Causes of Mastitis:

Stress

Injury

Unsanitary milking conditions

Unsanitary pens

Not milking a doe before kidding, and letting the udder fill and get hard.

Drying doe off too quickly

Symptoms include:

-Hot painful udder

-Hard udder

-Clots in milk

-Occasionally blood in milk (this makes the milk turn pink)

Mastitis Treatment:

Hot STRONG Mullien Tea

-2 quarts of water

-5 large Mullien leaves (½ cup dried)

Add your water and Mullien to your tea kettle or pot.

Bring to a boil. Let steep for 20 minutes.

Apple Cider Vinegar drench:

-1 cup Apple Cider Vinegar

-2 TBSP Epsom Salt

-Fresh Lemon Juice from one lemon

Add the above to a long necked bottle, and fill the rest of the way with water.

This can be reused as well. Shake well before each use.

Essential Oil Blend:

-1/2 cup melted coconut oil

-1 TBSP peppermint oil

-1/2 tsp tea tree oil

-1/2 tsp eucalyptus oil

Heat your coconut oil, once warm remove form heat.

Add essential oils to your warmed coconut oil. Don’t add the essential oils to the coconut oil before you heat it up, it will burn your eyes.

Instructions:

Bring out your hot Mullien tea, a bowl, and rags (make your tea as hot as you can stand).

Pour tea in bowl, over top of rags. Squeeze out rags and place on udder, massaging while holding the rag on the effected area. Do this until your tea is warm.

You can reheat and reuse this a few times, just make sure you put it somewhere that nobody will try to drink it.

Milk out as much as you can. After your done milking, drench the teats.

After drenching massage the warmed oil blend on the whole udder.

(Don’t bring out your oil blend until your ready for it, other wise it will cool before you use it.)

Mastitis Prevention

Keep pens clean with fresh bedding.

Wash udder and teats especially paying attention to clean the orifice.

Milk out doe before kidding if udder starts to get tight.

Have Dolomite available at all times

When drying off does, pay close attention to bag tightness