I asked earlier about the swollen udder/teet in one of my kids. I have since seperated the kids from their mother. I checked the udder and it does indeed have milk in it.

What causes this and how do I treat it? Will this condition affect its milking/nursing ability in the future?

I intend to have the kid bred this fall/winter.

-- R. (thor610@yahoo.com), July 27, 2001

Answers

I have had a few of my does develop a precousis udder. Its a hormonal "thing" for lack of better wording. Some folks say they milk more if they ahve one as a yearling (or kid), however, i haven't had enough goats with them yet to freshen to see if there is any truth to it. I have raised goats for a number of years but not really with the genetics that i am now. I did have one a few yrs ago with a precousis udder, she did freshen and was/is a heavy proucer.

Watch for mastitis, but mostly I was told that to just leave it be. So i did, and no problems.

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), July 27, 2001.

Agree with Bernice. If it comes in evenly than it is hormonal. If it is coming in only on one side than it is mastitis. You can choose to milk her if you want, if she is coming in evenly. In our LaMancha's with percocious udder the ones who came in evenly went on to be very nice milkers with very nice udders, the ones with the uneven udder which we treated for mastitis, never went on to have the even udder we needed to show, though were excellent family milkers. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), July 27, 2001.

When you say evenly, do you mean both udders?

Only one udder is swollen with milk. I have never had any experience with mastitis before. I thought that would only happen with a nursing/ milking doe.

-- R. (thor610@yahoo.com), July 28, 2001.

If it is just one half of the udder affected I would take a milk sample to be cultured for appropriated treatment for mastitis. There are many things that can happen to cause mastitis, injury being one of them.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), July 28, 2001.

R., yes she can freshen with mastitis. It can be introduced from messing with the orifice, the hole to the teat has this waxy buildup in it and some children and other nursing goat kids, mess with it, which opens the udder up to bacteria. She can also be harboring staph from nursing a mom with staph mastitis. So if one half of her udder is producing milk, than this would not be hormonal, but bacteria. Usual course is to just like Diane said, have the milk sample tested for the bacteria. Since it is more than likely staph, you could also milk out the udder, clean the teat, and infuse an udder infusion for dry cows, in it that is cleared for the use in a cow with staph mastitis. We have lots of other threads in the archives about this, you could read for hours.............Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), July 28, 2001.