# VERY full, swollen udder



## cdanna (Dec 17, 2012)

Hey everyone, I am a little worried about my doe and want to make sure I am not missing anything here. She is an Apline/Oberhasli and just kidded this morning, 1 large buckling.

Her udders have been full for about 4 days, I mean BIG! The kid is definitely getting colostrum, I watched and felt his belly a few times over the day. The udders weren't getting any smaller though, they were so big that the teats started to look like triangles so I decided to milk her.

Milking was obviously painful for her, she was making sad noises, very restless, and when the kid started suckling 1/2way through she leaned her head up against me like she was really hurting. I did not milk her all the way out, she started to sound so pitiful I just wanted to give her a break, and will come back in a little while. I got 2 quarts out of her so far. 

Her udders are warm, not hot, slightly pinkish. There are no clumps in the milk. The udders to not feel hard or lumpy at all. The milk is a yellowish color but I figure that is normal for colostrum? 

My gut feeling is that she is just sore from her milk coming in so rapidly and such a large volume, her udders got stretched to the max in a matter of 3-4 days. I feel like all I need to do is get her milked out (leaving enough for the kid) and make sure that she doesn't get so full again... Am I missing anything? This is only my second year with milk goats and I don't want to miss a serious issue b/c of ignorance.

Also, she is kind of a FF but not really... This is her second pregnancy. She miscarried last year. I bought her 1 month after the miscarriage, we were able to milk her all year. So I don't know if that counts as FF since this is her first live kid? 

Thank you


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## ptgoats45 (Nov 28, 2011)

I would milk her out about halfway or a little more to relieve the pressure in her udder. She most likely is sore from being so full. Colostrum is yellow, so her milk should whiten up in a day or so.


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## nancy d (Oct 5, 2007)

Oh I bet she feels a whole lot better now that you've milked her! Save that colostrum. 
Mark it as Day 1. Then mark the next as Day 2.
Use accordingly. Day 1 for a newborn then Day 2.
And congrats!


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## liz (Oct 5, 2007)

She sounds like she'll be an awesome milker 
I would consider milking her out at least once a day, let the baby have what he wants and if you use a warm wet compress before hand, it can really help making her comfortable.
Once her system realizes that she's feeding only one kid, her production will slack off but if you want to keep her production up and going, milk her once a day... she will soften and be less full over the course of a week and absolutely freeze that first milk, it is a lifesaver for so many species


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Good advice.


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## cdanna (Dec 17, 2012)

OK, thank you all for the advice! I feel better now, I was starting to get worried today. Definitely saving the colostrum! Last year I got almost a gallon a day from her so I'm definitely excited to see what she puts out this year!

I did warm compresses on her for about 15 min and completely milked out the R side, the one that was really hurting. The teat was so swollen, I could see my hand print on it when I let go, poor girl! I tried to be as gentle as I could, I think the hot compresses helped. I thought I felt a hard spot, but once it was empty it was not hard at all.

I went on to the L udder and it didn't seem to hurt her at all, so I just milked it about half way so that the kid would still have dinner 

I put together an anti-inflamatory oil, with just what I had on hand- wintergreen, tea tree, cinnamon and turmeric in olive oil. I rubbed that on the udders and the R teat, but I got worried that I would mask her smell for the baby so I massaged it in for a few min and wiped most of it off with the warm rag, and supervised til I saw him latch on again.

Here's the kid


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## nancy d (Oct 5, 2007)

What a darling! And you're doing great!:thumbup:


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## cdanna (Dec 17, 2012)

This morning when I milked her it was a little less painful for her, but there were definitely a few hard spots in the R udder. I massaged them out with the hot compress and the anti inflamatory oil and she seemed to feel a lot better. Gonna keep a close eye on it! I read yesterday that its possible to have some hard spots without it being mastitis, I am going to read more today and see what I can find out.


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## janeen128 (Dec 31, 2012)

Awe, cute kid;-)


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## cdanna (Dec 17, 2012)

Update! She is pretty much 100% better now. I did hot compress, milking, anti-inflammatory oil/massaging out lumps 2x per day for the last 3 days and it worked, yay! No lumps or swelling as of this evening. Just based on what I read, and from talking to my mom who is a lactation consultant (on humans, but I figure we cant be *all* that different right? haha), I think that while her udders were full before kidding, she had some of the liquid reabsorb into her tissue but the solids stayed behind and caused a plugged duct. That's just my best guess b/c there were no signs of infection.

The kid is drinking exclusively from the other udder so I am going to continue milking every day and saving the colustrum until 2 weeks when I get the milk for myself  

Kid is definitely getting enough to eat from the one udder- he is full of energy, belly full all day long and growing fast! Also luckily he is consuming the milk at the same rate I am - when I go to milk her I dont notice any unevenness.

Thanks all for your help and advice


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Make sure you label your milk. The colostrum from the first 12 hours is the best colostrum. Once you get past 24 hours, the colostrum won't help a newborn with antibodies.


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## cdanna (Dec 17, 2012)

Got it, thanks! I have all of the first days milk in one freezer bag so I will make sure to label it day 1.


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## Gertie (Sep 2, 2012)

What a cute baby! You are doing a wonderful job!! :wink:


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## NyGoatMom (Jan 26, 2013)

Adorable


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