slightly swollen bit next to udder

[notpoodle]

the furry bit right next to angels udder was a bit swollen today :( not the actual udder, the bit nex to it. she didnt seem overly tetchy on it (mind you, shes not keen on having her udder touched normally, anyway ...) but im a bit worried now.

could this be an insect bite? mastitis (no idea why she would get mastitis though ... shes never had a foal and hasnt been itching or rubbing on it as it lookes perfectly normal, just a bit swollen ...)??

if it gets bigger, shall i call the vet??

current plan is to give it a couple of days to see if it goes down if its an insect bite? if it is indeed that, what could i put on it to make the swelling go down?

Julia
x

[clipertyclop]

Hi notpoodle,


It could be her milk vein, have you got any pictures ?


love Clip

[Iron Maiden]

My money would be on flies. I've been smothering P's belly & udder area with zinc & caster oil cream, this seems to help - she gets all sorts of sore bits & swellings otherwise because she is very sensitive to fly bites. If it doesn't go down it might be wise to call the vet though.

[becs]

How big is the swollen area? is it isolated - can you feel round the edges, or is generalised over a bigger area? do they have glands there??? no clues like pin dot scabs? does it feel hotter than the next area? (I use the back of my hand, more sensitive). how does it feel, eg soft, lumpy, tight?

[notpoodle]

it's soft and feels more like a pouch or something :confused: its not big, just a bit bigger than the 'normal' other side of it. uhm where exactly do milkveins live? the bit thats swollen is on the side of the udder ...

Julia
x

[clipertyclop]

Hi notpoodle,

Milk veins are in the abdomen next to the udder. Theres a picture in the link this is rather pronounced and milk veins can swell to different degrees. A picture would be very helpful.

http://forum.equisearch.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=5929 (http://forum.equisearch.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=5929)

[notpoodle]

it is roundabout there, only that angel's are covered in er fur!

Julia
x

[Big Ears]

most likely to be a bite

if it is mastitis, it tends to be hot and hard and very sore to touch and they need antibiotics and bathing/massage to get the infection out. my donkey used to get non lactating mastitis regularly

more likely to be a reaction to an insect bite.

[becs]

Bear in mind it could take a week to gradually reduce if it's a nasty bite - my cob had a hard lump (with scab) on his neck that took 2 weeks to go last summer.

I'd put sudocrem on & check size over a week (by relative to finger length?), if there's no other signs eg heat, tenderness, redness, discharge.

Doubt if it's a fibroid 'cos it would be part of udder tissue, lumpy & and not come up suddenly.

[notpoodle]

its not warm and not overly tender. im just worried because a horse at the yard had very bad mastitis a little while back - with a lump the size of literally half a football :eek: she needed all sorts of jabs and things and nobody knew why she suddenly got it (never had a foal, never had mastitis before ....).

Julia
x

[martini55]

Martini got a swelling right in front of her udders last year- it looked sore but she was fine with me poking and prodding around it. It was the flies :( I just cleaned it everyday and lathered on the sudocreme and it went down in about a week.

[notpoodle]

*finds hard hat*

ok! if she lets me anywhere near! last year she scratched it a bit cos of itching and it was quite tricky to get cream on there because she is quite protective of her udders!

maybe a sweet itch bra for ponies would help :D

Julia
x

[janette carter]

This lump appears quite often on Buffy. Sometimes I think it is related to her coming into season...her teats can go up and down in size as well. Interesting about a milk vein not heard of this before ..could be related. Like our boobs sometimes get a bit swollen and sensitive at Hmm "certain times of the month":o .

My main theory has always been that it is related to sweet-itch. She often gets bitten there and this causes swelling. She was up against a very bad midge attack last Sunday evening. I just got home to be swamped with calls from the yard to say Buffy was down and thrashing about kicking her stomach. Rolled seven times in seven minutes:eek: . I went with my gut feeling "Oh! don't panic I think it's sweet itch". There was a stunned silence and you could feel the tension ebbing away over the phone line.!!!

She had most definately been bitten was holding each hindleg up in turn for me to get under there and scratch! The lump was incredibly hard though. I smothered it in Sudocream and by morning it had just about gone back to normal and was soft again.

Sweet itch/seasonal/milk vein:confused: Something else to study and watch out for alongside the normal midge attacks, summer respiratory disease, laminitis, head shaking, too much grass, now no b***** grass.......Oh I do so love this time of year folks:rolleyes: