# Balloon teat



## Tapsmom (Sep 20, 2011)

We have a doe who has a nice utter and it was easy to milk, but now one of her teats, in particular, inflates like its full of milk but when you squeeze it, it is like a balloon and it takes a few tries to get milk from that teat. Both teats in fact are very full but take a lot of force to get milk out of them. Does anyone have any thoughts or has anyone dealt with this? This is written by Tapsmom's daughter! :dazed:


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## Little-Bits-N-Pieces (Apr 7, 2013)

Sounds like a blown out teat, could have happened from an infection, milk machine, infusions, or something like that. I have a doe that has a blown out teat like that, hers happened from a milk machine. There isnt a way to fix it.

I used to have to put 3 kids to nurse of my doe until they were full (pretty good size kids to, about 60lbs each), before I could milk her, she just bags up way to much, and its extremely hard to milk her when she's like that. So I'd put the three kids on her and milk her out the rest of the way (about a gallon).


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## Tapsmom (Sep 20, 2011)

Once we get her milking she is fine its just at the beginning sometimes it almost seems like the oraface is too small.


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## Little-Bits-N-Pieces (Apr 7, 2013)

Have you tried rolling the bottom of the teat between your fingers? Do you wash the udder? That might help open up the orifice


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## Tapsmom (Sep 20, 2011)

I have not tried rolling the bottom of the teat. I will try that tonight. We wash the udder with baby wipes before we milk. We use the shea butter ones so they moisturize while they clean


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## Tapsmom (Sep 20, 2011)

I looked up "blown teats" and I don't think that is the problem..although I am very new.  Neither teat is misshapen..it just takes a few massages of the udder to get any milk to come out of the teat on the one side. And when we milk her it just seems like the milk has difficulty coming out easily enough. Would a warm washcloth help open the orifice or is there no way to do that? I did try rolling the bottom of the teat last night, but I didn't know if that is something that takes a while to work.


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## Little-Bits-N-Pieces (Apr 7, 2013)

Can you get a picture of her udder and teats? If she's hard to milk, that could be that her teats have small orifices. 
Has it always been like that to milk her? Or just recent?


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## nancy d (Oct 5, 2007)

Sounds like a small orifice. Though not dairy, one of my 50% Boers has a smaller orifice on one side. It takes twice as long to empty that half when I milk her.
A true balloon teat will be large & misshapen.


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## Tapsmom (Sep 20, 2011)

I have been rolling the bottom of the teat as you suggested and that seems to be doing the trick. Thank you!! We spray all of our does with the Fight Bac when we are done. Perhaps there was a build up of it on the orifice?


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## Little-Bits-N-Pieces (Apr 7, 2013)

Glad it worked out!  Sometimes they just build up too much "wax" (can't find the find the right word right now,lol), and it gets hard to unplug the teat. They produce it in their own as a natural way to plug their teats.
So rolling the teat will usually help


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