[moprabbit]

My friend has a ewe with mastitis. I haven't seen her but he says she has twins and both are feeding from the same teat. He's not sure what to do. He was going to inject her with penicillin and wondered whether to take off one lamb and bottle feed or to leave both lambs with mum and supplement them both. I said I'd try to help him by asking the experts on this forum. Thank you for any help.

[MrsJ]

We had a ewe with mastitis and she managed to rear twins.  We didnt breed from her again though as we didnt think it was fair.

[Hillview Farm]

I'd leave them on her and top them up if needed! It can be caused by her laying in muck! I wouldn't think you'd need to cull or not use her for breeding again. Dont forget its been a wet year and that wont help. If possible strip the clots out twice a day and get some antibiotics. You also need to get the lambs feeding off that teat aswell. It wont harm them

[Marches Farmer]

You'd need to keep a careful eye on the condition of the teat - lambs will try whichever teat is nearest and although she'll kick them away they'll likely do a bit of damage when their teeth start to come through.

[SteveHants]

Get to the ewe as soon as possible. You can either - Alamycin into the udder and leave it alone or pen and strep into the udder once a day for three days.


Expect her to lose the udder if you don't treat promptly. Looks messy coming off, but its better off than on. (this will happen some weeks later). I take lambs off a ewe with mastitis, but pen them in the field with the lambing ewes so they can still see mum.


Agree that putting a ewe that has had mastitis back to the ram in subsequent years is cruel.

[SallyintNorth]

Sadly I too believe that a ewe that has had all but the mildest mastitis should be culled.

Of course if the affected part sloughs off then you would cull.  But I kept on a favourite mule, as she felt ok underneath so I believed we had treated her well and promptly enough.  But having reared triplets two years running (including when she had mastitis - they only needed topping up while she was ill), ever thereafter, although both quarters milked, the milk was of poor quality and she never again managed to rear more than one.   

[moprabbit]

Thanks for all the replies - I will pass them onto my friend. I know he's injected her with Penicillin and because they haven't appeared in the field at the back of our house I presume he is keeping the lambs on her and topping them up in the field where they were born. Thank you

[Blacksheep]

Would recommend using the cow treatment tubes to get the treatment directly into the udder alongside systemic antibiotics.  If the treatment tubes are used early enough the udder can sometimes be saved if caught before too much scarring occurs. 

[SteveHants]

I'd have thought that by injecting the antibiotic directly into the udder, you were doing just that.

[Blacksheep]

Possibly, and am just stating what we would do based on the advice we had from a sheep vet. Advice was to use the cow tubes, they also help locally with inflammation which is beneficial, and to use the tubes alongside systemic antibiotics.  With the antibiotic tubes you can then massage the udder to make sure the antibiotic is distributed within the udder rather than sitting in one place.   You need to strip out the milk before using the tubes.

[thenovice]

Keep an eye on the lambs, and if they start to look what i would call pinched up, standing funny arched slightly they may be not getting enough.

[BLACKSHEEP46]

My favorite (of course) ewe developed mastitis.  Any woman who has breast fed will tell you that it is incredibly painful.  It is advised to try to strip the affected udder twice a day but this is unlikely to help much in the long term and that is so painful for her.  imagine squeezing clots out of a nipple - ow !
We treated mine with strong antibiotics but to no avail.  It was a six week nursing job, twice daily because, once the udder began to slough off, the flies were delighted so we had to bathe and slather it all in Battles Cream - bright yellow thick and wonderful stuff.
We lost the quarter but saved the ewe.  The sloughing off is vile but it's gong to happen. I keep her because she is lovely but won't risk breeding from her again.
If you catch a ewe very very early showing signs of painful udder (lame behind/kicking at lambs) it's worth stripping the quarter out in an attempt to save it but do get antibiotics.  The lambs won't feed from that quarter willingly - because they will get kicked !
Mine were on fresh grass and not housed on mucky straw so have no idea where that bombshell came from.  The vet advised that it is hard to use cow type intra-teat treatments as ewes 'nipple openings are so very tiny it's impossible to get a small enough tube to get in.  More ow !
So, anitbiotics, leave lambs with her if she's well enough (probably has very high temperature) so at least they can carry on feeding from other quarter and accept that you will need to support feed the lambs and will lose that quarter in due course.  That said, some do recover they say.. .

[SallyintNorth]

Sorry, BLACKSHEEP46, but I couldn't disagree more.  Not stripping the affected quarter is withholding treatment and condemning the ewe.

If you don't strip the quarter then yes you will lose the quarter.  And for most of us, that means losing (culling) the ewe.

If you catch it early enough and do strip the quarter at least twice a day for as long as pus/bloody pus comes out, then you have a good chance of saving the quarter and hence the ewe.

I've spoken before about my own experience with one particular favourite Mule ewe - Judith.  She did recover, and the udder appeared normal too.  She did go on and breed again, and did produce milk from the affected quarter - but the milk was of reduced quantity and quality and she was unable to rear twins unaided henceforth, having previously reared triplets twice at least. 

However, I know that we also treated and kept on other ewes who had had mastitis.  So long as their udders recovered, we kept them on and bred from them again.  We didn't keep such detailed records that I could say they all did or did not have reduced capacity henceforth.  We topped up lambs who needed it; maybe we were always topping up lambs from ewes who had previously had mastitis, I don't know.  The problem with Judith was that she wouldn't allow her lambs to be topped up, so the only option she gave us was to remove a lamb.  I did that two years running, and then very sadly let her go.

[SteveHants]

Just to add -


when the udder sloughs off, blue antibac spray is as good as anything.


I have only had one ewe who got to that stage though. Most of the time alamycin jag clears it up. Even if it appears to heal I dont like taking the risk and mark her up.


I know it sounds like I cull everything that moves, but actually I cull very few ewes because nothing gets a second chance and I tend to buy off people who do the same.


I culled 5 out of 105 last year and I consider this to be too many - the reason being most of the ewes I culled were 6+ years old - one was a shearling.