Re: [Blackbelly] mastitis

[Rick Krach]

Thanks, Mark.  Mastitis is the only problem I'd ever heard of involving milk 
production and I suspected it, but never found any swelling, injury, or lumps.  
In reading this site:  http://www.sheepandgoat.com/articles/mastitis.html  I'm 
seeing that infection even can come from unclean bedding.  I also see that you 
need to cull sheep with this trouble.  So my conclusion is, stick with 
Blackbellies and forget the Great American breed!  If it was a bummer lamb 
injury, it was the ewe's own lamb because that lamb was so big despite being 
only a couple of months old.  All the other lambs were younger and feeding well 
with their own moms.  

Rick Krach
Auburn, California
(530) 889-1488



> Message: 5
> Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 22:08:10 -0500
> From: "The Wintermutes" 
> Subject: Re: [Blackbelly] one udder
> To: , "'Blackbelly List'"
> 
> Message-ID: 
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
> Hi Rick,
>
> What you have described is mastitis. I have had two ewes have this problem
> where the mastitis killed one side of the bag. I gave a lot of penicillin
> injections into the bad side of the bag to keep down infection. I also
> helped the bag come off with some barnyard surgery.
>
> The good news is the ewe can still have lambs. Check the remaining side of
> the udder and make sure it is still good and not hard. If the remaining
> side is still good and the ewe is a good mother she can still raise twins.
> It would be a good idea to keep a very close eye on the lambs to make sure
> they are getting enough milk. Mastitis is hard to keep contained to just
> one side of an udder but can be done.
>
> I found the biggest reason for mastitis is bummer lambs mugging a ewe for a
> meal. They bite the teat to hang on and the ewe literally drags these lambs
> around. The teats get injured and then infection sets in leading to
> mastitis. I have learned the hard way to grab these bummer lambs and
> separate them away from the moms ASAP.
>
> Mark Wintermute
>
>
>
>

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