Mastitis in ewes is a painful and potentially fatal condition that causes significant welfare suffering, impairs lamb nutrition, and leads to chronic udder damage in survivors — early recognition and treatment are critical.
Acute mastitis causes severe udder pain causing ewes to reject lambs, lie separately, and show obvious distress behaviours. Gangrenous mastitis progresses rapidly to necrosis of udder tissue — the affected gland becomes cold, blue-black, and separates from surrounding tissue while the ewe develops systemic septicaemia. Without aggressive treatment (systemic antibiotics, NSAIDs, supportive care), gangrenous mastitis cases die within 2-3 days. Lambs of mastitic ewes require supplementary milk feeding or fostering to survive. Early detection through daily udder palpation during early lactation reduces the proportion that progress to severe disease.