[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.

[SallyintNorth]

I'm sorry to hear about your ewe. 

I agree with all that's been said.  I agree about culling her, sad though it is.  (I'm sure I'm not the only one has kept a favourite ewe on after she's appeared to recover from mastitis, and regretted it later, when she doesn't manage to feed her next lot of lambs.)

I also agree that predisposition to mastitis *can* be genetic - but there can be environmental factors at play too. If there are any wounds on the teats, for instance, that can create an easy route in for the bacteria.  Wounds can happen if the lambs are suckling too vigorously (which may indicate not a lot of milk for them - but also can happen with inexperienced ewes who don't yet know how to balance the milk supply and the lambs' demands), or by physical damage other than suckling, eg., if there are thistles in the grazing area.

I mention all of that because if you can find an environmental factor, it may mitigate against a black mark on the genetics.  (Whereas if promising young ewes from a certain line keep getting mastitis, then I'd be not keeping others from that line.)   

You've mentioned not feeding the ewes this year, and that the grass isn't stunning.  If there's been a cold snap, her milk supply would have plummetted, and 6 week old thriving lambs would have worked her harder, trying to elicit as much as they've been used to.  As she's a first timer, she may not yet know how (hard) and when to kick them off, so allowing them to drag her down, injure the teats or whatever.  Might be worth thinking about putting out a feed block another time?  So that the ewes can get a bit of extra input if they need it?  Not a rocket fuel very high energy one, just a low-level backup type. 

[SallyintNorth]

An alternative to feeding them all with a feed block, if you're anxious about overfeeding the ewes, would be to supplement just the lambs in a creep area.  Once they can get cake they will better weather any shortfall in the milk supply, and so not beat up on their mums quite so hard.  And it's easy then for you to then give the lambs a bit extra if there's a cold snap and the mums' milk supplies will have reduced. 

[Eeyore-77]

Thank you Sally,
I got a dose of Animeloxin and a 5 day course of Pentomycin for her today from the vet. The udder is really swollen and hard. I squeezed out a little bit more liquid but it is very swollen and hard.
They have a feedblock in the field for them to nibble at, but they aren’t that interested in it, I was meaning extra hard feed to give them too much condition just now. It could have been a cold patch although it’s been unseasonably warm up  here for the last month. There are a few patches of thistles in the field, I’ve inspected the udder for damage and nothing seems obvious like scratches or bruises he lambs being aggressive.
I’ll put her away as a cull and hope the antibiotics stop the udder falling off like what 2 years ago. I think I’ve caught it earlier this year as I am watching out for it.
Thanks again for replying it helps me a lot.