hardish, cracked udder, no swelling, no blood or clumps in milk...

[squdsi1]

Greetings,
I have a goat whose udder began to harden and crack in the past day and a half. It is not swollen and the milk is of the same quality as always. The udder beginning to crack more and more and there are an increasing number of cracks that begin to bleed a tiny amount. Even stranger, when I was milking this morning, I thought i noticed that some milk squirted out of one of the cracks. This could have been my confusion, maybe I had milk on my hand, but it did seem to me that milk was coming out of a second teat, which is really a cracked part of the udder. That being said, there is no blood or clumps in the milk and there is no redness or heat in the udder. Any thoughts on what this could be and what I should do. Cheers! Shad

 

[DonnaBelle]

Do you have some sort of "udder creme" on hand? She needs something on that udder to soften the skin, perhaps something with an antibacterial agent added?

I'm hoping some other more experienced folks will post. I personally have not had that situation arise. The air here in Oklahoma is very hot and dry and is also the same in other parts of the US right now. That may be a contributing factor in your case.


DonnaBelle

 

[squdsi1]

I have been putting a natural cream on it for the past two days now, a cream made of beeswzx and almond oil, with several herbs including comfey lavendar, etc. I have also been putting antibacterial herbs in her grain ration such as chaporral, oregano, and st johns wort. The udder does not seem to be getting worse, but no better either.

When I looked more closely this morning, I noticed that there are many little nics on the udder, that I previously thought was craxcks, as some of them even had a bit of blood visible (but not dripping or in any significant quantity, more just color). Given the way they appear now, I am beginning to think that maybe she got bit by ants or some other insect or maybe she got scratched up in a thorny patch or made strong contact with a plant that causes reaction.

I am still worried and would love to hear from anyone else who has any thoughts. Again, the udder is still hard and cracked a bit, but the milk production is the same as well as is the quality. Any thoughts on what it could be?

 

[Chris]

How much milk is she putting out and what breed is she?

I have a Togg that got a cracked udder one year do to the amount of milk she putting out. We had to start treating her as soon as she really starting her milk in. We would put pure Lanolin cream on her udder after morning milking and then Frostshield in after night milking.

Lanolin cream you can get either in the pharmacy or in the baby section of most stores and the Frostsheild I get here
http://www.pbsanimalhealth.com/details/Frostshield/170-DCL0750.html


Chris