Hand / wrist pain when milking - advice please

[vidpro23]

HI all,

Im a 6 month newbie at milking. and only one goat,...don't laugh Have had hand carpal tunnel like issues on and off since 18 yrs old. not severe,..has always gone away after awhile.

since milking my one Nubian adult that I got with my mini nub babies I have been having on and off light issues with swollen hands and fat tight fingers til I get going. Started taking glucosamine regularly. My grandma had a terrible time with arthritis in her hands.

2 days ago though the pain between my thumb and forefinger area started increasing. radiating pain/ache to the fat fleshy part of my palm and back towards my wrist. It woke me up last night a few times.

I am still getting about 60 ozs a day from my doe so I think its still worth to milk,... but looking for any tips on pain management or should I just go ahead and get a milker since I have 4 more baby mini nubs growing up quick?

[Alice In TX/MO]

Try milking from the back. Try raising or lowering where you sit to change the angle of your wrists. My left wrist gave out on me in the spring when I added playing the mandolin to milking by hand.

[nehimama]

I'm so sorry you're having pain. It would be an awful shame to have to give up milking because of it. I don't have any useful advice for you; wish I did! Perhaps a milking machine of some kind is the answer you're looking for.

[GoldenWood Farm]

It sounds like your carpal tunnel symptoms are getting worse. I actually had to have surgery on one hand because like you I had issues since I was a teen, mine actually started when I was probably 15. I finally had surgery on one hand a few years ago and what a huge difference that made!

One suggestion I have is braces at night, this is something my own doctor suggested and it did help. Put your hands in ice water as soon as you get done milking for 10 minutes or as long as you can stand it, a professional masseuse taught me that trick.

I actually have to buy a milk machine this year because if I don't my hand would go right back to where it was in time. If it was me I would buy a milking machine and also what could be the issues is this doe might have small orifices. I had to select over the years for easy to milk does in my herd because of my hands. But even then I can get pain and my arms still sometimes go numb at night. Whatever you do I wish you luck, hand pain is NO fun .

Justine

[SJSFarm]

My sympathies to you. I have the same issue, ct in one hand and tennis elbow in the other arm! Not fun.

As was mentioned, changing position works wonders! Try milking from the back, the other side and even switching hands on teats- if you normally milk with your right hand on her right teat, try it on her left. It's gunna be awkward- but ct is repetative stress and this will cut down on the repetitive motion a bit.

Start saving money now for a machine. Don't rely on the hand pump vacuum ones, same pain and slower milking because you can only do one teat at a time.

As far as current treatment; Advil for now to reduce the swelling and alter positions to control the issue more long term. Braces at night work very well.

[Bubba1358]

I'm a classical guitar player, and a fair bit of my training was on proper form to prevent carpal tunnel and other injuries. I also hand milk my cow.

The best thing to do is to keep your wrists as straight as possible. This is not only true for the "up/down" wrist motion of the hand, but also (and more importantly) the side-to-side wrist position.

Basically, don't do any of these:

[southerngurl]

A lot of times the carpal tunnel stuff can come from the neck. I'd recommend seeing a good chiropractor.

[Sher]

I just went through a siege of this a couple of months ago. I finally started soaking my hands in epsom salts and used olive oil on my hands and on my neck. I get a tweak once in a while..but all praise to God..that terrible pain is gone.

Hope you feel better soon.

[disturbedinwv]

It may be worth it to invest in a goat milking device. We bought one off of our neighbor made by Dansha Farms. It works fantastic! You can get a quart of milk in no time. We have the two teet set up, but I actually just use the one anyways. Here's the link.

http://www.danshafarms.com/Goat-Shee...Cup-hp81qt.htm

[wintrrwolf]

I get these severe pains in my hand/wrist. I do love hand milking but when this happens I can not, I have tried the maggidans milker worked well, I do have a Segal 2 goat milker for when I need it, I am now using the Dansha Farms battery operated 2 teet milker and it works well too. None of these will completely milk out your goat, you do have to finish them by hand but that is generally a few squirts into teet cup then your done.

[Backfourty,MI.]

Ditto what Alice said! She told me that a couple years ago because my wrists & hands were hurting too.
I took her advice, changed my stool height & have been so much better since.
Plus someone(can't remember who though) posting a link to exercises you can do to help & I did those for a long time too.

[SJSFarm]

Thanks SouthernGurl, you reminded me! Massage. I did some research about self massage on the arms and the elimination of pain. The website below is to a program they charge for, but you can simply search videos on ct and massage and watch them on youtube. The idea is that ct is often misdiagnosed and it stems from neck problems or other issues remedied with massage.

http://carpaltunnelmaster.com
The video is on the site, but I put it below as well

Here is the lady's video

YouTube