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Posted by Nat on November 02, 2001 at 21:23:27:
In Reply to: Re: Oops! Could I Have Invited Infection? posted by Leah on November 02, 2001 at 11:20:18:
She could most likely be a precocious milker - I think its caused by some kind of horomone action. Another thought was - could she be a "self-nurser?" We had a doeline that use to nurse herslelf on one side.
If the bag has a noticable size difference, and milks fluid it may not hurt to extract some and bring it to the vet for mastitis testing. They usually send it to the state vet, or pathology dep. In our area its like $6-8 a sample. You just need to put a bit into a clean jug - I usually use a small glass jelly jar (those sampler ones that are tiny) or a baby food container. I don't think that they need more then a few ml's.
In this case, its better safe then sorry. If you can get test results back, you can treat her and infuse that side ASAP to prevent the build up of scar tissue that leads to yuckie lop-sided udders (if she does have mastitis). Be sure to meantion that the sample was taken from a goat as the SSC (stomatic cell count) is much higher in goats then in cows.
Hope I gave some insite :-) The teat usually closes up and reseals a few hours after milking so if you wanted to spray some tamed iodine or something similar on it, it wouldn't hurt.
-Nat, whose dealt with mastitis before - can we tell? :-)