Posted by Vicki McGaugh on March 03, 2001 at 15:54:16:
In Reply to: hard udder update posted by Melissa on March 02, 2001 at 19:03:02:
You would have to be performing life saving type vetting to be keeping a kid alive born that early. I think your kidding date is off. Subclinical mastitis is what I was talking about with staph. No alter in the flavor of the milk, just a decrease in the amount, but for both sides to be affected, and to have an affect of 3 quarts per day or more is not subclinical anything! I would love to find a vet who can look at a doe and say "Nope no CAE there!" :) He would have a line around the block for folks to see him!
If this were the kind of mastitis to cause this much production loss you would have a very sick doe! And a dead kid from drinking the milk.
There is a chance in a million you have a doe who is still bred, or has something in her uterus. The discharge will happen for 3 to 6 weeks, some does keep themselves so clean you may never even see a discharge, my LaMancha's were like that. Others are nasty and never clean themselves. It would be stinking and nasty if it was metritis or a true infection. She also would be running a fever and very ill once again.
Congested udders, or udder edema are easily diagnosed, if you put your finger on the udder it actually leaves an impression on it, and after several days of milking them, and using massage we also used Vics, they milk out fine. We also cured our congested udders by decreasing the protein in our pregnant does diet.
So though I don't agree with your vet, mostly because she doesn't fit into any of the categories above, she does fit into the hard udder for CAE, but then some goats don't read the same books! There is an excellent article I could try to scan and send you, it is in Dairy Goat Journal this month. Vicki