On Cinco de Mayo (May 5th), 2007 we found Nougat laying down, in pain, and not willing to get up to eat or drink.  After checking her over we found that one udder half was swollen and filled with blood. It looked as if she had had some type of accident and hurt it. Even though we tried a lot of things to keep the circulation going, there was too much damage and her left udder half died. Below are the pictures of the process of healing.  After getting over the initial pain and shock from the accident, Nougat has been in great spirits and doing very well.

Day 9:

We held out hope for a long time that Nougat’s damaged udder half would heal, but obviously at this point it was dead. The skin is drying out, but some fluid is seeping through. The smell of necrotizing tissue is very strong.

Day 15:

Nougat’s left udder half continues to dry and has now started to separate from the healthy tissue.

Day 17:

David starts calling her “San Andreas” as the “fault line” continues to move between living and dead udder halves.

The dead udder half is starting to detach along the “fault line”. We have started spraying the division with warm water to keep it clean and to help loosen the tissue to expedite the process. Surprisingly there is little problem with flies and other insects getting on her, probably due to the fact that the dead half is fairly dried out. The necrotic smell is still quite noticeable.

The tissue is now hanging quite differently. But even though it looks like the dead half is breaking away, there is still a lot of attachment between the two halves higher up.

The hide is starting to peel away from the dead, inside, udder tissue. The dead half is still working on detaching.

View from the rear

Day 28:

The healthy half is doing well.  Yearling Nougat is milking almost half a gallon a day from the good side and enjoying coming into the milking parlor. 

View from behind with her left leg pulled forward

Day 30:

The healthy half is getting bigger, the dead half is still drying, shrinking, and detaching.

Day 32:

 The smell is getting worse and most of the dead tissue has detached but is still hanging by a few connections.   We are concerned about infection setting in so we go ahead and cut off the dead udder half to allow us to keep an eye on the new tissue and keep it clean.  We are spraying the new tissue with Granulex and Wheat Germ Oil to promote healing.  

This is the inside of the removed udder half.  The creamy colored area is dead udder tissue, the brown part is dried (and dirty) hide.

The outside of the removed udder half.  The teat is in the top left hand area of the picture.

Day 41:  Nougat is making great progress.  Most of the remaining dead tissue has sloughed off and the raw area is healing nicely. 

Day 64:  Nougat is healing well.  Occasionally she will hurt the delicate pink tissue and end up bleeding, but the blood looks much more dramatic than it really is.  We are still washing the area twice a day and applying Wheat Germ Oil in the morning and Granulex in the evening.  Nougat has been a real trooper through this whole ordeal.