The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Goats => Topic started by: Penninehillbilly on June 11, 2018, 03:22:28 pm
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Hi, I have a goat with tiny rubbery lumps in milk, one qtr, when left for a little while some grunge settles in the bottom.
She's fine in herself, udder still soft,
I'm guessing mastitis, but which type?
Does she need Pen & Strep?
Anybody heard of Tetroxy AB and would this deal with it rather than me buying a bottle of P&S which goes out of date long before I've used half?
Afterthought -
Same goat has an abscess on her other udder, just above the teat, must have burst as white gunk came out this morning, cleaned and put savlon on, hopefully keep flies off, but there is a definite hole there. They've been on rough grazing, thistles etc,, presume she's scratched it on something.
Advice please?
TIA
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Do the washing up liquid test with the milk - take a bit of milk into a wee bow, add a good squirt of washing up liquid, then swirl around/mix with your fingers - if it all goes gunkey and gooey (if it happens you will see what I mean) then yes you have mastitis, most likely subclinical. If all it only goes foamy/frothy then the milk is fine.
If subclinical mastitis the milk will also not go through the filter easy.
Hitting it with AB's may solve the problem, but if it a staph type infection (most are) then it will be very difficult to get rid of it while the goat is in milk. I have used Noroclav to deal with it in the past, but again only use half the bottle and it is expensive.
I have now just been giving one of mine a sprinkle of dolomite, seaweed powder and a good sprinkling of vitamin C onto her sugar beet shreds (hidden under her dairy nuts which she loves) for her persistent subclinical mastitis (staph type). Done it for over a week and it seems to have worked. (Natural Goat Care book). However her udder is really lumpy as well, and I massage uddermint twice a day, not showing her this year because of that though...
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Thanks Anne,
I haven't run it through the filter for a few days, just been dumping from that quarter, but you've reminded me it doesn't go through, coats it with a thick film.
Did the washing up liquid test this morning, no effect? Wondered if milk has to be warm?
Reading your post, maybe I put too much milk against liquid. Will try again tomorrow.
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Thanks SD, I had forgotten the milk in the tub, left outside in the shade, when I saw it last night it had turned slimy.
Abscess is on the opposite side of the other teat, that milk seems OK and is being fed to kids.
Her own kids don't seem to feed off her, I think that's where the M problem started, I thought they would be feeding off her and I'd milk her out every couple of days, then when taking them out to the field I noticed she was very full. They are 12 wks old but she or they must have weaned themselves a couple of weeks ago.
They clots seem to be in the very first bit of milk, need a bit of force to get it started then she's OK, but I think she doesn't let it all down, she's always been a pain to milk, that's why I leave kids on her.
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See if you can get a couple of orphan lambs for her to rear?
A bit late for that now?????
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See if you can get a couple of orphan lambs for her to rear?
A bit late for that now? ??? ?
Do you mean because she's likely to be drying off if the kids have weaned or because most people have stopped lambing? There are still some lambing around here at the moment, late as it is!
Yeah in Aberdeenshire maybe, but probably not in West Yokshire. My sheep have been clipped for over three weeks now… and you really do not want to ruin a goat's udder with lambs, have you seen how rough lambs are on udders? Just saw one of my ewes yesterday looking quite sore on one teat, but fortunately sore scabbed over and dry.
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I think most round here tend to lamb in April, maybe May at the latest, and im guessing she stopped youngsters suckling, so i dread what she would do to lambs :( .
Maybe she's wanting to dry off, she's certainly a pain to get milk out of, time she went i think .