Those twin ewelambs i sold, one might have offspring, the other was probably freezer bound. I bought the ewe as part of a starter flock along with a ram. Seller should have known unless not checking daily (and yes i felt those udders pretty much every day the first month or so). But not al breeders do, Milking plans was part of that, but so was prevention. Problems cost money and extra work and although the whole flock was sold (lost the land i kept them on, was rent), plan was (and want to again) to keep doing this untill 80+, so things need to get easier not harder. Therefore culling hard in case of problems, but also having easy to handle animals that i could keep on top of by spotting things on time. Part of that is lots of handling so they are fine with it.
Mastitis can also be caused by a mama not being milked out enough. In the case of dairy cows if you just stop milking them they will get mastitis fast... So, I could easily see a heavily milking ewe that had multiple lambs and one or more died or were removed getting mastitis due to not having enough babies to keep her milked out without out actually being a problem of hers.
At feeding time I noticed one teet was a little more red than the others. Next morning there was swollen and red. I did not get a vet analysis.
I actually have had several does over the summer that got mastitis when they were nursing. One had lost the majority of her litter( that caused hers), another had repeated false pregnancies (that caused hers) and another just seemed to get it. It all cases I gave them penicillin shots every 3 days while they were nursing and rubbed camphor oil mixed with coconut oil on their teats after using a hot compress and trying to express the puss out if possible (sometimes it was deep and would not express and sometimes it would). I always expressed it if possible so the kits wouldn’t get it in their system. I also noticed that if the mom hurt she would abandon her kits. If that happened I would hold mom upside down and have them feed on the non sore teats while working on the sore ones. Usually after several days of treatment they were less sore and mom would continue feeding. The abscesses usually at some point will. Move to the surface and at some point you will need to cut her to drain it(I use a scalpel and push on the abscess and make a small incision to be able to push it out on the most surface area. But wait till it’s close to the surface and you see yellow on the skin or they bleed to much). If you do not it will rupture and leave a large hole (I’ve also had that). I clean the wound with colloidal silver using a small syringe to flush it out repeatedly till the goo is gone. Leave it open if you cut it, if it ruptured and is large, pull or trim the fur and clean it really well and use a small amount of super glue to put the middle together (leaving the edges open to drain). They will heal once it is all drained out. Some girls will go on to never have mastitis again and others will get it each batch. I have one that gets it each batch but milder each time and it resolves with treatment within a few days and she is such a good mom that I really don’t want to cull her. The others healed great and have no problems. I now check the underside of all my does that are nursing just to be sure.
Your welcome
