What would you do?

TroutRiver · #1 03/09/12, 02:56 PM

I think I already know what I need to do, just looking for confirmation and second opinions. Here's the background in a nutshell:

Last summer I went out of state for a couple weeks, friends of mine were taking care of the goats. Trixie was nursing her buckling so wasn't being milked. She sustained a serious udder injury that went unnoticed because she was on pasture and not being milked, and my friends were inexperienced (not really their fault). By the time I came home and found it, her udder was extremely infected and the buckling had stopped nursing. We treated her with penicillin, she had already stopped producing milk.

We decided to keep her and breed her one more time since she is the best milker we have and very well put together, hoping that she would have a doeling this year.

Yesterday, she had triplet doelings

Not much of a surprise, but today her udder is very hard. There is some milk but not much, the kids have been nursing. They all got colostrum, her udder was not hard yesterday after she kidded.

What would you do? Is there any chance that she could still recover and be a viable dairy goat, or is treating her likely to be a lot of time and money spent for nothing? As much as we like her, we are prepared to cull her tomorrow morning and bottle raise her 3 girls if that is the most realistic option.

Would really appreciate some outside opinions, thanks

EDIT: should also mention she is 7 years old

Alice In TX/MO · #2 03/09/12, 02:59 PM

Get a clean milk sample, send it in for a culture/test.

Hard can just mean edema, not infection. You need more info.

Massage, warm compresses, milk out, wait for results.

Sticky at the top of the main goat page with instructions and pics.

cdehne · #3 03/09/12, 03:07 PM

She may very well need to be culled, but I think it is too early to make that decision. It is VERY possible that her hard udder is just congestion since she gave birth so recently. If you are letting her dam raise the babies,I would leave them on her and supplement with bottles as needed. I would also milk her twice a day.An engorged hard udder is hard for the kids to latch on to and it is painful for her. So, sometimes the does will just walk away when the very young kids try to nurse. This is just temporary, and within a week or so the kids will be taking all she produces and you can stop milking her. You can also do hot compresses and massage her udder with peppermint oil diluted in a little bit of veg oil. They say this helps with congestion-I don't personally do it though

TroutRiver · #4 03/09/12, 03:49 PM

We tried to milk her today, there was hardley anything there. Her udder is not big and swollen, actually it's quite small, but hard as a rock and lumpy in some places. That is what made me think infection and not just edema. Yesterday when she kidded, her udder was big and full and very soft. Today it's much smaller and very hard.

I can send a sample to the lab, but it will take about 2 weeks to get results from the VT lab. Unfortunately I think overnight shipping to the out of state lab is out of our price range right now, especially if there's a good chance that she might not recover (I think last time we tried, shipping was estimated at almost $80

).

CarolT · #5 03/10/12, 12:13 AM

Very warm compresses, _hard_ massages and lots of VitC chewables. Rosie does the same thing. Her udder feels like a rock, when I get it down to feeling like she has a hubcap (kind of disk shaped lump about a third of the stone size)in there I can stop making my shoulders ache with the massages. (And she _likes_ them!) There are times when 2 people do better, one massaging while one milks what gets released from the tissues. And the VitC gets it all started loosening up. I can't remember what mg they are, but I give 6 a day (I think) to begin and drop to 3 or 4. Hopefully someone will tell you how much

TroutRiver · #6 03/10/12, 07:49 AM

all 3 babies dead this morning, no idea what happened. My boyfriend is done, he wants to sell the whole herd.... seriously.

Alice In TX/MO · #7 03/10/12, 10:50 AM

Sounds like she wasn't making milk, and the kids starved.

JBarGFarmKeeper · #8 03/10/12, 01:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TroutRiver

all 3 babies dead this morning, no idea what happened. My boyfriend is done, he wants to sell the whole herd.... seriously.

With the stresses you have had in the last few months...it might be best. If you have no help on-board at home it can be difficult to deal with these situations.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TroutRiver

I think I already know what I need to do, just looking for confirmation and second opinions.

Considering your position from the start I think after this blow you might be better off. Sorry for all your losses...