How to treat mastitis in goats

Breeding goats is a profitable activity, which, however, is a lot of trouble. It does not matter how you farm, how large your farm is, or what goals you pursue when raising goats. Despite the fact that it is impossible to call a goat whimsical and demanding in care, nevertheless, you will have to work hard and get nervous, if suddenly the horned gets sick.One of the most common diseases among goats is mastitis in goats, because this animal is milky and has an udder. The fact is that treating mastitis in a goat is quite difficult, especially if you plan to do it yourself at home. Today we learn about the signs of mastitis and what should be the treatment of mastitis in goats, how long the treatment for mastitis in goats takes, what drugs are used for this, how positive the prognosis will be.

Mastitis in a goat

How to understand that a goat is sick with mastitis

How to understand that a goat has mastitis? First you need to figure out what mastitis in a goat is, what symptoms arise with this disease.Mastitis in cattle is an inflammatory disease that can occur in two stages – acute or chronic. The affected area is the udder, that is, in the mammary gland of the animal.

Let’s see what signs goat have in mastitis. Signals that the goat is sick can be caused by the following symptoms of mastitis in goats:

• An admixture of blood may appear in milk
• Outwardly, the disease can manifest itself by a noticeable increase in one of the udder lobes
• On palpation, you can feel that the organ has become hard and not plastic, that is, seals appear that can increase as the condition of the animal worsens
• The volume of milk obtained after milk production has sharply decreased
• Including the quality of the product obtained, the fresh milk may also contain clots with mucus, color t may become more transparent or, on the contrary, cloudy
• During a standard examination, you may find that the goat’s body temperature is increased, and touching the udder causes pain, the animal looks tired

Important carry out preventive examinations periodically, and you will be more likely to notice the very beginning of the disease, it is at this stage that mastitis is easiest to cure. It is worth remembering that mastitis in a goat does not appear immediately, it can take about a week until the first signs appear.

It also happens that the symptoms of mastitis are blurred and not pronounced, then we should talk about the latent form of the disease, namely the subclinical form, it is also called latent mastitis. In this case, in order to understand whether the goat is sick with mastitis, it is necessary to carry out a simple manipulation with freshly milk. Pour it into a transparent container, let the product sour and carefully examine what has precipitated. If clots of mucus and pus, or even blood, remain at the bottom, the goat is most likely to have mastitis and needs treatment.

Why does mastitis appear

No disease can be caused for no reason , the same goes for mastitis in goats. The disease occurs because the ducts are blocked, through which milk comes out, leaving the udder. Usually, a blockage occurs because the milkmaid milks the animal incorrectly during milking. Mastitis is also common in those animals that have recently reared, since their immunity and protective system at this time are not in the best condition. The reason in this case is an infection that has got from the environment into the dairy organ of the animal. If the infectious nature of mastitis is confirmed, treatment will necessarily include antibiotics, which are mandatory prescribed by a doctor.

It is also worth mentioning other reasons that provoke the development of mastitis not only in goats, but also in other representatives of cattle:

• During milking, the rules of technology and hygiene are not respected
• Mastitis may be a complication of an existing infection in a goat
• A goat does not receive a balanced high-calorie diet, from which its immunity is reduced
• Trauma or pathology in the structure of the udder

How to treat mastitis at home

The goat is separate from the others

What if your goat has mastitis? The first thing the owner should do after confirming the diagnosis is to protect the sick goat from contact with healthy animals. This is necessary in order to prevent the disease from spreading and infecting healthy cattle.

In addition, it is mandatory to carry out general cleaning in the room where goats are kept. At the same time, the entire litter changes, as well as the walls whiten, this will help to overcome the infection in the shortest possible time. Currently, a sick animal needs to be given maximum attention, it should be peace and quiet, only the highest quality feed and constant access to clean water.

It doesn’t matter where the goat will be treated and who will do it, the entire course can be divided into three stages:

• Relieving pain, in other words, pain treatment at home start with it
• Fighting infection, that is, antibiotic therapy
• Reducing inflammation, that is, all measures aimed at reducing the udder in size and freeing the milk ducts

Anesthesia of the udder

The first thing to worry about is to save the animal from torment, namely from pain, which ond it feels at the time mastitis. To do this, you can use ointment with novocaine, you can buy it in a regular pharmacy without a prescription. An external agent processes the affected nipples and a sore share of the udder. After the ointment begins to act, you can start a therapeutic massage, which will facilitate the speedy evacuation of stagnation in the milk ducts.

If the massage is not effective, you can add soda solution to the udder, while the percentage of soda should not be higher than two percent, and a single dose administered is 10-15 ml. After the injection is made, you need to shake the sore portion of the udder well so that the soda solution gets into all the ducts. Thus, it is possible to significantly improve the permeability of milk and serous fluid.

If this does not help, you can turn to at least, namely, the intramuscular injection of oxytocin.However, it is worth remembering that it can be used no more than once a day, otherwise it can entail a lot of side effects. It is worth mentioning that all milk during mastitis in goats that is bored during treatment and medical procedures should never be drunk, it must be immediately disposed of. Massage the udder should be performed at least two to three times a day.

If the procaine ointment was useless and did not have the proper analgesic effect, you can apply the scheme that veterinarians use. For this you will need novocaine, but already in liquid form, namely in the form of ampoules for intravenous or intramuscular administration. It is necessary to dilute a 0.25% ampoule of novocaine with saline and inject the goat in the thigh once a day, preferably in the evening. The dose is calculated on the basis of the rule – 0.5 milliliter per 1 kg of animal weight.

Speaking of novocaine, it must be said that its use is strictly contraindicated with antibiotics of the sulfonamide group, otherwise the analgesic eliminates the effect therapeutic therapy.

Treatment of mastitis with antibiotics

You can’t do without medication

Naturally, in the presence of bacteria and microbes in the goat’s analyzes, antibiotics should be used, otherwise Simply can not.However, it is worthwhile to understand that only an analysis, namely bacterial culture, can answer the question of which antibiotic can be used in a particular case. If you have neither the opportunity nor the time to do such a study, it makes sense to treat the animal with several groups of antimicrobial agents at once. For example, it can be three drugs at once – streptomycin, penicillin and tetracycline. Such a scheme is especially relevant when it comes to catarrhal or serous mastitis.

Veterinarians respond positively to the treatment regimen built on streptomycin in tandem with bicillin. Before administration, both powders must be thoroughly mixed and dissolved in sterile water. Then you need to disinfect the future injection site by wiping it with a swab in alcohol. The drug must be collected using a syringe, for this a small syringe with a volume of 5 ml is suitable. The drug is administered slowly, so that the entire dose is inside the animal. The course of treatment lasts at least 5 days, unless another is prescribed by the veterinarian, and the intervals between injections are about 12-18 hours.

Application of Mastieta Forte for mastitis in goats

Mastiet forte recommended itself well for the treatment of mastitis. The drug can only be purchased in liquid form, namely in the form of a suspension. The advantage of the medicine is that it contains an antibiotic and a hormonal anti-inflammatory agent.It can even be used to cure catarrhal, serous mastitis in goats and the hemorrhagic form of mastitis in goats.

Learn how to properly inject Mastiet forte:

• The first thing to do is instructions for the use of the drug is to empty the diseased portion of the udder from milk
• Perform disinfecting measures for the affected nipple
• Place a sterile disposable tip in the milk channel of the udder
• Enter the medication into duct
• Carefully pull out the syringe and hold the nipple with your fingers so that the medicine e flowed back

Such treatment is carried out no more than once a day, it is better to choose night time for this. The minimum interval between injections of Mastiet Forte is at least twelve hours. Some farmers advise you to make a warming compress for the udder after administering the drug.

Do not forget that all the manipulations that you perform to treat mastitis in goats must be carried out in protective clothing to prevent infection of others individuals.

It is important to say that there are a lot of funds that can help the main treatment, they are also called folk. One of the successful examples is ichthyol ointment, it can be applied between the injections of Mastieta forte.

How to treat false mastitis

Determine if there is mastitis

Now you know how to determine mastitis in goats at home. It’s time to figure out what is false mastitis. This is a situation where the following symptomatic pattern is observed in a goat:

• Nipples coarse
• Swollen udder appears
• Outflow of milk is difficult
• there are no inclusions in milk

In this case, they don’t talk about mastitis, most likely the goat has a breast and, as it is also called, typical swelling of the udder. In this case, it is not necessary to treat the goat with antibiotics, the condition of the animal can be improved by using diuretics and regular expression of milk. It is worth noting that massages in this case are strictly forbidden, they can aggravate the condition of the animal and provoke the development of true mastitis.

Let’s talk about the old folk method of how to deal with false mastitis in cattle. To do this, you need a regular dill broth. For its preparation you will need about 20 tbsp. dill seeds and 30 liters of hot water. After dill with water infused for about 2 hours, start to water them a goat. An animal should drink about 15 liters of such a swill per day. If a goat refuses it, it is allowed to add a little sugar to it.

Features of the chronic stage of mastitis in goats

The chronic form of mastitis is a consequence of an untreated acute form. Unfortunately, it is unlikely that he will be able to completely rid the animal of the disease, but the quality of his life can be significantly improved. It is important to note that it is recommended to stabilize the goat before it becomes pregnant so that there will be no problems with feeding the kids.

At home, you can treat the udder with an ordinary cream for children, it will soften the rough skin . Also use the previously described method of soldering an animal with dill water, this will reduce swelling. In addition to dill, infusions can also be prepared on herbs such as Herva, as well as on lingonberries, all this will help the goat.

Provide the goat with maximum comfort, the animal should not experience stress and unrest, indoors should to be dry, light and warm, it is important to protect the sick animal from drafts.

Prevention of mastitis in goats

As mentioned earlier, mastitis is easier to cure at the initial stage. For this, enough attention should be paid to preventive examinations for mastitis. In addition, prevention will ensure that painful symptoms do not return to an already recovered animal.

Also do not forget that the goat should live in comfortable conditions, in a room with cattle should to be clean, milking should be carried out only by a specially trained person who knows the technique well, do not forget that at the beginning of milking and after it, you need to process the nipples with disinfectants to prevent infection. Often, non-observance of elementary rules for the maintenance and care of cattle is the reason that mastitis returns again and again even after treatment.

Now you know what are the signs of mastitis in a goat, how to treat mastitis in a goat, what drugs are used for mastitis goats and what preventive measures should be. In conclusion, we say that the treatment of mastitis in goats should ideally be carried out under the supervision of a veterinarian, since self-medication can be fraught with a lot of side effects.