# Breeding a goat with damaged teats/mastisis



## Dayna (Aug 16, 2012)

I have a goat that came to live with me.

Her body type is FABULOUS. I'd love to have a daughter from her. I have one of her sons.

In her original home she was neglected, severely. She had such bad mastitis that the vet says she should not be bred again.

A wonderful woman rescued her, vetted her, got her healthy and gave her to me. The woman who rescued her, said that "most" people couldn't breed her but that someone who was willing to apply warm compresses and milk her and bottle feed her babies could breed her.

Either way, I'm fine. I love her, she's such a sweet goat. 

Does anyone have any experience with this? As I said, I'd love to get a daughter from her.


----------



## enchantedgoats (Jun 2, 2013)

I say go for it if her mastitis is gone, you might try some mastitis prevention treatment for dry cows. But even if she freshens with a damaged udder. If you hand milk her she should be ok. If she freshens with blind teats take her off her grain. And dry her off. If you have other goats be sure to freeze extra colostrum for the babies just in case. We had to raise bottle babies last year and plain old cows milk works great if goats milk is unavailable. Also be sure her cdt is up to date. If her mastitis was colstridium and she is not vaccinated. You will be in real trouble with her


----------



## Kaneel (Oct 7, 2012)

I don't think it's the fact that the kids will hurt her nursing or she has a chance of getting mastitis...I think that her udder may be so damaged that when it fills it could be very painful and stressful for her. Personally, if it was an experienced vet, I would take their advice. But it is a difficult decision when an experienced goat owner tells you different. I think that if you are willing to put as much time, money, and effort into care for her, her udder, and her kids, you should be able to breed her  Maybe if you milk her out consistently, and do mastitis prevention and such, she will be fine  And I agree with enchanted goats on freezing the colostrum, the babies _need_ that.


----------



## audrey (Jul 17, 2012)

It would cause a lot of unnecessary pain to your very sweet goat that you love. I say don't do it. There are tons of really sweet goats out there with great conformation.


----------



## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

If the vet is very smart with goats. I would heed his warning and not breed her.


----------



## Dayna (Aug 16, 2012)

It was a dog and cat vet. We don't have a goat vet in our area. I have to drive two hours to reach the livestock vet.


----------



## audrey (Jul 17, 2012)

Really, really think about the pain you will be putting your dear, beloved goat through! You will be purposely making her really sick and hurting her. I think you should talk to a vet and have them explain why its not ok to breed something that has had severe mastitis. The milk ducts are literally permanently damaged. The milk will just get stopped up and infected again and she will get really sick again. Its really not fair to the goat to put her through that.


----------



## Dayna (Aug 16, 2012)

audrey said:


> Really, really think about the pain you will be putting your dear, beloved goat through! You will be purposely making her really sick and hurting her. I think you should talk to a vet and have them explain why its not ok to breed something that has had severe mastitis. The milk ducts are literally permanently damaged. The milk will just get stopped up and infected again and she will get really sick again. Its really not fair to the goat to put her through that.


Purposely making her really sick and hurting her? Are you for real? Don't be so judgmental!

Can you tell me for a fact that her udder is damaged permanently? I know of many folks on here that have successfully dealt with mastitis and gone on to rebreed their goats.


----------



## ogfabby (Jan 3, 2013)

Mastitis isn't necessarily a reoccurring thing. I would go for it. Just keep an eye on her and watch for it. I'd almost be willing to bet she doesn't have any trouble this time seeing as she is now healthy and in good condition.


----------



## Dayna (Aug 16, 2012)

I'm going to put some more thought and research into it. Maybe consult a large animal vet.


----------



## sweetgoats (Oct 18, 2007)

Has she been treated with a good antibiotic for it?

 I had a doe that had it on one side. I did not want o breed her again because of it, but well her and the buck had other ideas, she had babies and things were fine.

 I know of someone else that did go ahead and breed because she wanted more babies and she did NOT have the luck I did. Hers turned to Ganglion Mastitis and she died.

 SO you have to decide.


----------



## lottsagoats (Dec 10, 2012)

If it was treated and cleared, you should be fine. I would treat her thru a course of Dry cow treatment (Tomorrow would be my choice) just to make sure the bacteria is long gone and not "hiding out". 

A cured case of Mastitis would not cause her pain. Any scarring would simply kill the milk producing glands so she could not produce milk. I would breed her, but make sure I had some good colostrum handy when she kidded in case her udder is "dead". If everyone retired their doe, cow, mare etc after a case of mastitis, there would be a lot of animals being shipped to the killers needlessly.

This may be TMI, but I had 2 cases of mastitis when I was feeding one of my sons. I got it from milking a family of dairy cows we had that had re-occuring mastitis (my then husband refused to let me cull them even though they were off the line 2 weeks out of 4). Once the infection is gone, there is no pain.


----------



## audrey (Jul 17, 2012)

Milk ducts can be permanently damaged and cause major problems, and from what I understand we aren't talking about a regular case of mastitis. A vet wouldnt just say not to breed her again because he felt like being a jerk. Please do get her throughly checked out by a vet before you make your decision. I am not being judgmental, I am going by the information that you gave us. Going with a laymen's should be, over an educated vets No, is just not a good idea.


----------



## keren (Oct 26, 2008)

I have a doe that gets chronic mastitis, I still breed her. The other times I have had good success, this time not so much. I nearly lost her at kidding about a month ago but not because of the mastitis alone, she had numerous other things going on. Anyway, usually I treat it, she gets over it and has a good solid lactation for 1 yr +. She loves her kids and I get really nice kids to breed on from her. Her udder has only been damaged by the most recent bout of mastitis, the left side has dried up, she is feeding her buck kid on the right side and he is growing really well. I doubt I will get much milk from her this lactation, I will probably let her feed the kid as long as she wants then put him in the freezer and dry her off. At this point I think I will probably give her a year off after that but I will be breeding her one more time as I only have one daughter from her and she got liver damage as a kid. 

I have another doe who has a very bad udder, her udder "blew out" in a previous home as she is a very heavy milker (2.5 gallons) and they didnt milk her. She has been bred three or four times since then. No mastitis issues but the udder is large and pendulous. She came to me when her kids were about four months old, I have milked her and now dried her off as I bred her to my buck. She never appears to be in pain or uncomfortable with the huge udder, she gets around remarkably well and is such a good milker that I cant justify not breeding her. I am hoping she has a daughter this year to replace her. 

I do know of someone who has a doe that had very bad mastitis and the udder blew out, she is an excellent type doe and very good milking ability, so they got the vet to do a full mastectomy. They have now bred that doe several times to get lovely kids without worrying about mums udder health. Its not a bad option I dont think, and one I am seriously considering with Violet (the doe I mentioned first).


----------



## liz (Oct 5, 2007)

Dayna... totally depending on just how healthy this doe is and if she was treated successfully for the mastitis, I personally would breed her especially if her confirmation is such that it would improve upon future kids. I do currently have a doe who is 8 years old, freshened in February with triplets and raised all of them... I'm currently separating her doeling at night to milk after a 12 hour fill and get a consistant quart each morning as well as an additional 2 cups in the afternoon, with her doeling on her.... Binkey had mastitis last freshening, and I suspect the previous year as well but with diligent teat infusions, hot compresses and high doses of vitamin c, she freshened this year with no sign of mastitis at all and the only reminder of her ever having it is the small lump of damaged tissue she has in the rear of her udder, this doe LOVES to milk...wether it be by me or for her nursing kids.
I would just be watchful with your doe for any signs to come up as she fills her udder, it may be a good idea at this point now to try and get her on a stand and feel her udder for any signs of damage, since she's dry, any lumps of scar tissue can be easily felt...just make note of where they are and when she does freshen, feel those areas for enlargement...and have a supply of colostrum as well as milk just in case


----------



## mjs500doo (Nov 24, 2012)

I'd go ahead and try it myself. 

If anything, check tits, if bad just don't milk colostrum and she'll dry up.


----------



## Dayna (Aug 16, 2012)

audrey said:


> Going with a laymen's should be, over an educated vets No, is just not a good idea.


I wouldn't consider the ranchers and experienced goat people I know laymen. I would consider a dog and cat vet a laymen to goats however.

If I had to choose between an experienced goat rancher or a dog and cat vet, I'd go with the goat rancher.

Just like I have to do with my parrots. I know more about parrot biology and medicine then dog and cat vets. I tell my vets what medicine I need, dosage, tests, etc and they do it for me because they KNOW I know more about the subject than they do.

Parrots and goats are so different than dogs and cats. A vet really has to specialize in them in order to know what they are talking about.

That's one of the reasons I come here, so much experience on one forum! Look at how many folks have bred goats with mastitis. Even severe teat damaged mastitis and the goats are fine...


----------



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

I'd breed her. There are different strains of the mastitis bacterium. Some strains, once they get it and left untreated, they will never milk again, not because they can't let the milk down, but literally because they can't produce milk because of the mastitis.
I have 2 does that this happened with, both were nursing kids and I didn't catch it in time. So both have full blown mastitis and will never.milk again, but they're too nice of does not to get kids from.
I just kids them every year, pull the babies at birth, and bottle feed them


----------



## 20kidsonhill (Feb 28, 2011)

We bred one the past couple years with a bad udder and dried her off and bottle fed the kids to get a doe out of her. This year she gave me triplet does. I would be prepared to give her antibiotics after she kids and give her the dry cow treatment as mentioned. My does udder was large, dragging on the ground and the teats too damaged to have any chance to nurse kids. I am hoping her daughters hold up better. I do not know her history or why her udder was like this. It was bad when I got her, It was obvious the teats were bad. I loved her frame and body size so I decided to go for it. I have a 2 year old doe from her, a 1 year old doe and now a doe from this year. The 2 year old doe has had 2 sets of twins so far. Time will tell.


----------



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

20kidsonhill said:


> We bred one the past couple years with a bad udder and dried her off and bottle fed the kids to get a doe out of her. This year she gave me triplet does. I would be prepared to give her antibiotics after she kids and give her the dry cow treatment as mentioned. My does udder was large, dragging on the ground and the teats too damaged to have any chance to nurse kids. I am hoping her daughters hold up better. I do not know her history or why her udder was like this. It was bad when I got her, It was obvious the teats were bad. I loved her frame and body size so I decided to go for it. I have a 2 year old doe from her, a 1 year old doe and now a doe from this year. The 2 year old doe has had 2 sets of twins so far. Time will tell.


You have Boers do you not?
Boers have not been bred to up their udder support yet. The vast majority of boers have weak attachments


----------



## keren (Oct 26, 2008)

Little-Bits-N-Pieces-ADG said:


> You have Boers do you not?
> Boers have not been bred to up their udder support yet. The vast majority of boers have weak attachments


Not all boer goats. I dont think I have any pictures handy from when I worked on a boer goat farm but we were very proud of our excellent udders and always got comments as such from the judges.


----------

