I have a doe named Marilyn that has only been a pet. she has never been bred or milked, is 6 years old. She has always had one teat larger than the other, last fall she got very sick at that time her teats swelling went down and she was fine. Now it's back, one teat swollen and the other not big but rock hard. she can not walk very well at all because of this. the swelling came on pretty sudden and is much worse than it has ever been. I put hot compresses on it and give her a pain killer, but nothing seems to help. nothing will come out of the udder. I need suggestions on what to do to help her more. Thank you.

-- Dawn Kopp (ekopp@cardina.net), April 26, 2002

Answers

You need to treat her for mastitis. There should be some excellent posts by Vicki in the archives, or you can try e mailing her. I do not have as much experience using antibiotics,and it sounds as though that's what your doe needs.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), April 26, 2002.

If she has never been bred or kidded can she have this problem ?? I would put her in the back seat of the car and go see the vet. Might be something altogether different ?? Good Luck !!

-- Helena (windyacs@npacc.net), April 27, 2002.

Give her 2 goldenseal roots in a peanutbutter sandwich. Seriously. Or lrt her free roam, and watch what she eats. Probably sheep sorrel.

-- Elizabeth Quintana (rockshelter@webtv.com), April 27, 2002.

Dawn it is actually quite common for virgin does to milk, even as young as 3 months. It is mostly hormonal. In her case she also got some bacteria up in the orifice, and she has mastitis. She will need to be treated both in her udder with a dry cow infusion, but also systemically. Easiest would be to take her to the vet, where he will pull out some of the fluid and send it in for a culture. You could also pull the fluid yourself, put it into a sterile contanier and send it to your state lab. While you wait for the culture to come back the best guess is penicillin subq for 7 to 10 days, (300,000 unit penicillians are given at 3cc per 50 pounds, every 12 hours if she has fever, every 24 hours if she does not) and a penicillin based infusion put up into the udder for 3 days. Once the culture comes back if you guessed wrong just start on the recommended antibiotic. With this being yet another bout of it, you may want to think about having her udder removed. Chronic mastitis is very hard to cure. Sadly her health would be much better had she kidded normally each year and stayed in milk for awhile. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), April 28, 2002.