Mother's 7 year old goat has developed large, swollen udder, there is no chance she was bred. Milked her out and gave to vet for testing, came back as having a staph infection. Gave penicillin shots and stopped milking but she won't dry up. Looks like she's in pain. I say to keep milking her to releive pain. Don't want this to develop into mastitsis. Question: Why would she start producing milk in the frist place? Same thing happened to my horse! (on same property) Are these just false pregnancies or could it be something else? Have heard that spring grass contains estrogen that could trigger. Any thoughts or comments would be helpful!

-- K. McDonald (lksme@bigriver.net), July 22, 2002

Answers

In regards the milking without being bred, I'm really not sure. I have had many a "precocious milker". This meaning a young doe who comes into milk prior to being bred. It's a genetic thing, and I believe comes from breeding these animals with a tremendous "will to milk". However, this does little to explain the situation with both the horse and goat, so.......?

In regards the mastitis, staph and/or strep IS mastitis. :-( Staph being particularly difficult to treat unfortunately. It tends to encapsulate making it near impossible for the drugs to reach it. Does she have lumps? What does the milk look like? Consistency of milk and utter? I have successfully (and unsuccessfully) treated extremely severe staph mastitis, but most would recommend against it. It is a real possibility she will lose either half or all her utter if not treated aggressively however.

If you choose to dry her off immediately, this is what I would do. Give pen in conjuction with excenel(Ceftiofur Hcl). For say...5-7 days. In the first 3 days, milk morning and night and insert teat tubes, I use the dry cow ones and prefer the penicillin myself. Ater the last day, leave her be. Oh, and no grain, some limit water, but I don't. If she in engorged in a week or 2, milk her out one last time and insert more tubes. If you want to do more during this time, massaging the utter, applying heat and or heating balms(such as eucalyptus, peppermint, etc. I also give garlic and echinachea.

If you want to try to milk her through it.....now, like I said many totally disagree with this approach, other things can be done. Frequent milkings being the biggie.

-- Patty (SycamoreHollow@aol.com), July 22, 2002.