gangrene mastitis- graffic pics

Cheryl aka JM · #1 07/23/13, 10:12 AM

I've been thinking about posting about peaches situation for a while~ but I've just not gotten around to it. As it happens today is a rainy lazy day~ and I was thinking how much I'd wished there had been some success stories when Peaches first got ill. So here is a success story. It's sad she lost half her udder~ but happy she survived.

So Peaches is my favorite Nubian milk goat. We always joke that if we ever move back to the city we will have to tell people she is a funny looking dog. Usually I milk her every spring~ but I've been very busy this spring and my friend Carol was getting plenty of milk for her family and me (I'm the only one here who drinks it)~ so instead I grafted an extra kid on to Peaches. She only ever has one kid~ and as always in late April she just had the one this year. One of my Boers had three~ so I "Stuck" one of the bucklings on Peaches (we called him Sticky and he stuck to her like glue!)

So~ all was good for about a month. I watched carefully~ both Sticky and the favored son were growing well. I checked Peaches to be sure she was never engorged with milk and if she got too full I milked some off~ or made her stand extra long for Sticky to do it.

The last weekend in May I went out of town for a long weekend and left my friend Carol to care for all the animals. She does a great job~ I wasn't worried at all. I left Friday~ Saturday Carol calls asking if it is normal for Peaches not to eat. Carol KNOWS thats not normal~ so Thank God she took matters into her own hands when I didn't respond quickly (I was on a motorcycle run and couldn't even here the phone most of it.) Carol rushed Peaches to my vet just as the vet was closing. I wasn't there (carol posts here~ she can elaborate if need be) But my understanding is the vet reached under peaches and milked out what looked like straight blood from her left udder!!

Vet diagnosed gangrene mastitis~ it is some kind of staph. I'm not sure I know exactly what kind. Apparently one in a thousand dairy cows will get it~ and even less dairy goats will get it..... So naturally my FAVORITE PET GOAT got it.

Carol pulled off a miracle God Bless her! By the time I got home Monday Peaches was on the mend~ getting shots every other day. The kids had been pulled and taught to bottle feed~ then Carol sold them off for me too! THANK YOU CAROL and THANK YOU Doc Lee in Cullman Alabama too.

As you already know from reading this Peaches did survive. It's now almost two months later. We really hoped and prayed Peaches would get to keep the left half of her udder~ but as Doc Lee and Carol both predicted~ it has sloughed off. She is now a one teated goat. According to Doc Lee she should be fine to be bred next year~ and as she only ever produces one kid anyway she shouldn't have much trouble raising a kid. She is funny looking~ with one giant teat hanging under her. It's not healed completely~ but I'll get another picture in a week or two. Below are some progression pics from the point it occurred to me to start taking them about two~ maybe three weeks into the progress of the udder sloughing off. We have not been milking her~ we are letting that other side dry up~ but she always has big baggy titties like that

blujenes · #2 07/23/13, 11:08 AM

I'm so sorry! Glad she's going to pull out of it.

CarolT · #3 07/23/13, 11:40 AM

I am glad I didn't get a chance to read up on it while I was treating Peaches while Cheryl was gone. Apparently it has an 80% mortality rate in goats

Might have discouraged me and Peaches! If the picture shows, this is what was coming out.

Backfourty,MI. · #4 07/23/13, 11:52 AM

I'm so sorry Peaches was so sick & lost half her udder but I am so glad she's going to be OK & your still going to have your favorite goat/friend. Sounds like she'll still be able to lead a productive normal goat life to which is Great.

What a blessing to have such a great friend like CarolT to help out while your gone & took quick action.

Ford Zoo · #5 07/23/13, 04:02 PM

Poor baby! She's lucky for sure! I'm not familiar with udder anataomy-what are those finger like projections in the second picture?

I purchased a NubianX doe last year that previously had the left side of the udder surgically removed from 'a bad case of mastitis'. I almost didn't get her, but her yearling does were huge, as is she. We bred her this year and she had a single 11# buckling who had an ADG of about 0.9# the first 30 days. At 90 days old he weighed 62#. I have not yet weaned him, I am trying to let her ease him off since I am afraid of a repeat of the mastitis, especially since she apparently makes a hefty amount of milk.

Suzyq2u · #6 07/23/13, 04:45 PM

Yikes! Good job CarolT jumped into action! So glad Peaches will be okay & you get to have your favorite doe around!!

Suzyq2u · #7 07/23/13, 04:46 PM

Curiosity - did you have trouble keeping flies off of the wound?

Cheryl aka JM · #8 07/23/13, 04:51 PM

I actually do not know what those projections are. They look like tubes. When the vet came out to see about another of our animals he took a look and said it was healing just like the text books say~ and was the very best outcome he was hoping for.

Flies~ I was worried about it but no we have not had much trouble with them. Knock wood! So far I have sprayed her with vetracyn a few times and with permethrin a few times but mostly she is just being left alone to let nature take it's course now.

CarolT · #9 07/23/13, 04:54 PM

I am not positive, but I believe it is the main vein/artery (can't remember which is which?) that used to supply blood. When the tissue died, the body sealed it off.

CarolT · #10 07/23/13, 04:57 PM

And Peaches was the one who did it. I gave the medicine, but if she hadn't been determined to make it, I couldn't have made her do it.

Suzyq2u · #11 07/23/13, 05:04 PM

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing!

southerngurl · #12 07/23/13, 07:08 PM

Oh my gosh, horrible memories. Sorry, been there. I think I have a little PTSD from it. Glad she survived!

Pony · #13 07/23/13, 07:20 PM

A miraculous tale of devastation, friendship, bravery, and ultimate redemption.

Thanks so much for sharing. SOoooooooo glad that your Peaches is, well, just peachy!

yarrow · #14 07/23/13, 07:29 PM

we fought gangrene last year.. Tessie didn't however have mastitis.. her's started out as a small red spot on her right teat. (with the drought, there were a lot more brown recluse.. our guess is it was either a spider or a copper head bite-that only one fang hit home).. BUT.. it got nasty FAST.. she ended up loosing the entire teat.. no matter what we did.. the rot just kept spreading across it.. She at one point had maggots inside the teat (GROSS, but once the maggots arrived and started eating the necrotic tissue.. she began to improve).. finally one morning.. we found her teat just laying out in the lot.. the part that was left was all nice, pink, healthy looking tissue.. Tess acted like it was no big deal.. she was off her feed a day here, a day there.. but never got really down and sick.. I was so happy to have her still alive and back to health.. that I chickened out on every breeding her again (not sure how that teat would react to milk in her udder ????) .. so she will live out her life here.. fat, sassy, and one teated..

so happy your girl survived hers too.

susie, mo ozarks

Ford Zoo · #15 07/23/13, 07:37 PM

Interesting Yarrow. Since our doe had successfully kidded and made milk after losing part of her udder, we decided to breed her when we got her. She has the old incision line from when that part of the udder was removed. While she has been in milk with us, there was the tiniest bit of milky drainage from that incision when she would get full, like just before she delivered and then when her buckling was young and not eating much. But no signs of inflammation and no insects attracted to it. It must have been horrible for her though, she was no problem nursing, even when the newborn kid would grab the incised part, but whenever we check her, she jumps and tries to bite us off.

Cheryl aka JM · #16 07/24/13, 09:59 AM

Wow thanks for sharing! Did your girl have those big tubes hanging down after the one side went ahead and sloughed off? Got any pictures of what it looks like now?

I do plan to breed Peaches as the vet says its not a problem~ but I've been worried about those tubes and if they are going to dry up or what they will look like if she comes into milk again.

yarrow · #17 07/24/13, 12:10 PM

NO Tess didn't have the *tubes* showing.. but her's wasn't all the way up into her udder.. it was just the teat.. when it came off, there was an inch or so of teat area left.. my vet also said she could be bred.. BUT.. after talking to a friend whose family did dairy cattle for eons.. I know that there is a risk of dripping/infection.. AND remembering what Alice went thru with her girl (who she did breed)... I spent some time thinking long thoughts about all the spotted kids, milk-y kids Tess has given me over the years... she has more then earned her retirement...Maybe Alice will see this post and chime in...

yelling ALICE-eeee!!!!!! where are you??? how is your broken storm toe today???
susie, mo ozarks