Goat milk is to thick?

[Kaliskids]

We recently had new baby goats! And mom will let me handle her so i tried milking her about a week ago and her milk was normal, so i bought a milking machine and tried to do it with that yesterday. And her milk was THICK. Like lotion, what could cause this? It is way past the time for her to have colostrum. And it was just like normal milk a week ago…

 

[Mvan42]

Does it have a smell?

 

[NatJ]

We recently had new baby goats! And mom will let me handle her so i tried milking her about a week ago and her milk was normal, so i bought a milking machine and tried to do it with that yesterday. And her milk was THICK. Like lotion, what could cause this? It is way past the time for her to have colostrum. And it was just like normal milk a week ago…

Did you milk some out and look at it? Does it look and smell normal, apart from being thick?

Cream (more fat) is thicker than milk, so it might just have a lot of cream.

But mastitis (udder infection) can cause odd traits in milk, so I would definitely check for anything else odd about it. I think lumpy milk and bad-smelling milk are the most common symptoms, along with an udder that is sore (doe doesn't want it touched) and the udder maybe feeling hot to the touch.

 

[Kaliskids]

Did you milk some out and look at it? Does it look and smell normal, apart from being thick?

Cream (more fat) is thicker than milk, so it might just have a lot of cream.

But mastitis (udder infection) can cause odd traits in milk, so I would definitely check for anything else odd about it. I think lumpy milk and bad-smelling milk are the most common symptoms, along with an udder that is sore (doe doesn't want it touched) and the udder maybe feeling hot to the touch.

I did milk some out. And it smelled normal and looked normal just really thick, it was thick enough the machine didn't want to pull much if it out. Almost has a slight sweet smell just like it did a week ago

 

[NatJ]

I did milk some out. And it smelled normal and looked normal just really thick, it was thick enough the machine didn't want to pull much if it out. Almost has a slight sweet smell just like it did a week ago

If she otherwise seems healthy, I don't know what else to suggest.
Maybe milking by hand, and see if it becomes more normal in a few days?

 

[Kaliskids]

If she otherwise seems healthy, I don't know what else to suggest.
Maybe milking by hand, and see if it becomes more normal in a few days?

I went out this afternoon and milked her by hand and her supply has drastically decreased. And one aide is normal milk consistency but the other is the lotion like. It may be mastitis. I have not dealt with this yet. Any tips? Ive seen where to milk her out a few times a day. Maybe TMI but i had mastitis while breast feeding. And just pumped and hot cold compress. Would it be the same concept?

 

[NatJ]

I went out this afternoon and milked her by hand and her supply has drastically decreased. And one aide is normal milk consistency but the other is the lotion like. It may be mastitis. I have not dealt with this yet. Any tips? Ive seen where to milk her out a few times a day. Maybe TMI but i had mastitis while breast feeding. And just pumped and hot cold compress. Would it be the same concept?

Mastitis basically involved bacteria growing inside the udder.
So there are two obvious treatments: antibiotics, or physically removing the bacteria by very frequent milking.

I think antibiotics from the vet are the usual treatment for mastitis in animals, but I am not a vet so I'm not certain.

Yes, what you mentioned works for people, and it might work for an animal too-- but most people are not able to milk the goat often enough for that to work. Twice a day is a common milking schedule, but definitely not enough to cure mastitis.

I would call a vet and ask. If you can reach the vet at once, that would be best. If you cannot reach the vet until tomorrow or later, I would milk the goat as often as possible between now and when you can reach the vet, and talk to the vet at the earliest opportunity.

 

[lomine]

I've had to deal with a doe with mastitis once. She still had a kid on her, so I allowed the kid to stay with her all day. The kid helped to keep milking her out. I also milked her several times a day, but I can't remember exactly how many. Each time I milked her I rubbed the udder with coconut oil that had a few drops of tea tree oil mixed in, but not on the teat so the kid wouldn't ingest any. This was like 5 years ago, but I think I had it cleaned up in three days. That half of the udder didn't produce more than a couple teaspoons for the rest of the milking year, but she was totally fine the next year.

That being said, she had a very mild case. If it had shown no signs of improvement within the first couple days, I would have contacted my vet.

 

[cassie]

This sounds like mastitis to me. Get a sterile vial from the vet, take a milk sample, and have a culture run. Only then will you know what you are dealing with and how to treat it.