I have been raising dairy goats for 12 years now. Last week one of my nubian does gave birth to two does. This was a normal delivery and everything has been well; until yesterday. With no sign of a hard udder; or fever; or striings. No mastitis on the test strip. Yet, she has blood in her milk. Alot! What do I do? I milk her in the a.m. and p.m. She is a heavy milker. Should I be milking her in the afternoon also? She is alone in a small yard with the kids so there is no danger of butting from the other goats. She doesn't have enough space to run and bruise her udder. The kids are very gentle and don't butt her for milk. In fact, I have them on a bottle and today is the first day that I have allowed them to be with mom. I have done this routine successfully for many years. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

-- sissy sylvester (jerreleene@hotmail.com), February 19, 2000

Answers

Sissy, it happens quite a lot for heavy producers to have blood in their milk. The more you milk her the faster the milk will clear up. Might take a week or so. This is also common in cows too.

-- Linda Hess (hesscat@cot.net), February 19, 2000.

Hi!! I guess you have been raising goats longer than I, its been 10 yrs. for us now. we presently raise registered alpines. The blood in the milk could be a broken vessel somewhere in the teat or udder too. We had a heavy milker who had blood in the milk, not right after kidding, and were told it was a broken vessel. I have a heavy milker now, but she does not have any problems with blood in the milk, she milks close to 4,500 pounds of milk a year. You could try milking her in the pm and go 3x's a day since she is a heavy milker. I know a lot of people who show will milk their heavy producers 3 x's per day. I just milk twice, don't have the time. Watch her milk and hopefully in a few days it will clear up. Hope this helps.

Bernice

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), February 19, 2000.

I also had this problem with one of my nanny's this year. I tested for mastitis with a negative result. After about a week the blood was gone and the milk was ok to drink again. I have talked with others about this and it seems to be a pretty common occurance. Unless there are other symptons along with it, and its not a considerable amount of blood I wouldn't worry about it.

-- Tanya Boyd (tboyd@adams.net), March 14, 2001.