Mastitis?

[thankful_k]

Total newbie with goats ... Mom is about 36 hours post partum, two kids, both are "okay", not terribly active though. Her udder seems fairly big, and her teats do not look like the other goat's, much longer and thicker. When the kids go to nurse mom pushes them away with her foot. I got her cornered in the barn (none of the goats let me near them) and while she would let me put my hand on her back, just barely touching the teat would cause her to swing her horns at my hand. Even bit at me once.

 

[Pearl]

Yes, mastitis, vet time. Sometimes you can hand nurse them down, if not she may need antibiotics. Bottle feed the babies now!!

 

[Peanut]

I'm glad Pearl spoke up... in all my years working with beef cattle I've never seen mastitis. An adjoining farm was a diary. Heard my neighbor speak about it in his holstein herd occasionally.

It's been treated naturally for millennia, if interested I've put a great book on treating livestock naturally for a wide range of issues. It's by Juliette de Bairacli Levy, a renowned veterinarian. It was written long ago but is still applicable today.

For mastitis in goats... the Levy book mentions feeding her lots of garlic and ginger (both have antibacterial properties).

Also I use a species of juniper as a general tonic anytime I have chickens or cattle that are sick or injured. Goat owners recommended it to me, one friend has used it for decades. Does wonders for the over all health of farm critters. Horses, cattle, deer and goats will take a bite of juniper from time to time. The small trees grow at the edges of my pastures etc.

This link is to a post I made on juniper, in it is a link to the Levy book and other great plant medicine books.

https://www.homesteadingforum.org/threads/cedar-oil-of-cedar.9869/
Also a link to a "Reference Guide for Mastitis-Causing Bacteria". Covers 18 of the most common nasties. It's in reference to bovine mastitis but the same bacteria cause it in goats too.

https://dairy-cattle.extension.org/reference-guide-for-mastitis-causing-bacteria/

 

[thankful_k]

Yes, mastitis, vet time. Sometimes you can hand nurse them down, if not she may need antibiotics. Bottle feed the babies now!!

I've actually tried feeding the kids with a bottle, they won't take it. I need one hand to hold the kid, one to restrain the head, and one to hold the bottle.

And mama goat will NOT be handled. I'll be lucky to get her into the trailer.

 

[sonya123]

What do you mean the goat will not be handled? It's a goat, not a bull....just pull her by the horns....lol
We have had 1 goat with mastitis, but yours doesn't look that bad. Are you sure? What you need to do is restrain her somehow ( we have a milk stand they can't get out of ) , tie her up if you need to and milk her. She looks easy to milk ( large nipples) . If the milk comes out funny , it is mastitis ( like curdled milk, bloody or smells funny). If not she is just full, and you need to milk her by hand and feed the bottle to the babies. The babies will drink it when hungry. Are you sure she is not feeding the babies when you are not looking? The does will push the babies away when they have had enough.
We took the one with mastitis to the vet and here is what he told us: milk her out twice a day as good as you can. Feed the babies milk replacer and leave them with the mom ( ours did not push them away) and see if it improves. It did she recovered but her udder remained a little lumpy so we send her to the auction when the babies were old enough
To feed the baby goats , open their mouth and stuff the bottle in there they will get it eventually

Good luck

wait, one more thing: do not feed any grain or alfalfa hay!! Just grass hay

thought of something else: with the mastitis, the udder will feel very warm almost hot and lumpy. Ours did anyway

https://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?pgguid=A287DA23-F2B8-4CBD-B56E-547A549F1BA0
get one of these, they are very useful if you have to milk a goat that doe snot want to be milked

 

[thankful_k]

Good news (I think)

So I took the cat to the vet today and while there I showed them the pics of the goat, and they were not convinced it was anything serious, but left open the possibility. They advised me to tackler her however I could, and try to milk each side. So ... tonight, just now, I got her corralled in the barn, just her and her babies, and ... they were nursing, and she wasn't kicking nearly as much, they kids were latching on and staying on for like ten seconds at a time, and she was tolerating the head-butting milk-stimulating thing they do. Well that seemed like a good sign. So I let that happen for about 10 minutes, and was ready to leave well enough alone, but they told me to check and besides I wanted to make sure.

The fight was not nearly as bad as I feared. I approached slowly, giving her space, letting her maneuver, and then grabbed both horns at the base, as I've read to do. Then it was easier to pull the goat in close (but not biting close), and just hold still and firm, lots of shhhhhh's and calm voice. She struggled, and ran with me for a few seconds, but eventually calmed down and accepted that she was caught. Then I backed slowly her into a corner, and got her left horn with left hand and just stayed still, and just petted her. And miracle of miracles ... she didn't fight one bit when I went for the utter & teats. She was scared, breathing fast eyes wide and unblinking.

The milk was pure white and clean from both teats ... no stink, no pus, no blood. That's a relief.

Then -- and I swear I'm not making this up -- I let go of her horns, and she stayed stock still, and actually let me milk her again. I could pet and rub her (not the ears and face, no sir, don't push it, mister) and I watched as her eyes started to do the more relaxed and slower blinking, which I'm sure means she was calming down.

It was both relieving to know the milk was both flowing and not bad, and that she was letting the kids nurse, and rewarding knowing I went a step further getting her to trust me.

 

[Pearl]

Good news (I think)

So I took the cat to the vet today and while there I showed them the pics of the goat, and they were not convinced it was anything serious, but left open the possibility. They advised me to tackler her however I could, and try to milk each side. So ... tonight, just now, I got her corralled in the barn, just her and her babies, and ... they were nursing, and she wasn't kicking nearly as much, they kids were latching on and staying on for like ten seconds at a time, and she was tolerating the head-butting milk-stimulating thing they do. Well that seemed like a good sign. So I let that happen for about 10 minutes, and was ready to leave well enough alone, but they told me to check and besides I wanted to make sure.

The fight was not nearly as bad as I feared. I approached slowly, giving her space, letting her maneuver, and then grabbed both horns at the base, as I've read to do. Then it was easier to pull the goat in close (but not biting close), and just hold still and firm, lots of shhhhhh's and calm voice. She struggled, and ran with me for a few seconds, but eventually calmed down and accepted that she was caught. Then I backed slowly her into a corner, and got her left horn with left hand and just stayed still, and just petted her. And miracle of miracles ... she didn't fight one bit when I went for the utter & teats. She was scared, breathing fast eyes wide and unblinking.

The milk was pure white and clean from both teats ... no stink, no pus, no blood. That's a relief.

Then -- and I swear I'm not making this up -- I let go of her horns, and she stayed stock still, and actually let me milk her again. I could pet and rub her (not the ears and face, no sir, don't push it, mister) and I watched as her eyes started to do the more relaxed and slower blinking, which I'm sure means she was calming down.

It was both relieving to know the milk was both flowing and not bad, and that she was letting the kids nurse, and rewarding knowing I went a step further getting her to trust me.

Handle her as much as possible. Sounds like everything is going to be fine!!

 

[sonya123]

Glad she is ok!
If you ever see one side of the udder much smaller, that's normal also, sometimes the kids just drink out of one side and it ends up looking lopsided