I am going to separate my kids at night to milk their dam when they are old enough but I am a bit wary of one thing with this. They say not to dip the teat after you milk if you are gonna put the kids back in w/ her and I just can't see this happening. Don't you need to worry about her getting Mastitis? It just doesn't make sense to me that any other time you need to dip but not in this case? I would love to hear others opinions on this topic!
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I also never dip teats after milking, either when they have kids on them or when they don't. I was confused about this at first, for the same reasons as you are. In fact, I asked a similar question on the forum last year. :) I think the difference lies in the fact that many who stress washing before and dipping after milking are machine milking a larger number of does.. This leads to mastitis way more frequently than anything else. Milk can be forced back into the teat, bringing germs with it. The does are exposed to more bacteria than their body can easily take care of, and infection results. Does that are hand milked and kept in clean areas aren't at much risk of infection.
I wash the does udders with warm water with a tiny bit of dish liquid, peppermint oil and lavender oil before milking, and feed hay to encourage them to stand up for 15 minutes or more after being milked. The orifice has time to close up again by the time they lay down to rest and chew their cud.
Teat dip is usually most often used by folks that don't let their dams hand raise their kids, and so want to help maintain the cleanest surface possible, and by large scale dairy farms. There IS instances where mastitis is caused by introduction to the udder through the teat orifice, but as I said, it's not common when you dam raise, and kids are keeping the udder cleared out. When you start getting into larger scale farming, it's common for kids to pulled off of their dams pretty much immediately after birth, and you tend to see more "dirtiness" (larger concentrations of muddy areas, poop, etc.) So introduction of bacteria is more common in those instances.
Nicholas Windsor said:
Nick, Mastitis happens when a doe isn't being milked out regularly more than because of bacteria getting into an orifice. In humans, it happens because milk supply is higher than demand, and ducts within the breast can become blocked, and THEN infection can set it. When you have kids nursing regularly, it's uncommon if not unheard of for bacteria to get INTO the teat and cause mastitis. When you're cleaning a teat before milking, it's to remove contaminants that might get into the milk you're taking out of the udder. If you do a good job of cleaning before milking, and do a simple water wipe down when you're done, your doe will naturally create a "plug" in her teat that will keep her safe, and her kids safe too. It's in the not milking enough, and clearing out an udder that you start to run the risk of mastitis, and then, if your doe has it, you have to watch for infection. That's the order it works.
I never dip my does teats - and wouldn't dream of doing it when I was about to turn the kids out on her.
I did this with my doe's, and never had any problems. I think the point is, that the kids are so excited to see mom, that they go and nurse. So essentially they clean the teat for you. If that makes sense :0) My doe I'm milking now, doesn't have kids on her anymore, so I always wipe her off after I'm done.