My three year old doe who freshend on the first of Janurary has begun to give me a lot of trouble when I am milking her. she was very patient and easy to milk at first-and we have had no trouble, until the last week. she just kicks and dances around the stand the entire time! I have checked her for mastitis-all is clear-and everything appears normal-she showns no sypmtoms except for one thing. she has developed a couple of sores on her teats-up by er udder. They are small-and look a little bit like a small blister-there is fluid in them-but doesn't appear to be pus. The first one was about two weeks ago-I did my best to milk around it because it seemed tender for two days-then it dried up and fell off-looked a bit like a blood blister. At that time she was a bit tender in the area of the blister-but behaved fine for milking, and then returned to normal after it fell off.

I noticed that there appears to be two or three other blisters now-all drying up now. I spoke wiht a breeder near me and she said that she has seen this in a couple of goats over the years, and her vet called it a form of goat pox. and said that there is not much to do for it-it is a virus that has to run its course. I asked her about isolation-and she said that her vet said there was no need. At this point-if I should isolate her from the others I amnot sure if it would do any good. I am only milking one goat now-the other three are pregnant, and dry.

Any help or advice? the vet the breeder had is no longer around this area, and there are no others who are familiar with goats. I will check out that 911 site too. I just wanted to know if anyone has ever seen thins and how they treated it.

Sarah

-- sarah (heartsongacres@juno.com), February 18, 2001

Answers

I had a goat that had ulcers on her udder after she kidded. Vicki McG helped me with this one wonderfully. Look in the Goat section of the archives. I had to inject my goatwoman with antibiotics and stuff. She did recover nicely. Good luck.

-- Gailann Schrader (gtschrader@aol.com), February 19, 2001.

Sarah

I can't help with the blisters, but here's some help for the kicking problem so you can get through this until the blisters heal up. Go to http://www.sundaycreek.com/goat_info_.htm for pictures of a milking tether I designed. These are easy to make and use. If you need clarification on the tether feel free to email me.

-- Skip Walton (sundaycreek@gnrac.net), February 19, 2001.

Sarah, I had the same thing happen once and discovered it was the udder wash I was using. It was way too harsh. Now I just use water and have not had any problem. Cindy

-- Cindy (ourfamilyfarm@email.msn.com), February 23, 2001.

I had this happen last year with a first freshener. We determined that it was a staph infection. Its not all that uncommon especially in winter when the goats spend more time inside and in contact with bedding. One piece of advice I got was to use a mastitis product called Today for cows only apply it topically to the lesions. When I went to the vet to get it she said that she believed it was a viral thing and that in her experience with cows that it resolves itself. So we just left her and sure enough it did. Once they have it they won't get it again.

-- Amy (gshep@aeroinc.net), February 25, 2001.