Doe, 105.2 F, (Mastitis) Updated photos

[dejavoodoo114]

They were planning on culturing the milk when we first arrived. Then after the full examination and seeing that she was septic and determining that it was coliform mastitis they said they would be treating it with the same thing regardless of what specific bacteria etc caused it. That saved me $70 so I am not complaining.

@Goat Whisperer, Thanks for reminding me of that thread. I had read it years ago and remembered some of it but forgotten that the udder just sloughed off. It was also good to see how long it took them to treat the udder and for it to ultimately fall off. I am currently waiting on a call back from the vet but that thread boosted my thoughts on her chances again. She is doing really well except for the udder. Now I need to figure out where I can keep her to be sure infection doesn't spread while she is going through this process....

 

[dejavoodoo114]

I was just telling my husband about that thread. He said "no!"... apparently he doesn't want to deal with something like that at all.. lol. But, I am the one who takes care of the goats most of the time so... I suppose we could post her for free to anyone who wants to deal with the mastitis if my husband doesn't want to bend.

 

[Southern by choice]

So many people have dealt with this and even though it is nasty everyone says the doe goes on and does great and all is well.
If our doe would have been able to fight off the fever (The Kiko) we might have considered it but it ended up not being an option for us.

I say IF YOU DO THE WORK no one else gets a say. Just my 2 cents... and you know how I am ( I can picture what we'd be saying off line! )

 

[dejavoodoo114]

@Southern by choice, I was imagining that as well and it had me laughing as I posted that!

 

[dejavoodoo114]

Oh, I think I had mentioned that the other udder had dropped production completely. I was disappointed because I thought if I could take care of the infection in the one udder I could still get milk out of the other. Well, I haven't been willing to put her on the milk stand so that there would be no chance of contamination. This morning I was bent down and milking out the non infected udder and kept waiting for the milk to stop flowing!! If I had known her production would bounce back like that I may have risked the milk stand for the sake of my hips! Ah well, I am happy she is producing again. Does anyone know how safe that milk is for kids??

 

[farmerjan]

I don't know about the goats, but in cattle, we milked the ( 2 or)3 good quarters and they were tested fine to go in the milk tank. Seriously, there is some sort of "barrier" between the separate quarters ( or halves in the case of the goats and sheep) that will prevent the infection from traveling through to the other side. The contamination comes from getting the infection to the teat end or in a rare case when it travels through the blood stream throughout the animals whole system. And it seems that the infectious part is early on and once the actual "dying" of the infected quarter occurs, there isn't the same chance of infection.

That said, I wouldn't be afraid to feed it to the kids and If you use something like a rubber mat on the stand and milk her last, then the chance of spreading it is lessened. Just wash down with bleach water after milking, let it dry and go on.

 

[dejavoodoo114]

We have been dissecting those barriers at school and yes goats have them as well. But she is septic so the infections has spread through the bloodstream to her whole body. I have a feeling the kids' rumens would have no problems once the sepsis is cleared but perhaps I should wait until speaking to the goat vet on Monday. I had just asked my husband to cut up an old tarp for me to use on the milk stand for her. I should then be able to put it on when she is milked last and remove it for the next milking with less chance of spreading any contamination.

 

[dejavoodoo114]

Well, she is still in pain and I am not having all that much luck getting help from UT. The vets change all the time and each vet wants to see her. I am not driving that far with her every few days and paying for the visit. How ridiculous! I other than discomfort she is doing well. She is eating and drinking and milking like crazy from her right udder which is good. Her left udder has closed up and I can't get anything out of it. Before it closed I kept trying but it was just air. When I put meds in it they just fell right back out because it wouldn't close. She has a blister like area on the lateral side of her udder that keeps rubbing against her leg.

So, here are the pictures, they are not pretty but I don't think they are graphic quite yet.

 

[dejavoodoo114]

It wouldn't let me upload all of them in the same post. I also kept them as thumbnails so they would not be "in your face"...
Hopefully I didn't upload doubles.

 

[dejavoodoo114]

At this time, I am treating her by wiping/washing the udder in iodine and not doing anything else. I can't strip it and I don't have any thing else for her. As I said, she is eating and drinking but she is uncomfortable. The necrotic area is much smaller than I thought it would be. You can see where the darker skin that traveled farther up the rear of her udder is peeling away to reveal sound flesh beneath it. I am certain I am going to lose her teat though. BTW, those pics were taken after I milked out the other side but the mastitis side is still larger than the one milking.

QUESTION: The LGDs keep licking it... Should I let them or not???