Gangrene Mastitis
This is a nasty subject but since this is a homesteading tips blog, and I can't find too much on the internet about gangrene mastitis in goats I figured it would be a great idea to share my experiences in hopes that it will help someone with their goat care and husbandry and possibly save a goat's life.
My case started out two years before now. One of my favorite does, a heavy milker with a beautiful udder, was acting off one morning. I took her temperature and it was high. I milked her as usual and everything seemed ok. I didn't notice anything off about the milk. I decided the temperature was high enough to warrant a trip to the vet. The vet examined her and decided that she just had a upper respiratory infection. He gave her antibiotics, banamine and b-12 dose. When we got home I kept an eye on her and she just didn't seem to perk up any. By evening I knew something was terribly wrong. I noticed that her udder seemed cool and blueish. Never having seen anything like that before I had no idea what was going on with her. I ran to google and discovered that she most likely had gangrene mastitis. Everything I could find about it was negative and disheartening. I rubbed essential oils on her but there was nothing I knew how to do until the next morning,. I tried to get ahold of the vet who had treated her the previous day but he wasn't in the office that day. So I ended up taking her to a different vet and he immediately said it was gangrene mastitis and he would put her on IV antibiotics and lance the udder. Heartbreakingly, she died on his operating table. I feel like if the first vet had correctly diagnosed her or even if I had known about this, maybe she could have been saved.
Fast forward to this week. I have a very special doe who came all the way from North Carolina. She was due to kid with her first kids. All had been going good, her first freshener udder was beautiful. Friday evening I was going to farmers market so the girl who helps me did the milking. I always check on everyone when I get home and I noticed this doe laying in a certain spot and not eating. I figured she was just sleeping since it was late at night. The next morning she was still lying in the same exact spot, and when I looked closer, one side of her udder was a tiny bit blueish and cooler to the touch. I immediately called a new vet that someone had recommended to me and hauled her over to him. He started her on extra high doses of two kinds of antibiotics plus some thiamine to help her. That night, Saturday, she wouldn't eat or drink anything I offered her. Sunday morning she aborted her twin kids. They were both dead already when I found them. But she almost immediately started to eat and she drank a whole bucket of feed. However, even after a dose of oxytocin she was not able to pass the afterbirth. We went back to the vet on Monday morning and he got about half of the afterbirth out of her, flushed her uterus and then decided to infuse the gangrenous side of her udder with Chlorhexidine in order to cause the tissues to slough off faster.
Two weeks have passed since her first diagnosis of gangrene mastitis. The upper part of her udder is hard, as is the teat part. There is still some soft tissue in the middle of that side. It smells awful and is black and oozing. The antibiotic treatment is over. Now we just wait for the next thing to happen, Which I'm not sure what that is.... Hence this blog story. I'm currently milking out her good side every evening. She eats and licks me while I do that. I'm her baby now since she lost hers.
Her udder completely dried and got hard and began to separate. As it separated over the course of several weeks I sprayed the inside with several different options of medicines but the one that seemed to work the best was one called Underwood's. It helped heal the healthy section of udder as the dead part dislocated itself. I'll include a sequence of pictures. Not for the faint of heart.
These pictures were when the udder first started to die and I was still milking out the black dead gangrene fluid.,
The dead side beginning to separate from the healthy side.
That was the progression of the udder dying off and finally falling off.
Fast forward to a year later and she was all healed and successfully had a healthy doe kid and is currently milking very well on her one teat. Her nickname has become Uniboob.
I hope that this little blog post might help someone who has a doe with gangrene mastitis. The most important thing and what saved this doe's life is a very quick diagnosis and strong antibiotics from the vet. If you suspect your doe might be having gangrene mastitis and you want to save her life, don't delay. Rush her to the vet as soon as possible.
Best wishes and happy Goat Farming!!
My case started out two years before now. One of my favorite does, a heavy milker with a beautiful udder, was acting off one morning. I took her temperature and it was high. I milked her as usual and everything seemed ok. I didn't notice anything off about the milk. I decided the temperature was high enough to warrant a trip to the vet. The vet examined her and decided that she just had a upper respiratory infection. He gave her antibiotics, banamine and b-12 dose. When we got home I kept an eye on her and she just didn't seem to perk up any. By evening I knew something was terribly wrong. I noticed that her udder seemed cool and blueish. Never having seen anything like that before I had no idea what was going on with her. I ran to google and discovered that she most likely had gangrene mastitis. Everything I could find about it was negative and disheartening. I rubbed essential oils on her but there was nothing I knew how to do until the next morning,. I tried to get ahold of the vet who had treated her the previous day but he wasn't in the office that day. So I ended up taking her to a different vet and he immediately said it was gangrene mastitis and he would put her on IV antibiotics and lance the udder. Heartbreakingly, she died on his operating table. I feel like if the first vet had correctly diagnosed her or even if I had known about this, maybe she could have been saved.
Fast forward to this week. I have a very special doe who came all the way from North Carolina. She was due to kid with her first kids. All had been going good, her first freshener udder was beautiful. Friday evening I was going to farmers market so the girl who helps me did the milking. I always check on everyone when I get home and I noticed this doe laying in a certain spot and not eating. I figured she was just sleeping since it was late at night. The next morning she was still lying in the same exact spot, and when I looked closer, one side of her udder was a tiny bit blueish and cooler to the touch. I immediately called a new vet that someone had recommended to me and hauled her over to him. He started her on extra high doses of two kinds of antibiotics plus some thiamine to help her. That night, Saturday, she wouldn't eat or drink anything I offered her. Sunday morning she aborted her twin kids. They were both dead already when I found them. But she almost immediately started to eat and she drank a whole bucket of feed. However, even after a dose of oxytocin she was not able to pass the afterbirth. We went back to the vet on Monday morning and he got about half of the afterbirth out of her, flushed her uterus and then decided to infuse the gangrenous side of her udder with Chlorhexidine in order to cause the tissues to slough off faster.
Two weeks have passed since her first diagnosis of gangrene mastitis. The upper part of her udder is hard, as is the teat part. There is still some soft tissue in the middle of that side. It smells awful and is black and oozing. The antibiotic treatment is over. Now we just wait for the next thing to happen, Which I'm not sure what that is.... Hence this blog story. I'm currently milking out her good side every evening. She eats and licks me while I do that. I'm her baby now since she lost hers.
Her udder completely dried and got hard and began to separate. As it separated over the course of several weeks I sprayed the inside with several different options of medicines but the one that seemed to work the best was one called Underwood's. It helped heal the healthy section of udder as the dead part dislocated itself. I'll include a sequence of pictures. Not for the faint of heart.
Fast forward to a year later and she was all healed and successfully had a healthy doe kid and is currently milking very well on her one teat. Her nickname has become Uniboob.
I hope that this little blog post might help someone who has a doe with gangrene mastitis. The most important thing and what saved this doe's life is a very quick diagnosis and strong antibiotics from the vet. If you suspect your doe might be having gangrene mastitis and you want to save her life, don't delay. Rush her to the vet as soon as possible.
Best wishes and happy Goat Farming!!
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