. The day we got her I noticed a scab on the medial suspensory ligament area in her fore udder. It looked like it was healing so I paid little attention. Today, two days later, I saw two very small perfectly round pustules to either side of the scab area. Is this what staph dermatitis is? How should I treat if so. We are feeding the milk to pigs and dairy calves. Does this pose a problem for THEM? She is not with the herd yet. I wormed her with cydectin and bolused her with copper the day she came. She has a really patchy coat with large spots that look chewed on or thin (they said the other goat had bitten her but I'm thinking parasitic in nature or some sort of nutritional deficiency) The people she came from are really responsible, caring folks. She is utd on shots (May 2011) and has been tested for CAE and CL (Nov '10). Temp and appetite normal. She does go down on her knees a lot but they said when they got her, her feet were SO horrible it took them a year to get her back to semi-normal and they have to trim every two weeks to keep them under control. That is why WE got her as they don't have time to manage her feet. They said the knee thing is a result of the bad horrible feet and that now its probably habit (I don't know).

[pookshollow]

That does sound like a staph infection, a fairly mild one. I acquired a Nubian that had quite a nasty one and it cleared up with regular applications of blue teat dip, containing clorhexidine - I sprayed it on the affected areas.

Not sure if it would be a problem to feed the milk to the pigs and calves - I'm sure someone else will know!

[LoneStrChic23]

Had this on my mini doe. Used Nolvasan 2-3 times a day to clean the area & throughly coat it and it cleared right up.

[Lizza]

Sounds like staph to me too, Chlorhexidine should be at your feed store (I've only seen it blue), my vet says 1 to 1/2% is what he recommends to use (mine is 2% at my feed store, so I water it down just a little bit to get a light blue).

Not sure about the pigs/calves but it should clear up quickly with treatment.

[Jcran]

I sprayed it with fight-bac which has chlorhexadine in it I believe. I'll double check, thanks. Will feeding the milk, unpasteurized, to my daughter's two dairy heifers cause any problems with them down the road?

[Alice In TX/MO]

Not a problem for the heifers.

I would vaccinate with Lysigin, too.

[KimM]

It's not always staph. I had a few does "break out" with bumps and tiny pustules on their udder right after they started going out in tall, wet grass. It wouldn't completely clear up on all of them and one who's udder skin became very thickened like bull hide, I took in for a skin culture which came back normal (Gram stain: no organisms seen). The did give her a shot of Excede and it's clearing up slowly and she got a second dose. All my does were vaccinated with Lysigin too but I'll keep vaccinating for it anyway.

[Ranger]

If you have fire ants in the area you might think that way too.

[Jcran]

hahaha...no fire ants in the northwest...YET. Do they come up here to the redwood rainforest? I thought they were hot weather critters. The spots look like they are drying up, thanks.

[Cyngbaeld]

My first thought was fire ants too, but they aren't up there. Fortunately for you.

[stanb999]

Probably too much grain.

Too much grain can cause acne like bumps on the udder. Clean and dry the udder before and after milking. Feeding more ruffage and less grain will likely eliminate the issue.