# New doe has udder lumps



## MSummers (Jul 7, 2018)

Hi everyone, new member here and also new to dairy goats as well. I used to raise pygmies, but have found out in a hurry dairy goats are a whole different world. Let me give yall some history. 
I raised two Nubian bucks from bottle babies (they are 7 months old now), and decided I was ready to purchase a couple does that would at some point be introduced to my bucks to start my own little herd. Boys are in their own pasture and pretty content. I had been looking for months until I ran across a guy selling a Nubian doe (about 2 yrs old) and her doeling (about 1 month old), pictures looked good however he wasn't able to give me a lot of info on the pair, said a friend gave them to him... Brought the pair home and immediately doe started going downhill. Coughing, nasal discharge, weight loss, lethargic, and udder health poor (very lumpy feeling and full). Doeling as healthy as can be so far. This was on a Saturday, so I had to get through weekend until vet could make a house call. I took does temp. no fever, COULD NOT get any milk to come out of udder (very full but not hot), and immediately started offering plenty of fresh water, very good quality hay, access to woods for roughage, and a little grain. I went ahead and made the decision to start her on LA200 for possible pneumonia (to treat runny nose and cough), I wormed her with Safeguard paste for tapeworms and Ivermectin 1% injectable administered orally for all other stomach worms (very pale eyelids and noticeable weight loss). That is what I had on hand until vet could come that next week. Vet comes out the following Tuesday, started her on Nuflor to help knock out rest of possible pneumonia, and start treating what was suspected as mastitis. Guy I bought her from said he had been milking her...no. Poor girls teats were completely blocked and nothing would come out. Vet reopened teats and milked her out completely, just a note - milk had no discoloration, smell, chunks or stringiness of any kind. Vet advised me to milk out twice a day or more if needed for a while and afterwards insert Today teat medication. After teats were opened up, there hasn't been any more issues with milking, other then she would jump around at first and wiggle a bit. Udders looked better but still small lumps in one quarter. Vet also left me with a tube of Respond vitamin paste to give everyday for several days to help with appetite and energy level. Vet sent off blood sample for CAE and CL tests, which since last visit both came back negative. That was a month ago.
So as of a week ago- no cough, no nasal discharge, energy level good, appetite good (even though she's still too skinny). Milking reduced to every other day, then this week I stopped milking completely so she'll start to dry up, very, very full udder. And that's where we come to the current issues...one of the lumps that I had just assumed would just always be there and were either a milk cyst or scar tissue of some sort, ruptured. These lumps are not on outside of udder, they are inside and never bothered her before when I felt of them. But now, they must be very sore because she jumps around a lot when I doctor them. Going on 3 days now, I have been squeezing out all puss, which is not the dreaded toothpaste consistency of the feared CL, it is just cream colored and liquidy, then I spray Bactrine on it. The other little lump right above the ruptured one now looks ready to pop at any time, and I can only assume since udder has filled to capacity it is forcing these to pop. But that's a guess. Also, now there is a tennis ball sized lump that has formed very suddenly, and looks to be in the opposite quarter. I am suspecting walled off staph at this point, but I don't know. Vet is on vacation and won't be back till next week. If this is staph inside udder, what if anything will fix her up? Maybe Tomorrow teat injections mixed with Naxcel? Will this doe always have staph, and will it always come back year after year? Does this mean her baby automatically has it? Is she contagious to any other goats we have from now on? 
Sorry for such a long post, but I wanted to be as thorough as possible. Any ideas or advice is appreciated. I will try to post pictures so yall can see what I have been seeing.


----------



## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Wow. Is there another vet in the practice that can come out? I'd have the pus cultured to see what will work. That udder is terrible even without the mastitis and staph problem.


----------



## Goats Rock (Jun 20, 2011)

That is too bad that her udder is in such bad shape. I hope you can at least make her comfortable. Do you have any Banamine? I don't think I would breed her if she were mine.


----------



## intrepid-dreamer (Jan 2, 2017)

Your doe has a blown udder. At some point, probably her first kidding, but maybe this one considering the condition she was in when you got her, she was allowed to get WAY to full and it blew out her teats for sure, and the abscesses are probably where the udder tissue inside weakened and it fills with milk when she gets overfull. She was also severely congested when you got her and that means the milk had to go somewhere.


----------



## MSummers (Jul 7, 2018)

intrepid-dreamer said:


> Your doe has a blown udder. At some point, probably her first kidding, but maybe this one considering the condition she was in when you got her, she was allowed to get WAY to full and it blew out her teats for sure, and the abscesses are probably where the udder tissue inside weakened and it fills with milk when she gets overfull. She was also severely congested when you got her and that means the milk had to go somewhere.


Vet is coming out tomorrow. I gave her some baby aspirin, that's all I had through the weekend. Will update after she comes.


----------



## MSummers (Jul 7, 2018)

Goats Rock said:


> That is too bad that her udder is in such bad shape. I hope you can at least make her comfortable. Do you have any Banamine? I don't think I would breed her if she were mine.


No banamine...I only had baby aspirin so I gave her that through the weekend. Vet coming out tomorrow, will update.


----------



## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Yes, let us know what they say.


----------



## MSummers (Jul 7, 2018)

Unfortunately my doe took a turn for the worst over the weekend...by the time the vet got out here yesterday she was not wanting to get up, would only eat a handful of fresh fruit, her udder was extremely hot, she had started having a cough again, and once she drained the largest lump, we found at least 20 more...with a heavy heart I decided to let my vet put her down. The infection had moved into one of her back legs and she was all of a sudden limping. I have to say, I was shocked at how fast she went downhill from the original vet visit. Everything was going well until I tried starting to dry her off. The fuller her bag got, the lumps seemed to grow dramatically and the three that raised to the skins surface ruptured quickly and became very sore. Vet still doesn't believe she had CL but almost certain walled off staph of some kind. I still requested the pus culture be sent off, because in the long run I need to know what was on my farm, and if the doeling has been exposed to something contagious.

Lots of lessons learned from this...

I will update again when tests results come back.


----------



## Goats Rock (Jun 20, 2011)

Aw, so sorry for your loss. You did all you could and she knew you cared about her.


----------



## intrepid-dreamer (Jan 2, 2017)

That's so disappointing


----------



## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

I am so very sorry.


----------



## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Sorry you lost her.


----------



## MSummers (Jul 7, 2018)

Culture came back as very high amount of staph aureus. CL still negative. My concern at this point is this something the doeling will automatically have in her system? Is the pen contaminated? Is it generic for the doeling and will show it's ugly head later when she's older? Is this contagious for my bucks in another pen, or us humans??? Thank you all for the help.


----------



## Sfgwife (Feb 18, 2018)

MSummers said:


> Culture came back as very high amount of staph aureus. CL still negative. My concern at this point is this something the doeling will automatically have in her system? Is the pen contaminated? Is it generic for the doeling and will show it's ugly head later when she's older? Is this contagious for my bucks in another pen, or us humans??? Thank you all for the help.


All humans and animals carry staph on their bodies always. The problem comes in when the enviornment sets them up for failure and multiplies and becomes evil. Could be somethin as simple as a bug bite they itched. My hound was allergic to a no seeum bug in florida... we constantly battled staph inf there with him.... since movin home to nc no problems at all. There are medicated shampoos good for clearin it up. They usually have chlorhexadine in them. We had give him baths every third day for two weeks when he had problems. It was great fun... not. But. He is awesome in a tub now lol. Try keep the stall as dry as possible.


----------



## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Staph is no fun.
Yes, it can be contagious under certain situations. All you can do is watch and hope her baby will be OK, plus any other goats.

Hopefully she will heal up and not be contagious. What did the vet say to use to treat her?

Keeping her away from the other goats may be wise and disinfect the area can help prevent exposure to other goats after she is healed.

But as mentioned, staph is everywhere any way, but try to keep things at bay when at all possible for an active case.


----------

