A nasty turn of events - Mastitis

[TroutRiver]

I've been on vacation for the last couple of weeks - got back just in time to get slammed by hurricane Irene. When I got back, I learned a very valuable lesson - don't EVER let anyone else take care of your dairy animals

A friend of mine who claimed to have worked on a dairy goat farm before and said she had a lot of experience milking goats was taking care of the girls while I was gone. When I got back, one of my milkers who had 2 kids nursing her did not look good. When I asked, my friend said "oh, yeah, she didn't want to eat her grain yesterday, I'm not sure what's going on with her." Her udder was also very full - even though her 2 bucklings are out with her. On closer inspection, she had a HUGE gaping wound on her udder, clearly infected. When I tried stripping her out, out of one half of her udder came what looked like cottage cheese, out of the other side came thick blood.

This is my best milker, by the way.

She has been treated with penicillin (5cc, once a day for 4 days), she is eating normally and looking and acting much, much better, but I am worried she's still not out of the woods. I have been stripping her udder out, the side that was like cottage cheese is now just clear watery liquid, the side that was blood is now watery liquid with pink, fleshy looking chunks in it.

I've been told it is unlikely that she will milk again. If possible, I'd like to breed her one more time and hope for a doeling, then find her a home as a pet or companion. She is my best doe and I would like to keep her genetics in my herd.

Should I be dry treating her with antibiotics? What do you think the next step is?

That's not the end, though.

My other doe, a FF nubian, was not making much milk before I left. She has a tiny little udder, but I didn't buy her until 4 months into her lactation, and her dam is a good producer so I think she will do better next year. When I got back from vacation, she has almost completely stopped producing milk on the left side

I noticed that the milk on that side was a little thicker, so did a CMT test yesterday, and sure enough, that side congealed quite a lot, while the other side looked normal.

What do I do now? I am guessing the best thing is to just dry her off, she is making about 1/2 cup of milk per day. Do I need to dry treat her with something in order to lower the risk of her freshening with mastitis in the spring?

I have never had problems with mastitis before, I'm not sure what to do...

[Alice In TX/MO]

The CMT is not useful at this point. You need to call the mastitis clinic at LSU, tell them what you are seeing and ask about how long to stop antibiotics so you can get a good sample, then send in the sample of milk to be tested to find out EXACTLY what germs are there and EXACTLY which antibiotics to use. Anything else is guess work.

There is a "sticky" at the top of the board with full instructions for sending the sample, but call them. They are wonderful on the phone.

Hill Farm Mastitis Lab
3380 Highway 79
Homer, LA 71040
(318) 927-9654

[Cannon_Farms]

Sorry to hear this, I have one doe with a fluke udder whom I am going to see if she throws better kids than herself if she ever has a doeling, her parents have high LA scores and her full sister is a champion however she got the short end of the rear attachment stick. If she does good she will be here to produce kids but not be a milker, without kids on her to raise she gets so full of milk I feel its inhumane.

I have plenty of whirl packs and supplies if you need it. Most of the folks i know treat does with Tomorrow when they are finished milking as that is what the local guy who is mentor to many says to do, hes never had a problem and hes been doing dairy goats for years so.....

As far as the other, you really need to get a culture, I bet that she cross contaminated them and they have the same infection. Tricare healed my doe who tore her udder up badly quite quickly and kept the dirt and flies out of it.

[Creamers]

I would def. test the milk - get banamine - helps pain, fever and helps keep scar tissue down in the udder, but it sounds like that is probably too late. . .

You probably want to infuse - pirsue might be a good choice, but try to culture through LSU and find out what she is dealing with - I've dealt with a lot of mastitis. . . there is no blanket treatment - varies case to case a lot.

With that type of infection - drying off isn't a good option - milk her as often as possible. . . send off a milk sample after having her antibiotic free for 7 days -

[TroutRiver]

the FF has not had any antibiotics, only the older doe who is now milking water and chunks I am not giving her antibiotics anymore, stopped them about 4 days ago.

I will look into LSU. I work on a cow dairy farm so we have whirl packs and that sort of thing. Thanks

[chewie]

I have no help but dang, I am sooo sorry. I am mad for you and this really sucks.

[TroutRiver]

Should I send the watery liquid from the one badly infected doe in for testing, too? I am positive that her infection came from the udder injury that got infected.

Thankfully the two does that are affected are mine, the others that I'm caring for seem OK. I am in the process of drying them off so that my friend can take them back (motorcycle accident lady) next month. I really hope that none of this spreads to them

[Alice In TX/MO]

Yes, I'd test everything at this point. There's no charge for testing. It's the shipping that costs.

[TroutRiver]

The one FF I am not sure what to do about. When I came back from vacation, she was almost completely dry on that one side. I thought that maybe one of the other doe's bucklings had been nursing off of her. But they have been separated now and no change, so it must have to do with the mastitis (and probably has something to do with how she was milked... or not milked... while I was gone)

Her udder is tiny, I am getting about 1/2 cup of milk from the good side, and I have to really try hard to get one or two small squirts from the other side. She really is all but completely dried up on that side. I don't think I'll be able to get enough to fill one of the little whirl paks.

What shoudl I do?

[Creamers]

Test all milk - don't dry anyone up until you get testing - what a mess I am sorry you're dealing with this

[mpete]

so sorry....

[Donna1982]

I am so sorry you have to go through this.