Post by Multi-taskingmom on May 28, 2020 16:08:25 GMT -5
I need your wisdom. I'm posting in this section, because, while this is goat related, it is also (and primarily)udder related.
My friend bought a doe a few weeks or so ago. She kidded in early April. She came with 2 kids and a companion from another herd. All good. She is able to contact the previous owner with any questions and the previous owner has been very helpful. Again, all good.
The doe was a little on the thin side, but not horrifically bad, she is a heavy milker and her kids are Boar crosses, she is a registered Alpine.
The problem is....the doe developed an abscess on her udder, the vet (a very good vet, specializes in small ruminants) came and drained the abscess, the doe then developed some white eruptions of pus filled spots in several places on her udder, those cultured as staph. Then the vet did a course of intramammary antibiotics, as a precaution to keep the staph from entering the udder. The milk had a few chunks when she first got her. Some a little blood tinged most not. Most of the chunky milk was for the 5 or 6 days following the antibiotic treatment. All milk cultures have come back negative for anything. The milk has been fine for over least a week now. There are no known problems with any of the goats in the herd she came from.
Up until the antibiotic treatment, they were happily drinking the milk. Since the antibiotic withdrawal period, she has been advised to pasteurize the milk and feed it to the goat kids and her pigs, due to the chunks in the milk. The vet feels that now the goat may have staph in the udder.
This doe is a heavy milker and her kids were big and were battering her poor udder. They have successfully pulled the kids and gotten them on bottles. My thoughts are, that the doe was probably congested, she was not being milked much because the kids were on her. Since she is a heavy milker, the kids were not able to keep up with the milk and it just took awhile for the old milk to work out after my friend started milking her twice a day.
The vet has said that she can't think of anything else other than staph that would cause the intermittent chunks in the milk. The external staph has all cleared up. And the cultures of milk have always come back negative. The vet is consulting with a diary specialist vet, so likely there will be answers forthcoming.
Please share your collective wisdom on chunks in the milk. Could it be staph, even though everything comes back negative. They are going to continue to culture and test every two weeks for 6 weeks. Would you drink the milk after a couple of negative cultures?
Thank you for reading this looonnnggg post, and thank you for any wisdom you are able to share.
Marsha