Snowbelle was bitten on the teat by a spider last fall. From August to December, I treated that half, but she lost the teat and was VERY ill for a long time.
One half of the udder is normal, but on the left side, the body of the udder remains and has an orifice, but no teat.
As she has bagged up prior to kidding soon, the damaged side of the udder also enlarged, and then a white thick material began to drain from the orifice. That half of her udder has become lumpy, and I'm sure there is infection that is not localized, but throughout that half. She is *not* running a fever.
I put in a call to Dr. Mueller, took a sample to send to the mastitis clinic at LSU for testing, and after carefully cleaning her udder and the orifice, expressed the material from her udder. I then irrigated the orifice and the cavity in her udder where the material came from with hydrogen peroxide. Approximately half a cup of thick greenish white material came out. It looks like colostrum, except the color is wrong. There is no bad odor.
Dr. Mueller returned my call today and we talked extensively about Snowbelle's situation with the damaged half of her udder and the draining infection.
She is due on May 15th, and it looks like multiple kids again.
He is concerned about the drainage contaminating the goat pen and especially infecting any kids she might have who would suck the good teat next to that drainage.
He recommended that I flush that side with iodine, fashion a plug of a piece of paper towel, and let the iodine remain in place for 12 hours. Repeat. He said it may be able to go as long as 24 hours, if her udder is not producing a lot of drainage.
He recommended that I be present for the kidding, remove the kids without letting them nurse, harvest colostrum VERY carefully so as not to have any of the infected drainage contaminate it, and bottle raise the kids. He recommended that Snowbelle be put down. She is an infection hazard to the rest of the herd and should not be bred again.
He did ask gentle questions about my feelings about putting her down before he recommended that solution. He also asked about her genetics and her value as a breeder in the herd. He's a GOOD veterinarian.
He said for me to call him as soon as she kids and that he would get here as quickly as he can to euthanize her gently so that I don't have to shoot her.
If she has all bucklings, I'm going to put them all down immediately. If there's a nice doeling, I'll keep it and suffer through the bottle feeding, I guess. Bottle feeding does NOT make me happy.
An Update: Angela and her family have offered to foster and bottle feed any doelings that I might want to keep from Snowbelle. This is a blessing, and I'm going to consider it. Thank you!
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