Friday, May 23, 2008 | Day 20

I don't know if I'm just too impatient or if the worry is just making me again question myself. Though I'm not looking forward to the sloughing process to begin, I know that the sooner it happens, the sooner this will all be over. And the swelling has me very concerned. I can't help but think that once the sloughing begins, the drainage will begin. And then the swelling will go down. And I just don't know how long this process should take - and if I should have a vet remove the dead tissue.

Nancy said that with her experience it took over 45 days from the the first symptom to when they felt it had healed over enough not to worry about it anymore. But she had her doe's teat surgically removed - so this will take much longer waiting for it to slough off naturally.

All out war with Andi on the milk stand. After our struggle, I was letting her out of her pen and as I was opening the cattle panel gate, she was pulling on it to open it and the thing beaned me right in the eye. Got a nice swelling starting to form.

My latest and greatest way to hold her still is not working - and I am out of solutions...

Oh - and while this may be good, there was a 5' long snake slithering along in the rafters above us.

Not so sure about this 'country life'.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008 | Day 17

It's getting more difficult to treat Andi. The struggling wears me out. I spend more time fighting with her than I do treating her. I'm going to try to modify the milk stand and strap her in so that she can't kick anymore.

Gave her Biomycin and tried to clean the teat. She has a pretty large swelling at one of the injection sites. I think that will be the last shot.

Monday, May 19, 2008 | Day 16

Discovered a fresh sore between Andi's udders. I'm inclined to think this isn't directly related to the mastitis. Looks like living tissue, not dead, and it's not part of the dead area. I cleaned it and applied betadine and neosporin.

It may be the sloughing process beginning, but I'm more apt to think it has something to do with all the pressure and swelling and the rubbing has caused it. She's licking at it...don't know what to do about that. Maybe the bitter spray...?

(Shot from below, looking up at the udder -

blurry photos today - too close.)

Still having a lot of difficulty doing the warm compresses. She kicks and lays down while I try and ends up getting dirty all over again. I try wedging my knee under her and that helps sometimes. Getting really sick of battling with her as I'm sure she is too. Wish she could understand it's for her own good. Also tired of the shots. I don't want to keep giving them to her if she doesn't need them. All those antibiotics can't be good for her rumen, etc. How do I know when to stop?

Still waiting for the sloughing.

Cleaned, warm compress (not much of one), B-12 paste, probios, Bio-mycin, touch of scarlet oil (she didn't care for that one bit), neosporin on the sore, Chlorhexidine spray.

I was able to feel the other udder today. It felt normal. Warm and soft (not hot and hard). Isn't red either. The lumps don't feel like lumps at all. The udder/teat just looks lumpy - really, more like 'ripply'. So I decided against milking her and doing infusions in the good teat. I don't want to risk opening that up to infection.

Kind of a strange angle, taken while she was laying down.
That's my hand on the left holding the teat.
The new sore in between the udders is just above my hand.
The black in the back is the dead teat.

Sunday, May 18, 2008 | Day 15

Warm, wet compress. Sprayed (both udders) with Chlordexidine. No other treatment.

The skin at the line between dead and living tissue appears to be starting to peel.

I let the donkey graze with the goats, on a lead and supervised. No major aggression towards the goats, but she was pissy. Hope this separation doesn't make her even more frustrated and angry.

Saturday, May 17, 2008 | Day 14

Warm, wet compress. Sprayed (both udders) with Chlordexidine. No other treatment.

Spoke with two more vets. One suggested Banamine for the swelling, one said no to Banamine. One said they would NOT recommend a mastectomy, the other said it was a good option. Neither suggested the option of removing the dead tissue in order to help with the swelling and to get this draining.

I'll wait and hope the compresses will bring it to a head soon and without surgical intervention.