The new goatkeepers' guide

When looking at the fibre and meat producing goats, we need only consider any problems that might occur with the udder during the lactating process. The goat will be rearing her own offspring but not providing milk for the household so the main risk is traumatic damage that can occur at any time.

With a dairy goat we must be ever aware of problems that can occur which will restrict the usefulness of the animal as a dairy goat.

Most udder problems will fall into one of three categories:

Congenital abnormalities
When a new kid is born it is important to check the teats. This applies whether the kid is male or female. The things to look for are supernumerary or "extra" teats, "fish tail" teats, absence of teats.

Always check at birth and again three or four days later, just in case you made a mistake. Supernumerary teats are obvious and usually consist of additional one, two or even three teats in the udder area. Quite often they are non functional and providing there are two functional ones, there is no reason why this goat, if female should not rear her own young but she could become a difficult animal to milk especially if being milked mechanically as the additional teat(s) will get in the way.

If it is a male animal then clearly it must be reared for meat or culled. It would be unwise to continue breeding from this goat's line (whether male or female) as they will undoubtedly throw the same genetic problems generation after generation. We have a responsibility to keep the "National Flock" as healthy as possible and therefore must be quite ruthless with ourselves with regard to congenital abnormalities.

Some breeds are more prone to this problem than others, the Boer goat being one. As this goat is used entirely for meat production, this matters little, but out crossing it with a dairy goat for a dual purpose animal can often precipitate this problem (this is why I advise those who want a dual purpose animal to consider the Angora/Dairy goat cross (see April Article) Again, check for this abnormality when buying a goat and also on your own animals before putting to a male goat for breeding. I once bought a 4 month old Toggenburg who had a normal udder at the time and by the time she was ten months old had developed a supernumerary teat (she probably had it all the time but it was so microscopic at birth it had gone unnoticed). A little care and attention at the beginning could save a lot of heart ache later on.

Traumatic injury

Traumatic Injury can be caused by a number of things, the most common is that of being caught on brambles or undergrowth and to this end it is important to see that your dairy goat or lactating female is grazing safe territory. Leave the scrubby areas to the youngsters and whethers who have no undercarriage to worry about. Make sure that your goat has no brambles and fallen branches to contend with and this should ensure that she is safe from that point of view.

Bites and stings from insects can be another problem.

Goats with pendulous udders can quite literally tread on or scuff there own udders and so this is not a goat too buy.

Damage to udders can also occur form nipping by kids, biting from other goats and bad milking techniques.

Hungry kids, especially when there are more than two, can often compete for the udder and this can lead to damage from there overzealous searching, particularly when they get older. Even two kids can often decide that only one side of the udder will do and will compete for one side only. This again can lead to traumatic injury and also a case of mastitis on the "unemptied" side too, which I will deal with next.

This can be overcome by making sure that your kids attach themselves to the udder within 30 minutes of birth. Be insistent about which ked feeds from which side for the first few feeds and the problem should not occur. Sometimes the udder is so full at the beginning of lactation or the teats are so small that the kid has trouble latching on. If this is the case "ease" the udder my hand milking some off first. If this is within the first 48 hours of lactation, this will be colostrum, so save it in a sterilized container and freeze it for future use should you ever have an orphan kid. Receiving adequate colostrums in the first 48 hours of life is vital to the new born kid. Don't worry if you end up taking even a couple of pints in this early period, the goat will make plenty for her two or more kids.

Sometimes female goats who are having a ruck about something (yes, guys, they ARE hormonal and can suddenly get a bee in their bonnets about something quite obscure!) will "go for the jugular" by biting each others udders.A strange but effective way of seeing off your rival.Very painful. As a result bruising, laceration and as a consequence mastitis can occur.

Bad milking techniques can also create a major problem of traumatic bruising and so, if you have not milked before, get some help from someone who has. There is no "pulling" involved, just a gentle downward squeeze and release. Milking technique and the use of mechanical milkers is a subject I will cover in the next issue, along with vaccines and vaccination.

Serious lacerations need the attention of a vet as they may need suturing but scratches and bruises you can deal with yourself.

For the purpose of this article I will just deal with the most common disease of the udder which is mastitis. Mastitis is inflammation of the udder which is caused by milk effectively stagnating within it because it can't escape by the normal means (through the teat) In the worst case scenario, the goat will become very ill indeed and perhaps die her udder will abscess and rupture and there is really no effective return to a functional dairy goat from this situation. BUT if you're husbandry is right, it will never get to this stage.

Many goats suffer from mild mastitis some of the time and it frequently goes unnoticed. It is only in the commercial herd where milk samples are tested very regularly that low grade mastitis may show up.

It is rare for a goat who is feeding her own kids to develop this problem unless a traumatic injury has occurred that has been ignored or unnoticed. The most likely cause will be as in the aforementioned, when 2 kids decide that one side of the udder is the only place to go! In which case, deal with it as already described.

You will know if your goat has mastitis as the udder will become warmer than normal and may show pinker than normal patches. It will be sensitive to touch and the goat may object to being milked. The first self help thing you can do is to get some hand hot water and a flannel and repeatedly wring out the flannel in the water and lay over the affected area. Quite quickly you should be able to begin to "milk" the affected side. There may well be a congealed plug of milk in the opening of the teat but with GENTLE persuasion and continued use of the flannel you should be able to shift this and begin to gently strip out the udder. The milk will be stringy or lumpy and this is often known as "beestings". It must be carefully discarded as it will certainly contain infected matter. Do not let your dog or cat drink it! When you have finished, moisturise the udder with a good udder cream (I use a mixture of E45 cream and Vaseline or sulphur ointment) "Strip out" the udder every couple of hours. With luck, you will cure the problem within 3 days IF you have caught it early enough, but the goat will have a predisposition to get the problem especially just after kidding, so be vigilant. If the goat is unwell or you feel unsure about treating it yourself, then call your vet as quickly as you can. His treatment will involve a course of antibiotics and probably an antibiotic cream to be inserted into the udder itself through the teat duct. Even if you hand the responsibility over to the vet, applying the warm flannels and regular stripping out of the udder will still be beneficial if you are to retain a useful milking goat. A goat that has had severe mastitis may lose the use of all or part of her udder and is likely to suffer repeated bouts of the problem if kept solely for dairy use. She can usually, however manage to feed her own kids quite well and can still be useful for the rearing of kids for the future that will be used for breeding or meat. Sometimes there is a predisposition in the breed line for mastitis and this is also worth checking before deciding how best to deal with the stricken animal, or better still before you buy it! Avoid buying goats with lumpy or lopsided udders, it usually spells trouble.

Self-help and the veterinary box

Always keep some Arnica Cream in your veterinary box as this is an excellent salve for all bruises that do not involve broken skin. If you use it on broken skin it will sting and the goat will kick at herself and probably compound the injury.

Avoid putting you goats with udders in scrub or brambly areas.

Be vigilant with your new born kids and mark the "suspects" with wax marker or spray.

Treat all bites and stings and minor scratches immediately before they become infected by flies or debris.

(Sulphur Ointment, Aloe Vera or Japanese Mint Oil Cream will all treat these very well) Always wash and dry udders before milking and treat after milking with udder cream to keep skin supple.

Ask the current owner and check potential purchases for Mastitis history.

Never neglect a case of suspected mastitis, it will NOT go away on its own.

Keep the bedding of dairy animals scrupulously clean to avoid infection.

To avoid udder attack and mis-mothering, (squabbling over and stealing each others kids). Do not mix newly kidded mothers together with their kids until at least a week old and only then if the mothers have previously known each other.