[trish.farm]

Wee bit of advice please.  Just checking i am doing the right thing.  Ewe lambed early hours of friday, 2 healthy ram lambs.  Today she has bad mastitis in one half.  Have injected in her hind with pen and strep, milked off some smelly white milk, milked again every 3 hours.  Tubed lambs as they were weedy looking and will tube them again as necessary.  6 year old ewe who always produces fantastic lambs and is a great mum.  Anything else I can do?  Will inject again in 2 days.  Will I be able to cure the mastitis?  Thanks

[Me]

Chances are you will end up rearing one and culling the ewe later in the year but you never know!

[Marches Farmer]

You've tackled it very promptly, which is good.  I'd be inclined to keep stripping her out, hourly if you can, but handling her very gently - if she gets stressed it won't help anything.  Give her a handful of sheep nuts or whatever you're feeding her afterwards.  I've used Alamycin LA every three days for three doses in the past and although it didn't clear the mastitis quickly enough to benefit that year's lambs I was able to foster on the twin and leave her with one.  The udder was fine again and gave no problems the following lambing.  If it turns into black bag I'd cull her.

[trish.farm]

Ah thank you. She is a tame ewe so stripping her is really easy.  Have tubed the lambs again with 60ml each and they are both feeding off the good side.  Culling doesnt come into my small flock, retirement does!!  Already have a 16 year old, 2 6 year old barren ewes and a castrated 4 year old boy in the retirement paddock, she can join them next year if necessary.  Will see how her twins get on and if necessary bottle feed one of the twins and leave them both on her unless I have any more orphans that one of them can join.

[Bramblecot]

One of my ewes had mastitis with her first lamb.  Treated it promptly and she has never looked back and successfully reared twins after that.  Her ewe lambs have also been ok (that's done it ).  In a non-commercial flock you don't have to be so quick to cull.  Good luck, she's fortunate to be with you .

[farmvet]

I'd give your vet a call.  They may well prescribe intramammary tubes which can deliver very high doses of antibiotics direct to where its needed.  Certainly I get better cure rates that way.  They may prefer a different drug to pen/strep, or recommend its use at least daily if not 2x daily for a few days.  Plus maybe an antiinflamatory.
I wont mention specific drug names as each practice has their favorites which seem to work best in their locality.  Meanwhile keep on stripping...& keep lambs topped up as necessary

[SallyintNorth]

Yes I'd be using a/b's daily plus stripping as often as practicable.  We have cured several ewes with this regime.  When you check bags pre-tupping, sometimes you find lumps and nasty hardnesses, which would mean culling here but for you, no tupping.  However, having had mastitis which has been caught early and been treated does not mean you will find such lumps - many such ewes recover and you can't tell from their bags that they've ever been affected.  Some of them go on and rear several more crops of lambs.  However, some, IME, may subsequently suffer reduced yield, or 'blind bag' on one side.  So just keep an eye on things if/when such a ewe lambs again - check the lambs' tummies to be sure they're getting enough milk, don't just rely on seeing them suckling. 

If the mastitis is really nasty, some or all of the quarter may go black and slough off - looks (and smells) horrible but seems to not bother the ewe.  However of course it would be unwise to breed again if this happens.

[trish.farm]

well things were looking better this morning but just been back out to do late night check and lambs are starving.  Both udders are now solid and hot. Really hard to strip anything out of either of them and ewe is getting p'd off with me trying.  Lambs are trying to suckle from the better side but not getting anything out.  Have tubed them both with a decent meal and will ring vet first thing in the morning.  Grrrr.

[SallyintNorth]

 

You know you did everything you could.    the vet can save the udder.  Meanwhile I'd get those lambs on a bottle now.

[trish.farm]

Given in and been out to give them a bottle.  Very grateful lambs!  Tried stripping both udders again but really cant get anything out.  Very hard and hot both sides.  Kill or cure, gave her another jab of pen and strep.  Will ring vet first thing.  thanks for your support everyone.

[Bramblecot]

I think our vet supplied oxytocin which lets down the milk (no expert here ).  Good luck

[Marches Farmer]

Bad luck!  Watch the lambs - if they've been hungry their immune systems may be compromised.  If it turns into black bag you may need to put pour on on her udder once the flies get going.

[trish.farm]

Update on mastitis ewe. Spoke to vet this morning, who have to admit wasnt overly helpful!  Told me to hand rear lambs and cull the ewe!!  EEEkk!!  Anyway, after persuading him that i would like to try my hardest to save the udder and ewe, he told me to inject with Amycylin for 3 days everyday, not to keep trying to strip her as nothing is coming out and bags are rock hard.  Check she is eating and drinking (thought that was obvious!) and put lambs on bottle.  Ewe eating and drinking well and although udder is rock hard it does seem slightly cooler than yesterday.  She wont let me near teats anymore so leaving her be!  Lambs are still with her but on a bottle. Hoping to leave them with mum, bottle feed and once she is looking better return them to the wee flock and just carry on bottle feeding.  Fingers crossed the udder survives otherwise its retirement paddock for Padmae! such a shame as she is an amazing mum who has cracking lambs.

[Sbom]

If you have a dairy farm local I would call in and see if you can buy a couple of penicillin tubes to inject into each teat. Can't see it coming right with just an injection, certainly wouldn't work in a cow. If you can get some tubes I'd use 1/3 per quarter per day.
Just what I'd do anyhow.....surprised the vet didn't suggest tubes

[trish.farm]

I asked about the tubes but he said just to inject her!  Have got a friend on a dairy so will ring them tonight. thanks