# Blood in milk?



## FarmerJen (Oct 18, 2012)

So I just noticed yesterday, that some of last week's milk has a VERY LIGHT ring of what I'm assuming is blood, settled at the bottom of the jar. What could this mean?

My girls last kidded in mid May of last year, so they've been milking awhile. I always use a strip cup for the first few squirts and I dont see any blood in the milk when I do that. But after 3-4 days, I'm seeing a light ring of pink around the bottom of my jars. At first I thought maybe the jars didn't get cleaned well enough, but just today I checked my milk from 4/4, which was fine yesterday when I checked it, and I am starting to see the settling in that one too. I've been drinking it (having not noticed this) and it seems fine. My milk usually lasts at least 10 days before it gets a little "iffy" and I toss it - which almost never happens. 

I've not done much to them recently - they were last wormed after kidding last May, they were copper bolused in Feb of this year and got Selenium in December (which reminds me I need to do that again). Otherwise everything is the same as always, other than that they're back on spring grass, which seems to improve milk production. 

Mastitis isn't an issue, neither of them even fill completely for the most part. No lumps or anything like that. 

Any ideas what could be causing this? Is the milk still ok to drink?


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## kccjer (Jan 27, 2012)

Could be a broken vessel inside the teat


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## FarmerJen (Oct 18, 2012)

Is there anything I can do about that? Or would it just correct itself in time?


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## FarmerJen (Oct 18, 2012)

I guess I should start keeping their milk separated so I can see who's got the issue, whatever it is. I know that's probably a good idea anyway... but I have a whole fridge shelf full of jars as it is!


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## kccjer (Jan 27, 2012)

Should resolve on it's own but I would keep separate to figure out who it is. It's a little off putting but should be safe. Kind of like finding a bloid dpot on an egg. You could carefully pour out and use the the top milk


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## Esther88 (Nov 11, 2012)

I'm new to goats but wanted to put in my 2 cents. I was dealing with quite a lot of blood in my doe for a few weeks. It turned out to be due to injury and was a broken blood vessel. I milked each side separately and determined it was just the right side. I got some great advice on here and gave her vitamin C tablets, Calcium, and milked 3x daily for about 1 week. Once I started following that advice the blood was noticeably less and less and was all cleared up within a few days. If you search my threads you can see I posted pictures as well of how much blood was settling at the bottom. Hope it clears up quickly!


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

It never hurts to do a mastitis test to be sure.


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## Hollowdweller (May 5, 2011)

I have had this before and there has been 2 reasons. 


One has been on first fresh does that are really bagging up super tight at every milking, I'm assuming this is causing small capillaries to burst and then as the milk sets it settles.

The other had been with goats with teats that for one reason or another I tend to milk more roughtly than others. Usually it will go away if I can figure out which doe it is coming from and what exactly I'm doing in my hold on the teats/udder.

I'm assuming you might get the same thing from a goat with a low udder or teats grazing in brush and banging the udder, or a doe whose kids are big and starting to get too rough on the udder but the times I've had it it was the first 2 things.


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## FarmerJen (Oct 18, 2012)

Doubt if it would be either of those causes. My youngest milking doe is a second freshener. Neither generally fill tight at this point, since they've been milking nearly a year. I'm very gentle in milking, and we dont have any high brush for them to bang/drag/scrape their udders on. We did retain a doeling from one of them last May... but she's now almost a year old and I haven't seen her even attempt to nurse in probably 6mo. 

I suppose an udder could have been bumped in play... they do butt each other a lot in play, though I've not seen them go that low. Usually it's head-to-head.

It's just such a tiny amount of blood. Takes 3-4 days to even settle out of the milk and I dont see ANYTHING in those first few squirts (or any of the milk for that matter). You'd think if it was a blood vessel or something that you'd see MORE in the first squirt... but maybe not. 

I just wanted to make sure it wasn't a sign of worms or anything. I haven't wormed them since they kidded almost a year ago. Guess I could probably do that just to be safe.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

I would do a mastitis test and have a fecal done to include coccidia. Then you can rule those out if they come back clean.


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## Hollowdweller (May 5, 2011)

ksalvagno said:


> I would do a mastitis test and have a fecal done to include coccidia. Then you can rule those out if they come back clean.


Yeah if your goats have been in milk that long and just doing it probably isn't bagging up too tight or trauma.


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## bpfgal (Apr 4, 2013)

I have also had issue with an occasional blood spot from one of my does. This is her third year to milk and she doesn't have the greatest udder but a huge producer. CMT was negative and it doesn't happen every day. No settling of blood and not at first if milking. A spot will just show up and is easily removed. ???


Sent from my iPhone using Goat Forum


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## FarmerJen (Oct 18, 2012)

I looked at the feed store yesterday and they only have mastitis treatment, not tests.

Are these Dr Naylor tests ok? They're a LOT cheaper than the California kit - enough that it makes me question the quality. http://www.amazon.com/H-W-Naylor-30...&qid=1397065493&sr=8-2&keywords=mastitis+test I'm guessing the California test kit would last awhile (assuming the solution keeps well after opening) and is doable at $25... but I'd rather spend less if possible.

On the other hand, I checked the milk from 4/5 this morning and dont see any settling of blood... so it may have already cleared itself up. Will check again later/tomorrow.

I keep meaning to send in a fecal. I'd love to check for worm load, among other things. We've got a few nice days coming up... I'll try to make sure I get it done.


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