[trish.farm]

update on my ewe with mastitis.  Thanks for everyones advice!!  Managed to get some antibiotics to go up her teats last week from next door dairy (lovely man!) did her for 3 days. She now has cool but very floppy udders with no milk, no black yucky lumps or anything horrible so hopefully saved the udders for next year!  Lambs are still with their mum, come running across the field with her in hot pursuit when they see me coming with their bottles! One of the lambs is still trying to feed from mum and only takes half  the amount of powdered milk compared to its twin, and looks a wee bit puny for it, but they are both surviving.  Get them all in at night as it makes midnight bottle feeding easier and the one night I tried to leave them out they were both frozen in the morning.  Obviously getting cold as they arnt feeding overnight like normal lambs.

[SteveHants]

update on my ewe with mastitis.  Thanks for everyones advice!!  Managed to get some antibiotics to go up her teats last week from next door dairy (lovely man!) did her for 3 days. She now has cool but very floppy udders with no milk, no black yucky lumps or anything horrible so hopefully saved the udders for next year!  Lambs are still with their mum, come running across the field with her in hot pursuit when they see me coming with their bottles! One of the lambs is still trying to feed from mum and only takes half  the amount of powdered milk compared to its twin, and looks a wee bit puny for it, but they are both surviving.  Get them all in at night as it makes midnight bottle feeding easier and the one night I tried to leave them out they were both frozen in the morning.  Obviously getting cold as they arnt feeding overnight like normal lambs.

Firstly - get those lambs away from mum, especially the one that is trying to suck, I imagine that is pretty damn painful for the mother.


Secondly - do not breed from it again - you may not have saved the udder (in fact I doubt you have) - the fact that it is no longer hot does not mean you have saved its function. In the highly unlikley event that you have, you are risking either: the same thing happening again next year or the udder not working at all which is either incredibly cruel on the ewe or  her lambs or both.


Get it better as quickly as possible and cull it as soon as it is well for pity's sake. To breed form it again is quite frankly awful animal welfare.

[Fishyhaddock]

Hi there, we has a ewe with mastitis and had the vet out and treated with antibiotics but the teat was wrecked and unfortunately we had to let her go later in the year. She is the only one in our flock to date to get it but we were advised not to breed from her again. Sorry nothing positive to add. Fishy.

[trish.farm]

Thanks for your polite reply Fishyhaddock and thanks for your blunt reply Steve! Ewe is mothering her lambs and totally oblivious when the one twin has a half hearted suck on her teats.  Had loads of people and a vet tell me she could be ok to breed from next year and as she wont be culled, will just be retired, I dont need to worry about getting rid of her!!

[farmvet]

Well done on saving the ewe & udder so far.  You could ask your vet to ultrasound the udder before the tups go out to decide whether to rebreed her.  Its a very simple procedure that can give a good indication of the amount of scarring, tiny abscesses etc in the bag & teat fibrosis.  Or just rebred & be prepared to twin on or bottle rear if need be.  There is sometimes a genetic predisposition to mastitis though so keep an eye if you breed her daughters.

[trish.farm]

thanks farmvet, her offspring all go in the freezer as i only have 1 ram so no worries about that. Will definitly get an ultrasound later in the summer.  she is a fantastic ewe and mother and i will do all i can to ensure her welfare is put first!! Bit offended by an earlier comment and now rather loathed to ask any advice on here.

[Ladygrey]

Glad that she is looking good we get mastitis in the dairy cows (like everyone does) and of course we tube them and try our hardest to get them well again, sometimes they can be saved and sometimes they cant!
But we all have to try!