# Bumpy Teats & Off-Colored Milk



## Farmer Gab (Jun 25, 2008)

Sweet Pea is our herd queen and she is a three years old Nubian. When she kidded in mid-July, I had to go in and get the kids out because they were presenting wrong and not delivering on their own. So, we followed with a week of antibiotics and then 30 day of nursing her kids to get the meds out of her system. Today I milked her and noticed two things. Her teats have bumps all over them. The bumps are like blow-outs, not like sores. Also, her milk is light tan. Gag! Any thoughts? Does she need to still get the meds out of her system? What are the bumps? I threw out the milk cause I have NO idea what is going on.....

THANKS!


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## StaceyRosado (Oct 5, 2007)

I would get some mastitis test strips and see if she has mastisis.


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

I have to agree with Stacey.....that will let you know for sure... :hug:


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## Farmer Gab (Jun 25, 2008)

So, where do I get the supplies to test for it?


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## StaceyRosado (Oct 5, 2007)

try you local feed store -- what they have for cows will work


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## FarmGirl18 (Oct 5, 2007)

Could you post a picture of the bumps?


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## Farmer Gab (Jun 25, 2008)

Wait....wouldn't the antibiotics have eliminated any mastitis?


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## liz (Oct 5, 2007)

The odd color does indicate a form of mastitis, sometimes ecoli will cause the milk to be tan in color. A mastitis test would be beneficial to her and it can help you to know what type of treatment she may need. Since it has been 30 days since she has had the antibiotic you will likely need to start her on injections again as well as infuse her udder with Today to clear her up.

The bumps you mention are not open sores? Are they feeling or look like pustules or are they more like a wart? Are they on the teats or on the whole udder? If on the teats and are not sores, just bumps...these could be superficial teats that are not used and do not have orifices or mammary glands behind them.


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## Farmer Gab (Jun 25, 2008)

Not sores. Just bumps. Teats only. I will try to get a photo, but we are about to get dumped on by rain......


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## sparks879 (Oct 17, 2007)

definatly test for mastits. What kind of antibiotics did you use? not all antibiotics will treat mastitis. The bumps sound to me like a staph infection.
beth


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## Zelda (May 2, 2009)

Do you have gnats? Mine had bumpy teats when the gnats were biting.

Ditto on mastitis testing.


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## CrossCreekTX (Aug 10, 2009)

One of my goats had udder warts when I first got her. It is a symptom of magnesium deficiency. I put her on two tablespoons of dolomite twice a day and they dried up and fell off. It took a couple of weeks till they were all gone.


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## StaceyRosado (Oct 5, 2007)

crosscreek -- how did you figure out that specific deficiency? THats real interesting


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## sparks879 (Oct 17, 2007)

Hmm very interesting, i have heard of selinium defficiancy being realted to warts but neer magnesium. Out of curisoty what color is your doe? Udder pox and udder warts are more commen on does with little to no pigmintation in their udder (most commen breed its seen in is saanens).
beth


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## CrossCreekTX (Aug 10, 2009)

I got the info from Pat Coleby's book "Natural Goat Care".

It wasn't pox. 
http://www.cfsph.iastate.edu/DiseaseInf ... gesSGP.htm

warts

http://www.saanendoah.com/photos/02lina06SM.jpg


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## CrossCreekTX (Aug 10, 2009)

"Out of curisoty what color is your doe?"

She is the one in my avatar.


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## kids-n-peeps (Aug 24, 2009)

Just wanted to comment that I am currently reading the book you mentioned and finding that it contains a lot of useful information.


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## sparks879 (Oct 17, 2007)

Hmm interesting, she is a light colored doe, with not a lot of pigmentation to her udder im guessing? 
You would know if it was udder warts, udder warts are very nasty looking raised up bemps, that start looking almost like boils. Often the have other bumps growing off of them
http://www.saanendoah.com/udderwarts.html
heres a good link on them
I did a bit of reading, the only type of mastitis that i could find that discribed a tan or brown color in the milk was e coli, but there are usually other signs that go along with it, watery scours, rapid weight loss and high fever.
Goat pox (most commenly seen on the udder) start as bups and then start to burst, opening to small scabs which usually ooze a clear fluid. Milking can be painful and the milk should be discarded.
heres the website i found the info on
http://www.goatwisdom.com/udder_care.html

I didnt find much on a staph infection excpet that there is no known cure for it.
Personaly i would get her on ten days of penicillian, infuse her udder with tomorrow, three days in a row twenty four hours apart. I would also take a little bit of the tomorrow and rub it on the sores on her udder, after cleaning it. Give her as much vit c as you can get down her. This is what i have done of mastitis and it always seems to work.
Even if youre not one hundred percent sure its mastitis, something is wrong if she is giving you tan colored milk.


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## Farmer Gab (Jun 25, 2008)

Okay....we finally got a photo....AND, I took a sterile syringe and "popped" one of the bumps. Lots of milk came squirting out followed by a little blood and then done. When we milk her we get blood in her milk. I THINK the blood is coming from these bumps. I have heard that these are called "blow outs"..... What do you all think?


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## Farmer Gab (Jun 25, 2008)

Oh, and my feed store doesn't carry mastitis tests :GAAH: ....BUT, I really don't think this is mastitis....If you think I am wrong, let me know and I will have to order the test.....


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## liz (Oct 5, 2007)

Those bumps to me look like superficial teats. If before she was freshened and had no udder at all, those bumps would look clustered around the "good teat". The fact that milk came from them is telling me this, they have no "orifice" to be used as a teat. No visible blistering on them that I can see, so they would not be pustules from staph as those blisters are normally superficial.

Just as reference here....my mom was given a nubian/boer cross doe that had a 4 month old kid on her so she still was in milk...this doe has awful looking teats, numerous bumps all over them looking similar to your doe's but my moms doe was much worse as these bumps were to the bottom of her teats and the ones at the bottom did have orifices so milk flowed from different areas other than the end of the main teat.

I may be wrong in your does case, but this is the only way I ever saw these bumps before :shrug:


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## Farmer Gab (Jun 25, 2008)

Thanks Liz! Is there anyone else that wants to chime in here???? THANKS!


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## sparks879 (Oct 17, 2007)

With the off colored milk i would definatly test her for mastitis. If it doesn look or smell like milk, there is something wrong and she needs to be tested. As for the bumps, im not really sure what to think of those. It could be superficial teats, but they really dont look like it. Its doesnt look like udder warts, pox, or a staph infection. Is this her first freshening? I went back and read your original post, and notices she was three. 
beth


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## StaceyRosado (Oct 5, 2007)

bumps have my stumped to -- thats obviously not normal but why they look like that is not something I can answer


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## Zelda (May 2, 2009)

Looks very much like 'weeping teats' (ref: _Sheep and Goat Medicine_ text).

"Weeping teats are probably a variation of what is called web teat in cattle. In goats these small masses of secretory tissue, which are numerous, are commonly located on the teat near its base, but may be located on the udder near the base of the teat."

There's a longer paragraph on it, but no good treatment option. They are basically a cystic structure and may be hereditary...


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## sparks879 (Oct 17, 2007)

Thats what i was thinking they look like too Zelda. A cyst rather then a sore. When you feel her teats are there any hard lumps under the bumps or anything?
beth


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## Farmer Gab (Jun 25, 2008)

More like a zit than a cyst. Once I expressed the bumps, they were flacid. Of course, the next morning they were filled up again..... ARGH!


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## Farmer Gab (Jun 25, 2008)

BTW, the off-colored milk is due to the blood from the bumps when we milk her.... I am calling the vet tomorrow cause everyone seems stumped by this.......money grows on trees, right? :stars:


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## Zelda (May 2, 2009)

FG, it does look pretty darned close to what is in my vet book. If you PM me your email address, I can try to scan that page and email it to you.


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## Zelda (May 2, 2009)

FG, were you able to see the scan? What do you think?


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## Farmer Gab (Jun 25, 2008)

Well, it does appear that our girls has just that.... NOW what??????  Oh, and by the way THANKS!


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## Zelda (May 2, 2009)

I dunno. Seems like you'd have to figure out the tan milk/possible infection. 

If it is mastitis and goes away, great. But IMO if the cysts are causing chronic infection, she'd be a cull from a breeding program.  She'd also be a cull if the cysts make milking painful for her or difficult.

Have you read anything about feeding a doe that has mastitis her own milk so she can build an immune response? I would give it a try...


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## Zelda (May 2, 2009)

ps. I went back and re-read the original post. 

Maybe the cysts will clear up on their own and are a reaction to antibiotics or ? something? 

And when I said cull I meant 'not use for breeding'. Can't really dethrone the herd queen, right?


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