Biomycin for lactating doe

**mygoat** · #1 06/16/13, 10:46 AM

Doe kidded 3/2. Has battled with staph, but mostly under control now with chlorhexidine sprays every milking.

Sold to new buyer, decided since she gets staph bumps (one or two) still I'd do a round of antibiotics pre-sale to prevent a flare up.

Gave first dose last night after she milked 4lb of milk.

This morning the other two does are perfect... (no antibiotic does)

But the doe that I gave 6ml BioMycin to only gave 20 OZ or less of milk. From a half gallon to 20 oz in one night. She has a big hay belly, is always a picky eater but ate OK, seems fine. No pain at injection site.

Going to shove probiotic and probably some baking soda down her soon (she didn't want any when offered). And observe her.

Anybody else ever give biomycin/LA200/other oxytetracycline to a doe while in milk? Now I'm wondering if I ruined her production for this year... eek. Should I skip a day and switch to penicillin? (It says not to use them at the same time due to counter interference between the drugs)

**mygoat** · #2 06/16/13, 06:02 PM

Ok, this morning I gave vit b complex orally, goat nutridrench, probiotics, and a drench of baking soda.

She's still alert and attacking the 3 month old doelings I put in there yesterday, still able to put up a darned good fight when I drenched her, but she is still a bit off. Not bloated, normal poops/pee.

Any help would be appreciated. Especially since If I continue with the antibiotics, she'd get another dose after milking tonight.

I really want to clear up that staph dermatitis, so if I take her off antibiotics I'd like to put her back on at some point. Should I continue the biomycin? Skip a day and give penicillin?

drmusho · #3 06/16/13, 08:09 PM

I am assuming you talking about staph dermatitis on the udder of this doe?
It is expected to have a drop in milk production when using tetracyclines. If you are really worried about her general wellbeing, the only person that can tell you for sure what to do is someone that has actually examined her (i.e. the vet). If she still seems to be doing ok, just continue and give the full course of antibiotics, to avoid breeding up antibiotic resistant staph (if that is what the real problem is). It is important to be very clean with milking (wash udders before and after and use teat dip) and to not traumatize the skin when milking.

**mygoat** · #4 06/16/13, 09:29 PM

It is pretty classic staph derm. She gets it yearly, and you can keep it back with chlorhexidine but it never goes away. She's the only dairy to get it on the property. While keeping it at bay is good eough for us, she is sold so I wanted to stop it. If you stop doing chlorhexidine, it comes back BAD. A culture is not out of the question (I work at a vet diagnostic lab in microbiology) but its never really been a question of it being staph derm.

I'm not optomistic about the vets 'round here being helpful in something like this. If necessary I'd call the one that's likely to not sell me expired products, but they're also the ones that are harder to work with and are MUCH pricier.

Pony · #5 06/17/13, 01:30 PM

Fenugreek seems to help with my doe's production when she falls off a bit. Just sprinkle the powder on her feed.

punchiepal · #6 06/17/13, 02:55 PM

The doe is up-to-date on her copper and bose right? I have a doe that tends more towards staph is she gets on the low side of either of these.

**mygoat** · #7 06/17/13, 09:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by punchiepal

The doe is up-to-date on her copper and bose right? I have a doe that tends more towards staph is she gets on the low side of either of these.

Well, it's pretty much since freshening the past two years. She gets bolused/BoSed pre-breeding and pre-kidding... so it doesn't seem to trend along with either of those.