On the day of our August milk test, our poor girl Pickles took a brutal headbutt to the udder. Her right half swelled up super badly and she produced about a teaspoon of milk.
Any trauma can open the udder up to one of our worst fears that we had avoided so far – mastitis – so we started watching her closely and doing at-home cultures (external link) every couple days.
On the third day, the scariest bacteria possible popped up – Staph A, which is often MRSA. If Staph A takes hold in an udder, most people say that that goat (or cow) is doomed for life. It can encapsulate itself in the tissue and hide from antibiotics, and show up again at any time, even years down the road.
After seeing that pink colony covering the culture, we didn’t waste a second. Straight to the vet, and then weeks of both systemic and intramammary antibiotics, as well as a few holistic remedies added in for good measure. And today… Pickles’ culture came back CLEAR!
We’re not officially in the clear yet – our vet says that we need 3 clean cultures, a few weeks apart, before we can cautiously call her “probably safe.” But for today, we’re celebrating a huge win for this tough little doe.
Side note, this is also part of why we pasteurize & bottle feed: if a doeling drinks Staph A milk, there’s a possibility of it infecting HER udder! Studies show that transmission might occur from a doeling drinking infected milk, then licking her own udder.
