Hello, My name is Sherri Hyder and I live in Hampton, Tn. I have Oberhasli goats and have had for the past 4 or 5 years. I have not had a problem with milking until last year. Last year my main milking goat got a rash like blistering on her milk sak that the vet could not identify (they are not real knowledgable about goats in this area. The blisters are pus filled and last about 3 days before making a small red spot and then going away but more break out. That goat has cleared up this year but another one has the same problem. I have been putting an udder cream on it but it doesn't seem to be doing any good. Has anyone had or heard of this problem and what I could do for it? Thank you.

-- Sherri Hyder (peasant4Him@hotmail.com), April 23, 2000 Answers Sherri, sounds just like goat pox. Same thing as cow pox. It is a virus, and catching to goats. You should milk the goat with the pox last. Cause if you milk her first your other goats would catch it. You can put bag balm on the blisters and it stops it from spreading. I don't think there is anything you can do to clear it up really. Most people that have great big herds of goats have it. Anyway it will run its course and be gone. I have a doe she gets it every year after she freshens. It last maybe 3 weeks and it gone. It is somehow related to smallpox that people get. I saw a documentary on tv about in 17th century people were dieing from the Pox. But the milkmaids never got sick. Hope this helps

-- Linda Hess (hesscat@cot.net), April 23, 2000.

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I had a goat that got goat pox last year. They looked like little pimples all over the udder. I don't remember them breaking open though. They went away after a week or so. How long has this goat had these? I have heard that sometimes an udder wash is too harsh and can cause an allergic rash on the udder. I put bag balm on my goat, none of the others caught it.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@transport.com), April 23, 2000.

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Another guess would be staph. Staph can act like sandpaper under the skin. The only thing that usually causes the pimple like bumps to pop is applying things to the udder. When this comes to the outside it is usually a secondary infection. We have sucessfully ridded our girls of staph with the use of the vaccine, lysign out of the Jeffers catalog. It was formerly called Stomota Staph, and was named that when we started using it. Once a doe has this she will usually get it every year once infected, at the time of kidding, it does not affect the milk, but you can pass it from one doe to another. It is caused from damp conditions, and other than the vaccination my eldest 10 year old Nubain receives, we had no more of this in our younger stock without vaccination, since being in our new barn for the past 6 years. Our old barn was way to damp, to low of ceilings, and we put the barn where we did 14 years ago, because in the deep woods it was fairly cleared. Dummy us didn't know that the reason it was fairly cleared, was because water stood there! Now the new dairy barn is high and dry on the highest point on our property with no trees, for air and light. You would give the herd one shot now and a booster shot in 21 days. You would give them their annual shot to coincide with about 3 weeks before they kid. This staph can get so bad that they can get scaly patches on their belly and legs, if you continue to treat it topically and cause it to spread. You need to dry this up and treat it like you would poison ivy. You do not want to keep it wet, you want it to dry. Benedryl or an antihistimine from the vet would be my choice of treatment. I would also give everybody the vaccine, or at the very least the does that are or have been infected and any that are penned or have nursed off her. I would also try to throughly clean the pen that they are in with Teck Trol or something labeled killing staph bacteria, removing the old soil and replaceing it with new. They are reinfecting themselves because it is harbored in their body, the other doe unless she nursed this doe, was infected from the environment. I am also implementing the udder infusion Pirsue as part of my dry cow (goat) management, infused at drying them off. Hope this helps, Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), April 24, 2000.

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A Nubian breeder friend of mine taught me the trick of using an udder infusion (something like TODAY) topically instead of internally. The ointment put on the pox and resulting lesions cleared everything up very quickly the one time I had a problem.

-- Pat Showalter (kinderzed@aol.com), July 08, 2000.

-- Chamoisee (chamoisee@yahoo.com), June 24, 2001