It's Wednesday.

[Mugwump]

...and so far I've accomplished nothing.... ....well, I'm up and dressed anyway.......

...hopefully the afternoon will bring some incentive....

[Mugwump]

....a couple errands out and about.....then back to putz around.....now it's time to kick back....


....anything exciting today folks 

[wallace]

Two new kids were born yesterday but we noticed the doe has mastitis on one side. Its not getting better so we will probably have to call the vet.

[LizStreithorst]

When it was bad I used a 20 cc syringe filled with normal saline with an amount of amakacin that I can no longer remember.  It worked the trick on the hot cases and cases resistant to the normal infusions.  You can buy plastic tips for the syringe made for going  inside the teat canal but can also place the blunt syringe opening right on the entrance to the teat canal.  Good luck.

[wallace]

I don't know much about this... LL was told to use warm towels, massage, then milk out the pus-like stuff. She can be milked, but the udder is harder to the touch than the other side. Does this sound right to you?

[LizStreithorst]

She needs immediate treatment.  Take her to the vet first thing tomorrow and tell him that you want a better antibiotic than what's in the commercial tubes.  I wish I were there.  I would know exactly what to do.

I understand that there is a vaccination against mastitis these days.  All the dairy goat show people use it but since it came along after my time I know nothing about it.  I assume it works against staph as that's the most common mastitis.  Ask your vet about it.  Good luck, Dan.

[wallace]

The vet is coming this afternoon. She will give an anti-inflammatory and take a culture to figure out a good antibiotic. We have had the doe & kids separated from the other goats, so hopefully it won't spread.

[Mugwump]

The vet is coming this afternoon. She will give an anti-inflammatory and take a culture to figure out a good antibiotic. We have had the doe & kids separated from the other goats, so hopefully it won't spread.

...good luck...hope all turns out well

[LizStreithorst]

Is the doe running a fever?  I'd stick something up that udder until she gets the results of the culture.  It takes 3 days if she does it at the clinic.  Longer if she has to send it to a lab.  My vet taught how to do my own cultures.  It's not hard.

[wallace]

I sent the little tubes to the lab, they should get there in the morning. There is one sample of milk from each side. She had no fever so its a mild case, vet says. I watched the vet squirt some antibiotic in there, and that looks easy too. We have another dose for tomorrow.

[Ron Sower]

...wow...never thought about that kind of problem with the farm animals...if I'd grown up on a farm I'd know about it...good luck with it...

[LizStreithorst]

I'm glad to hear that it's not as bad as I had feared.  When you said you were milking out the puss and clots and that the udder half was hard it made me afraid fro the doe.  If she isn't running a fever it's not a life threatening case.  She will likely be light on that side for the rest of her life.  If you're lucky the commercial treatment in the tube will work for you.  That was rarely the case for me.

I'm sorry if I freaked you out but I had show goats and in the show ring boobs carry as many points as the overall structure of the goat.  An animal with a flawed udder was toast as a show goat.  I always jumped on the first signs of a problem using the big gun antibiotics.  I set up a culture before I treated but it took time to see bacterial growth on the culture plates before I treated.  Usually the strain of staph that grew was not sensitive to the antibiotic in the tubes.  In your case this is a family milker and a pet.  It's no big deal if she is lighter on one side than the other.

Please tell me the results of the culture and sensitivity.  I imagine that it's a staph but I'm curious as to which antibiotics it is sensitive to.  Good luck!

[Ron Sower]

...Liz, you never cease to amaze me with your knowledge...

[LizStreithorst]

...Liz, you never cease to amaze me with your knowledge...

My depth of knowledge in stuff that nobody cares about even impresses me once in a blue moon.  I'm a moron when it cones to a lot of normal stuff   To me, you're the smart guy.  You talk about buying houses and flipping them or keeping them as rentals is so far over my head I can't even understand your formula.  The things that you're smart in actually make money!

[Ron Sower]

...Liz, you never cease to amaze me with your knowledge...

My depth of knowledge in stuff that nobody cares about even impresses me once in a blue moon.  I'm a moron when it cones to a lot of normal stuff   To me, you're the smart guy.  You talk about buying houses and flipping them or keeping them as rentals is so far over my head I can't even understand your formula.  The things that you're smart in actually make money!

...not hardly...I lost a fortune in a scam several years ago...that was really tough to deal with...

...what amazes Lucy and others is so much of the stuff I remember from my biology days...most of it useless to the normal everyday person...and that's what I am now...I get a lot of, "who cares"!...

...What's really great for me though is when someone comes in and knows a little bit about aquarium keeping and tells me what a nice job I've done with mine...

...if you'd like my formula, I keep it in Excel and would be happy to send it to you...basically you add up all your projected costs in acquiring and fixing the property; subtract it from approximately what you can sell it for; and determining if that's going to be worth your time and effort...It's similar when I buy to rent...I total the purchase, repair and utility costs, and subtract the total rental income for the year...if it hits a certain percent return on investment [ROI] I do it...if not I pass...I don't let emotions get into the equation...