# One bad teat in first freshener



## singinggoatgirl (Apr 13, 2016)

Blondie is a 21 month old first freshener Nigerian Dwarf with a teat problem. Her right teat is fine, the orifice is not the biggest in the world, but fine enough to milk out. Her left side is REALLY hard to milk out. It feels like the orifice is just really tiny. It takes me squeezing really hard to get the milk out. The teat fills up just fine, the milk just doesn't want to come out. No wax coating on the tip - she's had twin doelings on her for 4 weeks sucking away merrily and getting bigger. The baby that uses that side doesn't know that there is anything better. Tried feeling along the teat for lump, bumps, anything wrong. There might be the tiniest bead of something 1/8th inch above the orifice, but that bead of something is the size of a grain of sand or smaller. I can barely feel this "something" when I feel along the teat for problems. 

It doesn't look like mastitis - milk is clean and sweet with no lumps, stringyness, or blood. No heat or lumpiness in the udder.

1. Is that "piece of sand" my problem? I've sat there massaging it for a couple minutes every day for a month, trying to get it to move, and it just won't leave. Plus, her baby is sucking on that teat all day every day. In a human, the only fix for a blocked duct is for baby to milk mom out, but baby has been doing that for a month. 

2. Could she just have one tiny orifice and one bigger one? Has anyone experienced this before - a genetic size difference between teat orifices?


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## TexasGoatMan (Jul 4, 2015)

I have encountered something like what you have described but I believe it was in a cow. One teat milks very easy and another is difficult to get a good stream to flow. So I would say that is very possible your problem. It may get better with time.


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## Goat_Scout (Mar 23, 2017)

I had something like this happen the other day with my Nubian goat, Matilda, who kidded with a single buckling on the 20th of January. 
We just started separating her kid overnight and milking her in the morning. 
The first day I milked her, everything was working properly (except for her attitude/patience, but that’s beside the point). 
The second day, one teat was clogged up and I finally was able to pull this weird teensy wee black lookin’ thing (plug?) out of it, but after that, the stream of milk was so weak and small! It didn’t feel as if anything else was plugging up her teat though. :/ I ended up taking her kid to her and letting him nurse on that particular teat for a moment or two - and he somehow got it unplugged and I was able to milk her out with ease. 
Next day the same thing happened and I used the same method of unplugging it. On the third day (this morning) that stubborn plug wasn’t so stubborn anymore and came right out with the first squirt. 

I’m not sure if that is the same problem you’re having, but it might be worth a try!


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## goat girls (Dec 13, 2017)

The little black thing is a spider ( I think) I know in a cow that thy block up the teat from the inside.


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## wifeof1 (Mar 18, 2016)

goat girls said:


> The little black thing is a spider ( I think) I know in a cow that thy block up the teat from the inside.


Like an eight legged Charlottes web type spider?


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## goat girls (Dec 13, 2017)

No, that's just what it's called. It's a chunk of.........something.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

Lol I was thinking 8 legs too! I was like what in the world kind of spiders do you have! I just call them chunks lol but I’ve only ever had white ones not black!


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## Goats Rock (Jun 20, 2011)

You can try a teat dialator. Dr. Naylor makes them. Plastic little things with a lubricant. I wipe the teat end with alcohol, insert the dialator and use teat tape to make sure it is held in place until you milk. Gently pull it straight out and milking might be easier.

But, you can't let her be with the kids. As with anything you insert, you could introduce bacteria into the teat canal and cause an infection or mastitis. You can also tear the teat canal if she jumps etc. while you are inserting it.


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## TexasGoatMan (Jul 4, 2015)

After some time to think on this subject and let my ole brain cells work a little, I remembered the occasion that I encountered a like incident. It was with a Dexter cow. She had one teat that was very easy to milk with a good stream of milk that was the front teat on the left side, the two back teats were smaller and a little more difficult to milk as the orifices were some smaller, However the right front teat was the largest teat and difficult for the calf to suck. So I had to hand milk it for a while to get it down in size small enough for the calf to be able to nurse it and it was very difficult to milk. I had to squeeze the teat as hard as I could to get a small stream to flow. After several milkings the size of the teat would go down enough for the calf to nurse and the calf could then handle it. So yes the orifices can be of different size from teat to teat on the same animal.:2c:


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## singinggoatgirl (Apr 13, 2016)

I'm going to guess that it's just genetic, then, from all your inputs. I don't think a dilator will be an option for us. Knowing her, she'd end up bucking right at the wrong moment and rip her teat.


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

All good advice.


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## mariarose (Oct 23, 2014)

This has been a very interesting and educational thread. Especially that "spider" thingamabob. I've net encountered a more difficult teat orifice on a FF, so I've probably always put it down to some sort of trauma or misdevelopment in a girl's past. Not to a genetic element.


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## groovyoldlady (Jul 21, 2011)

My Nigerian had the same problem. It is probably a calcium stone. My vet had me give my doe a shot of banamine, wait 30 minutes, then put her on the milk stand. I put a bowl under her and just kept working and working with my fingertips until the little stone finally popped out through the orifice. That was on her second or third freshening and hasn't happened since.

My doe was surprisingly calm while I did it. Three cheers for banamine!


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## mariarose (Oct 23, 2014)

groovyoldlady said:


> Three cheers for banamine!


I'm laughing, I HAVE to laugh, with someone named Groovy cheering for drugs. I cheer for them as well but it isn't nearly as funny, somehow.


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## singinggoatgirl (Apr 13, 2016)

Groovy, if you had the sane existence, I'll try it and ask our vet and see if I can get some banamine. I'd hate to make decisions about her breeding future over something that can be fixed, like a calcium stone.


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## singinggoatgirl (Apr 13, 2016)

Is there a milk withdrawal time for banamine? I've got growing kids, so I wouldn't want steroids in their drinking milk...


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## singinggoatgirl (Apr 13, 2016)

Wait, is banamine based on steroids, or something else?


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## groovyoldlady (Jul 21, 2011)

singinggoatgirl said:


> Wait, is banamine based on steroids, or something else?


Banamine is an anti-inflammatory. You do not need to worry about the kids or yourself. We drank Annika's milk when I treated her.

I know the stone in the teat thing is wicked annoying. Don't be afraid to try to get it out through the orifice. I say that, of course, as someone who was almost sick to her stomach fretting about it! And it really WASN'T a big ordeal. Annika's was fairly big. I kept messing with it and occasionally giving her a peanut as a treat. Suddenly I felt the stone start to crumble and was able to work all the pieces out. It truly didn't seem to bother Annie at all.

Let us know how it goes.


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## groovyoldlady (Jul 21, 2011)

mariarose said:


> I'm laughing, I HAVE to laugh, with someone named Groovy cheering for drugs. I cheer for them as well but it isn't nearly as funny, somehow.


*snort* When my oldest daughter (she's 30 some odd years old now)was a teen, she was appalled and horrified when her dad and I called meds like Tylenol "drugs".

"Mom, my legs ache."
"Well, we have drugs for that."
*gasp**horror* "MO-OM!!!!"

Her dad is a registered nurse. So he'd pull out one of his nursing texts and say, "Hey sweetie, we own a Drug Handbook not a Medicine Handbook."

(You can see the current version of his drug handbook here: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Nursing-...75035&wl11=online&wl12=55564065&wl13=&veh=sem )

She insisted we were STILL out of line. C'est la vie!


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## singinggoatgirl (Apr 13, 2016)

Thanks! Will do!


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## mariarose (Oct 23, 2014)

groovyoldlady said:


> She insisted we were STILL out of line.


Teens can be such squares...


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## coso (Sep 19, 2011)

Milk stone !! you just have to work it out !


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## groovyoldlady (Jul 21, 2011)

Have you tried it yet? What happened?


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## singinggoatgirl (Apr 13, 2016)

I was going to do it today, because it's finally warmish and I wouldn't be freezing my tail off, and then I felt around in the same spot, and no grain of something was there! I saw specks in the milk yesterday, but figured it was just hay bits falling out of her fur as she shifted her weight, but maybe it was the stone crumbling out? Not sure. It's slightly easier to milk her now, but not by much, so unless I find the stone again, she really does have a wimpy tiny orifice on her left side. I'll check it again tonight when I go to feed them, but it might be gone on it's own after 2 months of sitting there.


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