# What causes blown teats



## boeredsilly (Feb 10, 2011)

Okay was trying to help a friend today with a doe that has congested udder & we were talking about hand milking verses machine milking. She has a machine & is adamant that you do not hand milk cause you can cause blown teats.

Is this true & how does it cause it? Sorry for the probably silly question, but I love to hand milk & since I only have 1 I am milking I prefer to do it that way, but am getting a really nice doe to show & DEFINITELY don't want to screw her up.

None of my other goats that I milked last year had blown teats & the one I am milking this year (she was milked last year as well) doesn't have blown teats & I milked them all by hand.


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## Ziggy (Nov 13, 2009)

No way proper hand milking will cause blown teats.

Over uddering, not milking regulalry, are the main cause although some can be influenced a little by genetics (hereditary).


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## Laverne (Apr 4, 2010)

My one does teats are 1" long by 1/2" wide and I've hand milked her for 8 mos. now, and I can attest that hand milking doesn't blow teats. Actually I wish it would in her case.


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## adillenal (Feb 6, 2009)

That is a new one on me.


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## boeredsilly (Feb 10, 2011)

Thanks for all the info. She was very adamant about it. Even showed me a doe that she said someome blowed the teats on. I asked just how they did it & she just looked at me & said "hand milking." I just didn't say anything else at that point.


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## dragonlair (Mar 24, 2009)

I've been hand milking goats for 30 years and have yet to "blow a teat" on any of them.


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## Ashley (Oct 25, 2007)

Soo, how long have machines been around? Guess goats all went around with blown teats for thousands of years of hand milking?


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## Horsehair Braider (Mar 11, 2011)

I've never heard of this before. What does it look like? How can you tell a goat has a "blown" teat?


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## stoneyheightsfarm (Jan 19, 2008)

Inadequate muscle tone in the teat wall for the amount of milk the udder is being asked to hold causes blown teats. In most does, this would be from over uddering / not milking regularly. Some does will be prone to it from poor muscle tone with even just 12 hours of milk. It's really crazy the things that some people believe, though!


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## boeredsilly (Feb 10, 2011)

Like I said I just didn't say anything else & came back home. We disagreed on quite a few points, so I douby very seriously I will be asked back to help.


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

You can see it if you look close at Babette's photos, the one snapped before she was getting ready to be shown. Her previous owner had put a piece of tape around her teats to keep her from struting them, while she built pressure up to fill her udder. She did get a milking leg. It's hereditary, and we see it in nubians who have super dairy skin. Although you can barely get your hand around her teats to milk her, she is the easiest goat on the place to milk even though she milks a lot. I believe her milk test high score before I got her was 12 pounds? I don't have time to look it up. You can imagine how much more she milks now as an aged doe, waiting on her to kid.


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## Grumpy Old Buck (Feb 5, 2011)

Genetics, mismanagement, and ignorance on proper milking technique can be contributory and that includes using "milking machines" as part of the equation.

I cannot tell you the number of people who get a "milking machine" without any knowledge or hands-on experience using them. We hand milked many of our cows in our dairy and the majority of 30+ years the dairy goats were hand milked as well.

Management is the key, and as Vicki indicates as well, the genetics factor is there also.


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## catdance62 (Mar 2, 2009)

I have a goat with a "blown teat", and I do not know why, but her twins this year are a bit on the small side and of course they favour the one that is not "blown" and that makes it worse. It gets so big and heavy they can't lift in their little mouths. I milk it out and try to help them get some off it; hopefully they will be able to grab it on their own soon


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## boeredsilly (Feb 10, 2011)

Okay, now I know why the tape was on the teats. We went to a show last year & quite a few of the nubians & alpines had tape on their teats & I was too new & too embarrassed to ask what it was for. They already new I was a newbie & I didn't want to seem like a dumb newbie. LOL!


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## Ziggy (Nov 13, 2009)

I personally cant stand teat taping and it really bother me that some (should I say most) of the top competitors do this. But I'd rather take a 2nd or third than have my doe walking around overfull and with tape on her teats for 24 hours or more.


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## catdance62 (Mar 2, 2009)

isn't that bad for the udder? To do that? I mean, I have taped a teat to try and force the kids to drink on the other side (if they are favouring one), but that is only in extreme cases


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## Caprine Beings (Sep 19, 2008)

Taping or glue teats is common practice in the show ring. I tell you...if one of our does had a leaky orifice in the ring I would have a fit. So like Ziggy rather than push the poor doe to have the largest fullest udder I will milk them out a bit. Its just inhumane to expect a doe to go 16-18 hours in milk and not blow something. You will see breeders glueing drippy teats on the side lines, to me thats just mean-milk 'em out a bit geez!

On another note, there are certain lines that have leaky orifices anyway. That would be a cull in our herd. 

Tam


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## Horsehair Braider (Mar 11, 2011)

Ziggy said:


> I personally cant stand teat taping and it really bother me that some (should I say most) of the top competitors do this. But I'd rather take a 2nd or third than have my doe walking around overfull and with tape on her teats for 24 hours or more.


You mean they don't milk for 24 hours OR MORE?! YIKES!

I'm sorry, but that would just freak me out. I would not be able to sleep.

I think I understand what is meant here but holy smokes! And to think that would be caused by hand milking? No - that is caused by NOT milking!


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## boeredsilly (Feb 10, 2011)

My few milking does here don't let me go past our 12 hour schedule here or it's the loudest commotion you have ever heard in your life.


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

Please don't persume to know what anyone else is doing with their goats. A strip of tape around a does teat to keep it from stretching further is not harming her. And I tape all teats before showing ( not a strip around to stop the teats from blowing, but taped up so the orifice can't leak and open), I am not going to take a doe who is supposed to be milked at 10 am, to a show when she won't go into the ring until noon or longer, have her laying in a pen at a fairgrounds! I take the tape off and then hook them up on a show chain so they can not lay down in fact I will go over and make them get up if they get down. After showing they are milked out and retaped, their feet washed off from all the squirting milk they get on the feet as they walk around the ring, and then they go back into the pens.

If you don't like over uddering don't do it, but please don't think you can tell by looking how much milk someone has or doesn't have in their does udder, it is their goat, if it makes you uncomfortable than don't look. V


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## doublebowgoats (Mar 6, 2008)

Don't be shy, Vicki, say what you mean, LOL.
You are right, it is easy to look on and make judgements. I have a "PETA" mentality friend who is horrified to think I would take a kid from it's mother, etc...and thought I was so abusive to my doe who at 8 hours post milking looks like she's got a cannon instead of an udder. I know she just gets full and sometimes needs an extra milking, but to my friend looking on, it looks cruel. And of course I know, hand milking, machine milking, or leaving the kids on her, she will get like this. She was born to milk.


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## Sondra (Oct 25, 2007)

milking more often will keep the teats from blowing IMO


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