Mastitis, Again

It's been a long few days. Four kids were born last Monday (4/22). We dried them off and got them in sweaters like we always do.

We made sure they had their first drink of colostrum, like we always do.

Gave them each a squirt of Nutri-Drench, like we always do.

The next day they seemed a little slow, but doing okay. Zoe is a first freshener and seemed to be a bit confused about the 2 kids at first.

Then she was okay.

Wednesday we lost one of Misty's kids. When I put Misty on the stand that night I realized she had a bad mastitis infection in her left udder.

It's been crazy since then!

The vet came out on Thursday. She's wonderful and we love her. She gave her a shot of Excede (a broad spectrum antibiotic) and Banamine (for pain and inflammation).

We were given instructions to strip out her udder twice a day and warm compress the udder twice a day. Also, give Equioxx paste (non-steroidal anti-inflamatory) twice a day to reduce the swelling in her udder, help control the pain, and help bring her 105F fever down. We also have to administer Spectramast L C once a day into her left teat.

By Saturday night Misty was worse so I texted the vet.

Dr. Wright came out again on Sunday morning because she's that type of vet... kind and caring.

She explained that there are four main types of mastitis and she had treated for the most common, and more easily treatable, first three. Apparently Misty had the fourth type. Good thing we called.

She placed a line for IV Ringers Lactate (Misty hadn't been eating or drinking), then she started on Baytril injectable (diluted with LRS) once daily, and Oxytetracycline injectable (LA 200) once daily.

Unfortunately she was so dehydrated that the line didn't stay in and she had to come out again on Monday and put it in the other leg.

Here she is today. The only thing she will eat right now is bananas.
So that's what we are giving her!

She seems to be doing better. We know she'll live, we're just waiting to see if she sloughs the lining of her left udder or if it heals.

Her surviving kid is doing great. She's on a bottle because the vet didn't want her on her mom. Thankfully we have Annie, who is a power milker. She's already feeding two kids, but has no trouble giving us an extra 1/2 gallon to feed the bottle kid.

I think part of the problem is that we couldn't get the mastitis vaccinations we needed last year because the company switched owners and stopped making it for a while. We didn't give them their vaccinations at the usual time. By the time I got the meds, I completely forgot about vaccinating.

All the other does have been started on their sequence of boosters and vaccinations now. Prevention is always best.

All the links to the meds are active if you are interested in looking up what they do.

Matitis Vaccinations

Glacier. She was named because she got frostbite on her ears when she was a kid. We didn't own her at the time, it happened at the place she was born.

Vet2Be gave Glacier her second set of mastitis vaccinations the morning of August 12. She was a bit sore that night, but other than that, she seems fine. We'll see how she does with the mastitis through the rest of the fall and next spring since she has freshened with mastitis the last two year.

Both vaccinations ready to go. We prefer the 22 gauge 3/4" needles for IM injections, but all we have right now are 22 gauge 1-1/4" needles, so Vet2Be doesn't put the needle in as far.

Vet2Be gave her the shots intermuscular and in her front 'quarter' instead of her hind legs. He prefers this area for IM injections because it seems as if there is more muscle there and less chance of them kicking while he is giving the injection.

This is where Vet2Be likes to give intramuscular shots.

We used both the J-Vac and the Lysignin vaccinations that are for heifers. We used half the dose used for the heifers since the dairy goats are probably less than half the size of heifers. Vet2Be used a different needle for each injection and put each injection into a different area.

Yipee!

I hope it isn't premature, but Glacier, the doe with mastitis, seems to be much better this evening! We've been praying, we've been treating her with medications (Today was the last medication we used), and we've been milking her twice a day to get the 'gunk' out.

Tonight when I milked her there were only a few spots of blood and one clump of milk! Her milk was tinted only the faintest pink. That is a big improvement over last night and the last week.

Her milk is all going to the ducks and chickens because we can't drink it right now. It seems to be doing wonderful things for all the poultry. Even the 9 year old Ameraucana has been laying 3 extra-large eggs every week. The other day I dropped one of the chicken eggs onto the ground, it didn't even crack. I guess they are getting enough calcium and protein from the 1.5 gallons of milk they are drinking every day.

This is Glacier. She is an American Saanen. When she was a kid she suffered from frostbite on her ears, so they are short. She is a good goat, giving about 6 pounds (3/4 gallon) of milk at each milking—even with mastitis!

More Treatments

This morning I decided to treat Glacier with "Today", an intra-mammary infusion to kill mastitis-causing organisms. Since she didn't get better with the Penicillin or the Albon, we need to try a different drug. Last night there were so many clumps in her milk that I could hardly believe it. It is odd because the teat that is infected is giving the most milk, almost twice as much as the other teat. Her milk production hasn't decreased, either. She is still giving 5.5-6 lbs at each milking (about 3/4 gallon). She has no fever, is eating well and doesn't seem to be affected by it. Her milk all gets fed to the chickens and the ducks since we can't drink it.

The chickens and the ducks are doing very well on the milk. I dropped a chicken egg the other day and it didn't even crack on the hard ground. The 9 year old Ameraucana is also laying again.

I found a clutch of duck eggs this morning, too. I think there are at least a dozen in the nest. One of the ducks is sitting on them. I'll leave everything alone and see if she can hatch some out. I'm sure we can find homes for them without trouble. People seem to love the ducks.

I gave one of our neighbors (with 7 children) 2 dozen duck eggs a few days ago. The are a wonderful family and the children are so much fun to be around. They stopped by yesterday and told me that, "Duck eggs are 5000 times better than chicken eggs!" They are so happy that they bought ducklings this year and can't wait until they start laying in a few months.

Since Glacier still has mastitis, Buddy is still not moving much, and Clover is acting 'weird' I decided to give worm those three with Ivomec Plus at 1 cc/ 100 pounds. I gave Clover and Glacier 2 cc each and Buddy got .5 cc, all SQ. In ten days I'll do it all again. I found a paper written by Jim Miller at Louisianna State University on parasites and treatment. Vet2Be'assignment will be to read the paper when he comes home from his canoe trip. It has extra-label dosages and milk withdrawl times for a number of different wormers as well as other information on worming and identifying worms.

Albon seems to be working

The Albon we have been using to take care of the coccidia seems to be working. Buddy is spending more time on his feet. He seems to be eating better, too.

Since we are battling coccidia and the Corid didn't work, we decided to put all the milking does on the Albon (no milk withdrawl) and see if they act any differently. We've still been fighting the Mastitis on Glacier, after 10 days of 10cc Penicillin (5 cc twice daily) we gave her a break from shots and antibiotics. The next day the clumps were worse than before. After 2 days on the Albon, she had almost no clumps at all.

Last night the clumps were so large and so hard that I had to mush them around inside her teat so they would break apart. Then I was able to pull them out gently when they got to the oriface. Hubby said the harder clumps are better because the slippery ones were live colonies of bacteria, while the harder ones are probably dead colonies.

Mastitis by Noah L. Goddard

This is a post that was on Managing Dairy Goats (yahoo group). Since we have had such a battle with Glacier and mastitis again this year (although not as badly as last year) it seemed like a good idea to post this for future reference.

Mastitis Vaccines
Mastitis Resistance: J-5 & Lysigin Vaccines
With kidding under way does are really stressed during this brutal winter weather and subject to acute mastitis at, or shortly after, freshening. If you have not already done so please consider vaccinating vulnerable does against Staph aureus and E. coli mastitis.

Fresh does always seem to be the most vulnerable to mastitis outbreaks. First, I want to emphasize that I am not a Veterinarian and that I make no claims of medical training nor am I recommending any treatments, therapies, or preventives. We use two cattle vaccines off label pursuant to the direction of our veterinarian, J-5 as an aid in the prevention of clinical mastitis caused by E.coli and Lysigin as an immunization against disease caused by staphylococcus aureus. While I am sure that these vaccines are sold by other vendors, both of these are shown about mid-page 43 of the PBS Animal Health Catalog or you can find them on-line at www.pbsanimalhealth.com or call them at 1-800-321-0235. They can be purchased without a veterinary prescription.

We follow the package insert instructions for dosage of each vaccine IM using a smaller needle, 3/4 inch by 22 gauge. We start about midway in their pregnancy and repeat it for a total of three times and then give a fourth injection about two weeks after kidding. We then give a booster about midway through their lactation. We do not give both vaccines in the same leg and do not give the vaccines at the same time. We rotate and give the J-5 one week and the Lysigin the following week. You may get an occasional injection site reaction resulting is a sore leg but that can be easily managed with Banamine. We also vaccinate dry yearlings before they are bred to freshen as 2-year-olds. Does that are historically more susceptible to mastitis are given more frequent boosters to heighten their level of immunity. You may want to consult your veterinarian about frequency of boosters.

We also emphasize overall resistance to mastitis which includes milk room sanitation. The worst germ carriers are on the end of our arms and they are called hands. One of the most crucial mastitis preventives is a hand sink and antibacterial soap in your milk room. I can't emphasize enough the need for frequent hand washing. Washing hands with antibacterial soap before milking is important.

We use Nolvasan and individual washcloths for each doe to prep them before connecting them to the milking machine. We use an Iodine based post dip called Astro Tek which is kind of like pudding. It clogs the orifice and keeps dirt and debris carrying bacteria from entering the udder when they go out and lay down directly after milking. A bacteria-free milking machine is crucial to mastitis resistance. We use Mitricin Plus and hot water to clean our machine, then use a solution of Clorox and hot water after milking. Before the next milking we run another solution of clorox and hot water through the system and then rinse the system with plain hot water.

While other herd management practices may vary, we do not bed our loafing barn with hay, straw, shavings, or similar materials. It is well insulated and well ventilated. We use a 12-inch thick layer of lime screenings in the loafing barn which we believe keeps down bacteria that causes mastitis. We clean off the top layer periodically as needed and replace it with fresh screenings. Our loafing barn has a 22 foot by 60 foot awning on the south side that is used to cover the hay feeders. The hay feeders are 2x12 skids so they can be moved with the tractor permitting us to clean under the awning which is also bedded with 12 inches of lime screenings. The area under the awning requires more frequent cleaning as the goats spend much of their time in this area (see loafing area at http://www.goddardfarm.com/aboutus.htm). This loafing area also has a thermostat-controlled automatic Brower water system so the does have access to a fresh drink during all weather conditions (see attached picture). Fresh clean drinking water is crucial to herd health.

In all cases, we strongly recommend against beginning any new therapies, treatments, or vaccines without first consulting your regular veterinarian. The manufacturers package insert instructions, and/or those of your veterinarian should be followed and not deviated from.

Good Luck with your Mastitis Resistance program.
Noah

***********************

I have an Alpine doe, kidded on March 25th,
she now has clumps of blood coming out in her milk

what do I treat her with?

she weighs 120 lbs.
thanks Misty

***********************

Misty,
You have a serious case of mastitis. First, get some milk samples of both sides of the udder and take them to your vet for cultures. Concomitantly start antibiotics immediately as follows, 8 to 10cc of Penicillin S.Q. twice a day for a total of 20cc per day for the first day. Then 6cc of Penicillin S.Q. twice a day for a total of 12cc each day for the next four days. Along with the Penicillin, give 5cc of Naxcel S.Q. daily for the same five days. Give 3cc of fortified B-complex daily for the same five days.

You need to vaccinate this doe and every animal in your herd with J-5 and Lysigin ASAP. Get into our list archive and read previous discussions on these vaccines.

Noah

Polioencephalomalacia and Mastitis

Polioencephalomalacia
We've had a few sicknesses lately. The easiest one to deal with was the goat polio or Polioencephalomalacia. Basically this is a Thiamine deficiency in young goats. The kid was limping on his back left leg on Thursday so we put him in a stall with his mom. It didn't get better, in fact it was worse on Sunday. It had spread through most of his limbs and my husband said that he looked like he had a neurological disorder. Bingo! I knew what it was at that point and hubby went searching for more information.

This is taken from GoatWorld.com:

Symptoms of Polioencephalomalacia are excitability, "stargazing," uncoordinated staggering and/or weaving (ataxia), circling, diarrhea, muscle tremors, and apparent blindness. Initial symptoms can look like Entertoxemia (overeating disease). There is a component of "overeating" involved in that the rumen flora has been compromised. As the disease progresses, convulsions and high fever occur, and if untreated, the goat generally dies within 24-72 hours.

Our little guy didn't have all the symptoms (no diarrhea, no apparent blindness, no 'stargazing') but he had enough symptoms as well as enough indicators that we decided to treat him. We had treated his mom a few days earlier with a womer (Fenbendazole), it has been wet so he may have nibbled on some moldy hay, he is a single buckling on a nubian doe who gives lots of rich milk so he was growing very quickly.

This is also taken from GoatWorld.com:

Causes of thiamine deficiency include feeding moldy hay or grain, overdosing with amprollium (CoRid) when treating for coccodiosis, feeding molasses-based grains (horse & mule feeds), ingesting some species of ferns, sudden changes in diet, the dietary stress of weaning, and reactions to de-wormers Thiabendazole and Levamisole. Each of these can interfere with Vitamin B1 production. Even the usage of antibiotics destroys flora in the rumen and can lead to thiamine deficiency. This is why it is so important to repopulate the gut with live bacteria after using antibiotics or scour medications. Goat Polio is generally seen most often in weanlings and young adults , in contrast to Listeriosis, which most frequently affects adult goats. An increase in Goat Polio occurs in North America during winter, when the availability of forage and quality hay is low and producers start feeding increased amounts of grain.

We have Vitamin B complex on hand and decided to treat him with that according to the dosage requirements for the Thiamine listed on the lable. He is a 20 lb buckling so we gave him 1ml of B-complex 3x a day for 3 days. He was much better after the second dose on Sunday and is almost back to normal today. We'll keep an eye on him to see how he continues.

On to the mastitis....

We have a doe that has mastitis so we found a vet that would look at her. It isn't as bad a case as she had last year (when we couldn't find a vet), but when she started shedding some internal tissue (irregular pieces of what look like shedding skin, some were blood spotted), I decided she had better see a vet if we could find one. I really don't want to go through what we went through last year! All the 'books' say--see a vet. Her temp is normal (100.3), she is eating and drinking normally, she is still pooping out berries, she kidded on March 27th with a buckling and a doeling. We pulled her kids on Monday morning--one has taken to the bottle without a problem, the other found a 'new mom' in the herd. (We've got one Saanen who will adopt anyone.)

The vet charged $160 to tell us to
1) dry her off
2) don't breed her again (he was wondering why anyone would want goats in the first place--nice man but the wrong vet for us!)
3) gave us Penject+B to inject IM or SQ 3ml/day
4) don't worry about milking her out (see #1)

So.... we are giving her the Penject+B IM (since the books and other info say IM not SQ) as well as milking her out a number of times each day (Mon and Tue we milked her out every hour from 8:00 am-10:00 pm) Her milk does look better today--fewer clumps and not as much blood, so we'll probably milk her out every 3 hours today unless things look worse at one of the milkings. We also massage her udder to make sure we get out as much milk as possible.

She managed to get the milk bucket a few times on Tuesday and drank a bunch of her own milk. When I found this article:
(http://www.u-sayranch.com/goats/ramsay/natural_ways_treating_mastitis.html)
I wasn't as worried. Maybe the milk will help.

After reading Willi and Barbara's posts from last year (http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/SaanenTalk/message/34152), we decided to not try the hydrogen peroxide infusion (I don't think her mastitis is that bad at this point). She doesn't seem to be in pain (and I doubt the vet would give us banamine anyway) so we aren't giving her Banamine. She was copper bolused 2 weeks ago, so I don't think we'll add more copper at this point. Hubby is a chemist, so he is mixing up some chelated selenium today for her in the lab, it will be fed (or drenched) orally and hopefully he can find some good info here (http://jds.fass.org/cgi/content/full/90/5/2350) on dosages. I'm not sure if the Calcium is necessary, but I can certainly mix up some for her (I've got some food grade, powdered calcium from hubby's lab and the doe will eat anything I mix with a little molasses and make a sandwich out of).

Since she is on Penject+B we are giving her 5 g of Probios daily, too, although that wasn't on the list of things from Barbara and Willi--it seems like a good idea. I also read about giving 1 gram of Vitamin C per day. So we made a sandwich last night for her and another this morning. We'll keep that up for 10 days as well.

Another tip I was given from SaanenTalk was to dry treat her when we dry her off. We will give that a try and see if we can avoid another bout of mastitis with this doe next year.

The funny thing was that the vet sent hubby and Vet2Be up to the front about 4 times (I was working and couldn't be there). When they told me that my first thought was, "He doesn't have much of an idea about what he is doing!" That was the feeling hubby and son got :o) So we won't be going to this vet again (nice guy--just not a goat vet). I know there is a good goat/sheep vet 2 hours south of here--I was just trying to avoid the drive. Another clue that this is not the vet for us: he told Vet2B to give the shots in the doe's rump--a big no-no as there is a chance of nerve damage to any goat in that area and carcass damage if you have meat goats.

Glacier, the doe with mastitis

If you are interested in raising sheep and goat, our favorite reference book is Small Ruminant Production Medicine and Management (Sheep and Goats). You can find it at Infovets.com.