Hello, Just found this site surfing for goat answers. I have 2 does that have just kidded. Both have congestion in the udder. Babies are nursing well. I do not hand feed them as I am too old to go through that anymore. I had the Vet out and he told me that it was congestion. Both does are CAE free. I have been putting hot cloths on them with TTree oil and Lavender in the water and massaging them. Is there anything else I could do> Preferably, natural. Thank you

-- Janet Marsh (jmarsh4185@aol.com), March 25, 2001

Answers

Response to udder congestion

Hi Janet,

I am new to goats myself so I don't have any answers, but you might try The Goat Shed, a message board just for goat talk. You'll probably get an answer faster there since it is all about goats.

Here's the link:

http://communities.msn.com/TheGoatShed/messageboard.msnw ---

hth,

Elizabeth

-- Elizabeth in e tx (kimprice@peoplescom.net), March 25, 2001.

Response to udder congestion

http://www.goatworld.com/ or try this one .There are lots of people on there you can email for great advice .Vicky checks in often and if theres an answer she will have it .

-- Patty {NY State} (fodfarms@slic.com), March 25, 2001.

Response to udder congestion

I've had it with sheep. I milked out the ewe for a while. You would have to have someone hold that goat though. Now if you believe in meds I ended up giving her a shot of LA200 with 2cc of Dex plus some B vitamin shot and she was fine in a couple of days ended up with the conjestion the following year but didn't need any meds just went back to normal in a day. I have one now that has no milk and nothing worked so she will be culled and her babies are on the bottles, talk about no sleep! Good Luck

-- Debbie (bwolcott@cwis.net), March 25, 2001.

Response to udder congestion

Congestion, unless you are just talking about a beffy udder, is caused by nutrition. Usually to much protein during the end of pregnancy. Especially if they also had edema in their legs also. There really isn't anything but continually milking them that will rid you of this. Certainly not an antibiotic, though I could see how the use of Dex could help with its anti-inflamitory properties. I found that whatever we used really didn't help much, it really was one of those things that just heals itself over time, and having the kids nursing is really going to help. Would think that you would want to go the way of methol or eucaplytus or diluted mints for your udder massage. But you certainly aren't hurting anything. Lots of talk about the use of high dosages of Vitamin C in helping this. I just watch my protein in the girls diets, and start milking the does, even if they aren't do in 3 weeks, of my heavy milkers. Once they are uddered up to a normal amount, there certainly isn't any reason to let them get hard and congested waiting for kids to come. Of course you need a supply of colostrum to do this.

And with any talk of congestion in udders, comes the speech about CAE testing at a lab that only does Elisa testings. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), March 25, 2001.

If it's not CAE, and massages don't help, there is one other possibility. I have a friend who had a nice first freshener out of excellent milking lines, that had a badly congested udder last year. Negative on CAE. My friend spent a long time doing the heat packs and massage thing, finally got the congestion out of the udder, but then the doe had no milk to speak of. My friend planned to cull her, but decided to give her a second chance. The doe recently kidded again, same thing. (BTW, this lady feeds her does mostly grass hay, and doesn't overfeed grain, so I don't think too much protein is the problem in her case.) Because this doe was out of such good milking lines, my friend did take her to the vet as a last resort before culling her. He gave her a light dose of oxytocin, (not enough to cause cramping) and presto! No more congestion and the doe has lots of milk! I would give this a try.

-- Lenette (kigervixen@webtv.net), March 26, 2001.