[plumseverywhere]

Our maiden milker has a full tight udder again this spring so I have milked her (once it got to the point where I had no choice and she wasn't going to stop!) the milk is yellowey and tastes foul.

I am sorting out some better minerals to help amongst other things but today I thought I would fish out my California mastitis kit. Its come up with a mild positive (very mild, had to strain my eyes to see that there was a slight gelatinous reaction going on)
Apart from the foul tasting milk, the goat is symptom free currently (ie. not got a hot/hard udder, is eating and drinking and playing as normal)

what do you all advise please?     wanted to get some advise here before calling the vet but will of course do that once I have some experience and info from here...

[plumseverywhere]

Just done some googling and it seems a lot of goaty people are saying a trace/stage 1 reaction can be ignored as the test isn't designed for goats and cows milk is different so the test is more relevant for cows.
 http://fiascofarm.com/goats/mastitis.htm

[Anke]

If this is a new problem (i.e. same goat produced god milk last year) and your other goat(s) now have nice tasting milk it will obviously be an individual problem. In the first instance I would probably give her a Cobalt vitamin type drench, a lot of people say that the foultasting milk is a Cobalt deficiency (?), but I think that is not the only reason. If you don't want her to milk buckets I would reduce her feed intake to take out all gaot mix, and only give some sugar beet shreds and maybe a handful of oats with it, and then go easy on milking her out every time. (It could just be that somehow the goatmix manufacturing got changed for example). Lots of grass, branches (willow is up here the only thing that is green enough) and hay (but not haylage).

I read somewhere in an old book that giving them lots of carrots produces "sweet milk", and mine absolutely love them (cut into long sticks, not grated). Unfortunately horse carrots are now finished and I am spending a fortune on Coop ones...

I am sorry I probably cannot help really, I haven't had this problem at all (but had mastitis), mine only get Caprivite once or twice a week, other than that I give (also once or twice a week) - a sprinkling of seaweed, flax/linseeds, garlic granules, comfrey leaves, ivy leaves and some other weeds that are out and about. (they absolutely love sticky willy, most thistles etc etc). I personally don't like the idea of giving supplemenmts on a daily basis, I have bought the new Adam Henson drench (prefer a drench to a powder actually as it gives more control over quantities), but haven't used it yet.... too busy lambing...

[plumseverywhere]

Hi Anke

thanks so much. I know how busy you are with lambing right now so appreciate you taking the time for this.  I hadn't heard that about carrots! will have to start buying horse ones when they are back. we get through a lot of carrots here as its about the only veg scarlett (5 yr old human kid) will eat so always putting tops and tails in the feed but maybe they need a bit more than that 
I looked at the adam hensen drench today funnily enough but was worried it was a case of paying for his name rather than a great product but then...I saw the mineral and compared to caprivite, the % of colbolt was ten times the amount and if I'm in a deficient area then I obviously need one wtih more. A friend up the road has had the same problem last year it turns out! In fact she has colbalt test strips and is bringing them round to me 

[Lesley Silvester]

Still getting pony carrots round here (Shropshire) but I don't suppose they'll be around much longer.  Mine love them too and we eat them.

[plumseverywhere]

Still getting pony carrots round here (Shropshire) but I don't suppose they'll be around much longer.  Mine love them too and we eat them.

I didn't see any at our local place but that's more that I wasn't looking for them so I'll have another check this weekend. Getting hold of flubenvet for the chickens has turned into a mammoth job as the usual supplier sold up and now countrywide have sold out   

[jaykay]

flubenvet

Any use, £13.27 delivered?

[plumseverywhere]

Life saver!! yet again Jaykay!! Thank you xx 

[Anke]

Flubenvet for  , I thought it was for 

But maybe my brain is getting more and more muddled as lambing goes on... had to help another ewe today to pull out a big lamb, that only had one leg out....

The reason I bought the Adam Henson stuff is that I did only find one other company that made something similar (and it's for cattle rather than specifically for goats), and I prefer to give them a drench every so often and not put a powder onto their shreds every day...

PS.: I have found that feeding the linseeds as a sprinkle gives really soft shiny coats, and the long coated GG's are not as tangled and dry as they have been in the past two years... but maybe that's just coincidence...

[plumseverywhere]

Flubenvet for  , I thought it was for 

It is for the chooks! don't worry - tis not your lambing brain, its my hopping from one animal to another in a thread 

The linseeds sound good - Puffin has a long, silky Toggy coat that is quite tangled (windy conditions not helping) so they'd be good for her. where do you buy them? are they from a health food shop?

[Anke]

Yep, linseeds from the local (well Edinburgh) health food shop, we also put into our bread quite a bit. Doesn't seem to do anything for human hair though... my girls are still as tabgly as ever... but then maybe brushing every day would help...

[plumseverywhere]

Yep, linseeds from the local (well Edinburgh) health food shop, we also put into our bread quite a bit. Doesn't seem to do anything for human hair though... my girls are still as tabgly as ever... but then maybe brushing every day would help...

Oh I know that feeling!! and all 4 of mine have insisted on growing their hair - agh! OK - will pop into a health food shop ( I will feel out of place in one of them    ) see if I can pick up some of those seaweed peanut crackers at the same time (for me, not goats) yum.

[katie]

Julian Graves have 20% off everything at the moment.

[plumseverywhere]

Do they? even better 

[plumseverywhere]

Milk back to tasting good again!! We think it was either cobalt deficiency (quickly rectified by mineral supplements from Adam Hensen and a rockie lick!) or just where the milk was sitting dormant in her maiden udder and was just tasting bleugh. Either way, very happy but will be making tonnes more soap now!