Dazz and her lumps

I left Dazz at home this weekend while I was at the show. I had flushed out her infected tissues a number of times before I left and arranged to have a friend look in on her. My friend called with updates, rather worried, but things were ok, just, well...kind of gross. The infection had to go somewhere. The infection has gone but left some weak and broken skin. There are now holes where the skin and mammary tissue died. I actually have a degree in Animal Science from UC Davis where I was pre-vet, so this stuff is wildly facinating to me. Here are the before and after shots of her day 5 and day 8.

The vet and I have come up with the theory that this particular milk duct must have started backing up pre-partum. When the kittens were born, I encouraged them to nurse on this nipple because I thought it was just very full. During birth, Dazz was not sick and was in good spirits. Likely the duct was blocked and eventually began to become impacted. Bacteria, possibly from the c-section, entered the blocked area and created a septic environment. That led to the fever, lethargy, lack of appetite, and stiffness. The kittens too, were not thriving. Even with strong antibiotics, some of the mammary tissue died. This caused the bruising you see and the infection to surface. I definitely learned from this experience. In hindsight, as soon as I saw these mammaries filling up and becoming larger than the others, I should have made sure that they were freely expressing milk. Dazz is a very large queen who is prone to being overweight. She also has always had a pounch where these glands are, therefore, having sagging mammaries there, did not look unusual. We have the option of surgery, or just keeping it very clean. I have opted to continue to cage Dazz and keep the area clean. Tonight I will glove up and do some serious flushing and try my best to pull out the dead mamary tissue. She is still on baytril. Now that the infection is gone, she is a VERY happy girl. A very good friend of mine is bottle feeding the kittens and they have literally tripled in size since coming off mom and going on the bottle. They should be fine. Dazz should heal in a couple of weeks, and will go on to a new home. For this entire year...I'd like a "do over" please!!!!!!!!!