Mastitis

 

When I milked Penelope, our new milking goat, last week, I found she had early symptoms of mastitis in her left udder. The milk was coming out full of lumps. We took her straight to the vet who confirmed my diagnosis. Fortunately we identified the problem early and she was given antibiotics to cure her. The lumps in the milk were pus and she continued to produce pus in the milk for 3 days. You can see in the photo above, taken on her 2nd day of having the illness, that, though not lumpy, the pus was still being produced though in reduced quantities. We can't use the milk from the right udder for 30 days but the vet said we can feed it to pigs. The milk therefore is going to our friend Steve who has a couple of pigs. The milk from the left udder still has a few traces of pus in it so until that has cleared, we are having to throw the milk away. 

So if you have a goat that is producing lumpy milk, get her to the vet ASAP and stop the illness quickly.