[Eeyore-77]

Hi
Just found a ewe with mastitis.
Right hand udder swollen and cold to the touch. When I express from the teat, it’s just a little bit of blood/clear fluid/pus that comes out, then nothing. The udder is solid and I can’t get anything moving from this when I try to massage it.
She is 2 years old and this is her first set of lambs. Two fine tup lambs that are about 6 weeks old now and eating grass so I don’t think they will suffer. She was in good condition too.
She was fine and feeding them happily a few days ago and now she is done.
I don’t understand.
She is not on particularly rich pasture, and the other ewes are fine, I’ve not been giving her extra feed, it’s just been grass and water.
A friend says he has one the same that has got mastitis, and he has no answer either.
Can any one tell me why this can happen seemingly from out of the blue?
I had a similar thing happen 2 years ago and I blamed myself for feeding them too much, so I stopped that, but I don’t think I can blame myself for this, but I’d like to stop it happening again.

[twizzel]

Sometimes it’s environmental, sometimes it’s down to not having enough milk for the lambs, sometimes it’s pure bad luck. But I would say it sounds very much like ecoli mastitis- sudden onset, cold udder, watery brown liquid, so she needs a vet pdq. Even if she lives, cull her, don’t breed again. I had a bit of a bad run of ecoli mastitis a few years ago, lost a few ewes    I think it was environmental (cold easterly winds and wet weather seemed to cause it), but do think there were some genetics predisposing ewes to mastitis too.

[Eeyore-77]

Thank you Twizzle.
I’ll get the vets opinion and hopefully some treatment will make her more comfortable, but I agree she’ll have to be culled.
Really disappointing as she is a good ewe, a good mother, friendly and comes to a bucket without a seconds hesitation. Was hoping she’d have a long future.
Just bizarre how they can be fit and healthy then a few days later they are done for.