Mastitis? Or something else? Nigerian Dwarf...

[BarnyardBlast]

One of our goats kidded about two weeks ago. This is her third time kidding and she has always been great. In the past, we let her kids nurse until they weaned. This time, we decided to bottle feed as she had two beautiful little does. We pulled the two kids late yesterday afternoon. When we tried to milk her last night, one side produced a small amount of milk and the other side produced nothing. I noticed that one side seemed to cause her pain (the no-milk side). At the time, I thought her teats were sore and she was holding back milk or the kids had already nursed before we pulled them.

This morning, I went to milk her and one side went easily and was plentiful. The other side was again, sensitive to touch with no milk. I could see what looked like a chunk of milk that had hardened at the end of the teat, so I used a washcloth and massaged until it came out. I milked the best I could but the teat felt like it had jelly in it at times. There were thick chunks that looked like pus but might have been clumpy milk that were difficult to get out of her teat but after passing would be followed by streams of milk (not bloody or stringy). Her udder feels hard in places, but not hot. It feels like hard knots or lines in the udder.

I milked until it was a lot better, but I feel like there is still a problem lingering. My current plan is to continue milking and massaging every few hours. Any thoughts on how to treat? (There is no week-end vet where I live although I can get her to one on Monday). We have yearly testing on all of our animals and they are fine.

 

[babsbag]

Take her temperature, that will tell you a lot. It could be mastitis or if could just be a congested udder. Milking every few hours is the best thing you can do for her right now. See if you can find a CMT kit and test her milk. Also, just in case it is mastitis you want to get a clean sample and put it in your refrigerator in case you need to send a sample into a lab for a culture. You need to do this before treating with any antibiotics. Milk out a few squirts and then milk into something sterile, and refrigerate. I use a red top tube.

You could put a kid back on her and see if she will let her nurse.

I am not saying she has CAE, but has she been tested? A hard udder always makes me want to rule that out.

 

[BarnyardBlast]

I'm going out in an hour to milk again and will temp her. We tested our herd for CAE earlier this year and they were all (including her) negative. We've bought our goats only from one farm and she tests yearly. I think I have some mastitis test strips. I'll double-check. If not, I'll see if Tractor Supply has them.

 

[babsbag]

Glad about the CAE, that takes one thing out of the suspect list. I haven't used the strips, but know someone that has and they got negative readings on a positive doe. I really hope that it is just congested, but the chunks make me a little suspicious. I have milked does with both, but eventually the mastitic doe ended up with blood in her milk. If you can get some out save it and let it settle, the blood you can't see will often settle to the bottom of the jar. This is no fun...

 

[BarnyardBlast]

The chunks were quite bad. They were solid white and difficult to get out. I felt quite bad for my little goat. I was trying to be as gentle as possible, but it took some squeezing for them to come out. I'll milk that side into a different jar (I was just milking out onto the ground earlier today since I wasn't sure if it was okay for the little ones to drink). Thanks.

 

[Latestarter]

Hope it's just congestion and not mastitis. Please let us know how it turns out. for you and your doe.

 

[BarnyardBlast]

No fever. I used the test strip. It's yellow and should turn blue if it's mastitis. It turned green.

Her udder felt better and there were only a few 'clumps' while milking. The milk smells fine and didn't taste weird. (It accidentally flicked up while milking and I had a face full). She has a fair amount of milk in both udders.

I'm going to keep checking.... Thank you!

 

[Goat Whisperer]

I'd be worried with it turning green. What brand test strips are these?

I don't like the strips at all. We had a doe with a 106+ temp and disgusting milk… test strips said it was fine. We ended up having to put her down because it was bluebag mastitis, the udder was rotting and the doe was deteriorating.

I know another lady who went through the same thing.

You should really consider getting a CMT test kit. This is the best mastitis detector out there and it is well worth the $15.

 

[babsbag]

Both times I dealt with mastitis there was blood in the milk and it smelled disgusting but that it isn't always the case. I had some really congested does last year and they had some small clumps too as did a doe I was drying off. I would just keep milking her frequently and see if it gets better. The CMT kit would be good to have.

 

[BarnyardBlast]

Thanks. When I milked her this morning, her udder felt a lot better and she didn't flinch as much but there were still lots of clumps. (Last nights milking only had one or two clumps, so I was hoping that she would be okay with further intervention). A couple of the clumps had streaks of blood in it. She's acting fine, eating well and moving around. You wouldn't think she was ill unless you tried to milk her. Our vet's office will open tomorrow morning and my husband will contact them to see about bringing her in. I'm assuming mastitis at this point.

Goat Whisperer, I didn't see your post until after I had returned from milking. When I go back down, I'll check.