First of all, I'm new to goat keeping. My 3 yr old Toggenberg had twins a week ago, she lost one. I had a tough time(being a novice doesn't help) getting her started milking, could'nt get flow. The kid favored one side and I milked the other. The side being nursed is huge! Well today my "side" had only a few squirts and the other side was engorged. I finally was able to milk her down and she produced 2 quarts or so. I had difficulty getting the flow, but once I did it took me 20 minutes it seemed. To my dismay the milk was tinged red-brown. I dumped it and now at a loss how to treat her if it is mastitis. I saw no chunks or thick flow. What now? Thank you all.

-- jeff Schuler (jmprint@epix.net), February 09, 2000

Answers

Jeff, take a sample of the milk( both sides) too your vet. If she has mastitis he will give you a tube of anti-bi. stuff to put in the goats bag. Also if the goats utter is hard and real hot means infection. I wouldn't wait too long to do this, cause the longer you wait the more damage is done to the utter. Lots of times if you ketch it right away there is no damage done. Make sure your goat always beds done on clean straw. It helps to keep the mastitis away. Sometimes goats are prone to get mastitis. In 10 years of goat keeping i have only had one case. Well good luck

-- Linda Hess (hesscat@cot.net), February 10, 2000.

No doubt about it, if the milk is brown, she probably does have masitis. The only other thing it could be is blood. Sometimes a goat will have some broken blood vessels in her udder when she first freshens or if the udder has been damaged or hurt in some way. If it's blood, it should subside in a few days.If the side you usually milk was empty and the kid's side was full and tight,what has happened is that their side is painful and she won't let them nurse on it. Watch them and see if she's kicking at them when they nurse on that side. Are they buck kids? Bucks are harder on udders than does. What you need to do is get some bag balmand a bunch of clean rags. Old washclothes or old towels cut to washcloth size would be perfect.Boil some water and then let it cool until it is still quite hot, too hot to put your hands in. If you have dried peppermint, you can put that in the water and it will help her. Now lock her in a milking stand, and milk out all the milk you can, but be gentle, because that udder is really hurting her.Then take one of the clean rags, put it in the water and wring it out, and apply that to her udder. Move it around if necessary to make sure that all the hard part gets the heat and moisture. When it cools off and is just warm, take it off and put another on. Her udder will start to soften, and then you can get a little more milk out. Keep applying the hot compresses until all the milk is out and the udder is softened up. Get every drop you can out of there. She will probably kick, because it is hurting her- just be patient and talk to her kindly. After the first time she will understand that you are helping her. After she is all milked out and softened up, apply a liberal coat of bag balm to the udder, massaging it in gently. The kid is probably not going to need all the milk that the goat is giving out of one side.I would milk out both sides every time, you don't need to worry, the kid will get enough milk, leaving too much in there could easily cause mastitis. Feel free to e-mail me if you need any more help, I have treated a lot of mastitis and often the chemicals are not necessary if you get right to work. In fact I have had several cases that chemicals would not clear up, but the above treatment did.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@transport.com), February 10, 2000.

PS. You should repeat that treatment at least twice a day at milking time until the udder is back to normal. It might also help her to give her some cider vinegar and molasses in a bucket of warm water. Don't know why that helps but it seems to.Let us know how she does.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@transport.com), February 11, 2000.

Rebekah's method has worked very well for me, too, especially with injury-induced mastitis such as the udder being too full, butting kids or hitting it when she moves around. Is the udder high and tight or does it get bounced when she walks or runs? Do your fingers leave an imprint on the udder? I always associate that with edema and the heat and massage works wonders to improve blood flow. I had a doe that had the red-brown stain everytime she freshened requiring hours of massage, heat and stripping. I finally culled her to the freezer. Stripping all milk as often as possible will also dilute whatever pathogen might be growing in the udder and allow her immune system to overcome it more easily. Good luck with her.

-- Marilyn (rainbow@ktis.net), February 11, 2000.

My Tog seems to be doing fine. I finally got the technique to milking her. Her tinged milk is clearing up. Her udder is neither hard nor hot. I've been doing bag balm massages. She has been very cooperative and not kicking or"yelling"at me! She is lop-sided,though. One side yields 1.5qts./per milking and the other only a few ounces. I milk both sides down. I will pick up a mastitis kit to double check, but I think it was a burst blood vessel problem and me unable to milk her properly.(thinking the kids would handle it) Hopefully,I'll be able to help balance the sides to stimulate flow on the "weak" side. Thank you for your help. I enjoy this forum.

-- Jeff Schuler (jmprint@epix.net), February 12, 2000.

Jeff, Rebekkah, really knows her goats, i've read a lot of her advice and it is always good. You have no milk on one side cause your goat has had or has mastitis now. It would be to your advantage to treat her for mastitis, cause it will stop further damage to the udder. Next time, milk out the side the kids nurse from at least once a day. When they are small, they can not empty the udder of a good producing doe and toggs are good producers. Also, the apple- cider vinegar in the drinking water helps prevent so many problems, it does not take much, a cup or two per five gallon bucket. karen

-- karen mauk (dairygoatmama@yahoo.com), February 15, 2000.

Hi

Just have a comment to add here, you need to treat right away. i hope she is feeling better and the problem cleared up. For if she doesn't it could damage the side of the udder and milk production if it is mastitus. I have not had this yet, Knock on wood, however, if it does happen i will use Today and tomorrow to treat. I aslo use Fight Back after milking to close off the orfice to fight bacteria that can cause mastitus. I learned this from show folks. Hope this helps. best rule of thubmvb here is to take a sample for testing to find uout what type of mastitus it may be. There is a type, subclinical, that can be very harmful. its almost non sympotmatic til too late. Bernice

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), February 21, 2000.

Has anyone tried the method discribed by Pat Coleby in an article entitled, "Letting Nature Do The Work," in The Goat Farmer Magazine (http://www.caprine.co.nz/magazines/July99/goat_health.htm)? Her articles, of which they have several, seem practical and lean toward natural methods when at all possible.

In the article referenced above, a dairy woman, Maura Mackay, tells her the best solution to mastitis problems is "to start supplementing the entire herd with dolomite and the trouble would clear up..." I believe this is called dolomitic limestone in the agri industry. She continues, "Thanks to Maura Mackay I, and countless dairy farmers, have virtually stopped worrying about mastitis."

At the bottom of the article it says that Pat Coleby is the author of a book, Natural Goat Care and it gives an address & phone number in Australia.

-- Neva

-- Neva Alsip (neva@galstar.com), September 23, 2000.

Jeff I doubt very seriously you have mastitis, with not milking the one side she simply dried it up and with the pressure of just one kid nursing and not all the colostrum milked out of the "big" side, she burst some capillaries and the brown milk was simply old blood. Now that you have the big side milked out the milk is normal, perfectly normal. I would just milk out both sides morning and night after the kid has had a chance to nurse, you might get lucky and get some production from the other side. Use good clean management even though you will just be emptying after the kid, prewash with wet onces and post dip with a commercial post dip or just spary the teat with water in a spray bottle that has a small amount of bleach in it. Let her finish her grain on the milk stand to further allow the orifice to close. Good luck with your doe. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), September 23, 2000.