Mastitis

Sharyl

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My Alpine kidded two weeks ago and even before she kidded, one of her udders was larger than the other one. Now it has knots in it and the milk is very chunky. I have been milking that side every evening (the kids have been drinking off of that side during the day) as well as doing a warm compress, peppermint oil massage and giving her vitamin C. The kids seem to be doing well and the knots have gotten a little smaller but I am concerned that it could be a bigger issue than I know of. My husband has agreed that if the knots and swelling don't go down by Thursday, I am going to call the vet out but we are trying to cure her homeopathically, if we can. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thank you
 

Southern by choice

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Have the milk cultured, call the vet, and keep doing what you are.

Not sure where you are located but most state labs will do a culture for a small fee. This is good info to know so you can prevent issues later as well as treat (if any additional treatment is necessary) now.
Is she running a temperature? She may just have some old milk in there and a lot of congestion. Culturing is best though.
Welcome to BYH! :frow
 

Sharyl

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I did the CMT and it came up as weak mastitis. So I am trying to get ahead of it. I am in California and cannot purchase any antibiotics over the counter so she is going to have to go to the vet if I can't figure this out soon. Some pretty large chunks came out, last night, so I am hoping we are on the road to recovery and not getting worse. I will temp her tonight. I keep forgetting to add the thermometer to my basket of stuff I take out there at milking time. I was using a pump to milk her but I get more chunks if I do it manually so tonight my husband is going to use the pump to milk the other two goats and I am going to hand milk her.
 

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You will need to thoroughly disinfect the inflations or you could spread it to the other goats.
I would send in a culture to UC Davis. Call them and they will ship you a clean catch vial. My state lab only charges something like $10.
This way if you need antibiotics or something RX you can target exactly what you need.

Found this- a little more expensive (of course it is CA lol) http://www.cahfs.ucdavis.edu/test_fees/index.cfm
 

Sharyl

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thank you. They are a different breed so they have smaller teats. I have different inflations for them.
I will check that link out. Thank you. She is my sweetest goat and of course gives the most milk so it just had to be her that has a problem. She gives me sometimes more than 2 gallons a day when she is healthy. The first week, the kids wouldn't latch on to that side but after milking her daily and the massages, they started drinking from that side. I thought that was a good sign
 

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Greetings and welcome. Sorry you're having goat issues and that brought you here. Hope you get it under control and she gets all healed up. Please browse around and make yourself at home. Might be a good idea to add at least your general location to your profile as it can be important info when asking for help. I'll never remember you mentioned it here in this thread. If you're near a border, maybe you can leave your country (state) and buy some antibiotics to help her? Just a thought. Or if you have family somewhere that can get them for you and ship...
 

Sharyl

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I don't know if she was tested for CAE... I will have to ask. I bought her from a friend of mine, who got her from the pound, of all places.
When I milked her, last night, I massaged the knots while I milked her and got soooo many chunks out... a couple of them were bloody and she was so not happy with me but I think we are on the way to getting her better. I am going to call the vet tomorrow... I just feel like even though we are getting somewhere, i don't want her to have any health issues at all. She is my sweetheart
 

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