[mariegold]

Hello. I noticed one of my ewes and a massive udder and wasn't feeding her lambs. I penned them and milked her out, there was some blood in the milk but no lumps or puss etc...
I've given antibiotics and anti inflammatory as advised by the vets. I've also tubed her udder with antibiotics.
Checked her again this morning and there is no blood, lambs are well fed and the udder is soft and warm. So far so good.
But I have noticed her udder looks a bit black, is this black udder?! Will she loose her udder? We've had two weeks of torrential rain and gale force winds. Foolishly I dagged them pre lambing, leaving their udders exposed.
 

[shep53]

If the quarter is pink and soft with the lambs feeding then it should be fine , black bag is cold ,dead and a large solid lump , keep checking

[mariegold]

Oh Brilliant! Should I be worried that it's slightly black? Could it get worse and if so what should I do about it please?
Thank you so much for your reply!

[mariegold]

Also, is it ok for the lambs to feeding from her or could the mastitis make them unwell? Thank you

[Anke]

You want the lambs to empty the udder as much as possible, so the infection comes out. The uddder could be bruised, either from handling it or the lambs butting her hard.


If the udder was seriously lumpy you may get these coming to the skin and even eventually bursting open.... not nice, but as long as you keep up the AB's (or re-treat with AB's if/when you have an open wound) it should be fine. I have had this in goats before.


Looks as if you caught it early, but I would seriously consider not lambing the ewe anymore.

[mariegold]

Thank you Anke! My feeling is... it's not too serious and hopefully caught it early. But my doom and gloom farming neighbour said I should cull her because her udder will eventually slough of (She hasn't actually seen the ewe).

[twizzel]

Even if the udder doesn’t slough off, she has a very high chance of getting mastitis next lambing, and also spreading it to other ewes. So your neighbour does have a point. The only time I decided to give a ewe another chance with lambing after mastitis she got it again the following year. Now everything that gets mastitis gets culled.

[SallyintNorth]

Even if she doesn't get mastitis again, she is highly likely to produce milk of poor quality next time.  So I too have a policy of culling (or retiring if she has a fabulous fleece) any ewe who has mastitis, once she has reared her current crop.

[mariegold]

Thanks for the advice.
I'll definitely keep her as her fleece is amazing, but I'll not lamb her again. Such a shame as she a favourite.

[SallyintNorth]

Such a shame as she a favourite.

There's a law about that... :/

[mariegold]

 Udder update.... The antibiotics seems to have cleared the mastitis (no more blood in the milk) but the ewe isn't feeding her lambs 
I'm penning her twice a day and letting them strip her out. They both seem very happy and healthy, but how many weeks should I be doing this? The lambs are three weeks old and munching grass (we have a lot of grass in Devon).
Any advice most gratefully received!

[twizzel]

When you strip the udder out, what comes out? She is probably very sore still, so anti inflammatory would be a good idea still. If she’s got no milk then it’s probably best to lift the lambs from her. They will need bottle feeding if they are only 3 weeks old, and treating like a pet lamb.


I took 9 week old twins away from a ewe a couple of weeks ago... after 24 hours they didn’t bat an eyelid at having left their mother    they joined my pet lambs for 10 days and had a bit of creep but to be honest decided the main flock was better than hanging out with the pet lambs. Now they’re back out in the field, and the ewe is still shut in.

[SallyintNorth]

When deciding on what to do, I find it helpful to remember that the rumen is barely functional until 6 weeks old, so they can't really sustain themselves without milk until then.  It's fully functional at 8 weeks.

They will do better on mum's milk, and if they aren't feeding from her then you will need to dry her off, which can be tricky at this time of year.  And she will need a friend, so then someone else has to be in and on straw with hay, too.  So unless the ewe is really hating it, I would carry on with the twice a day lambs feeding off her, and, yes get some pain relief into her in case her reticence is pain-related.  You may find she settles back into suckling after a few more days, otherwise you will still have the drying off issue whenever you decide to stop letting the lambs feed - unless you send her straight to slaughter once you take them off her.

[Anke]

yep as Sally says, pain relief/anti inflammatories for a few days would probably help.

[mariegold]

Thank you! I really want to keep the ewe as she has an amazing fleece and she's a lovely animal. I'll keep the lambs on her and try pain relief as suggested. Weirdly they always seem to have full tummies?!? Maybe I'll pen them all together for a few days with pain relief and see how they get on. Thanks again