# Cow freshened with mastitis - AGAIN!



## cjb (May 2, 2006)

Talk about raining on my parade.

Last year, when Violet freshened, she came into milk with raging mastitis and lost 1 of 3 functional quarters. She is now down to 2. Now, one of those 2 is infected 

It looked a bit red so I milked and it came out clotty and bloody with a slightly bad smell. It is also very tender so she is not allowing me to milk it very easily.

I have milked it out twice today and ran to the Vet Hospital for meds. I put a tube of Amoxy something up the teat and also gave her a shot of penicillin that's supposed to last a week (Tetradol, I think).

I am hoping that the baby is getting enough from the one functional rear teat. She never nurses in front of me but she has foamy milk in her mouth and at 15 hours old, she gets up and runs around. I sure hope she's ok, especially if I lose this quarter too as Mama cow is going to be next to useless.

I don't get it. I dried her exactly as told, her environment is very clean and I even used those wax plugs with antibiotics in them when I dried her out.

Very frustrating.

Now I'm paranoid about the heifer since she doesn't eat in front of me. If I milk out that good quarter and bottle feed it to her, will that make her not want to nurse on her mother? I can't imagine that she would have foamy milky stuff in her mouth everytime I see her if she's not eating.


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## Dodgegal79 (Aug 29, 2008)

Are you sure it mastitis, I would think its colostrum. Its like that for the first few days. Usually red, bloody, clotty and watery, nothing like milk.


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## cjb (May 2, 2006)

Nah, she's had mastitis before and this is it. It smells bad and looks nothing like what's coming out of the other teat. The quarter is very stiff and hard and she kicks when I touch it. I can milk the other one without her getting so upset.


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## Jennifer L. (May 10, 2002)

If she has foamy milk in her mouth, she's eating. If you'll look at the top of her nose, you'll see it shiny with dried milk/saliva where she's reaching and smearing it a few inches back into the hair. That shiny nose is a dead giveaway they are feeding ok.

Mastitis in an older cow with a large udder is a PITA. You can't ever get rid of it, but if you are lucky you can control it. Doesn't matter that she was in a clean environment, she's carrying the problem around in her bag all the time. 

The one thing you cannot do right now is slack off on it. Milk it out as much as you can as often as you can, and keep popping the antibiotics to her. But the getting the milk out will be the best thing you can do. The damage from the mastitis is from the toxins the bacteria produces, so if you keep it flushed out by milking, you remove the toxins and she can clear up. Right now with the edema from freshening she's at her most vulnerable. Once the swelling goes down, it gets easier.

Glad you got the heifer calf. 

Jennifer


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## MullersLaneFarm (Jul 23, 2004)

Milk every couple of hours. Our cow had high cell counts at the testing and she has been constantly getting mastitus (clean environment, proper teat care).

Vet says we could dry her off, load her up on anti-biotics and hope for the best the next calving ...

We opted for a more holestic approach. Drenching her with Aloe Vera juice, Giving her aloe vera pellets. seems to be helping quite a bit!!!


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## Trisha in WA (Sep 28, 2005)

MullersLaneFarm said:


> Milk every couple of hours. Our cow had high cell counts at the testing and she has been constantly getting mastitus (clean environment, proper teat care).
> 
> Vet says we could dry her off, load her up on anti-biotics and hope for the best the next calving ...
> 
> We opted for a more holestic approach. Drenching her with Aloe Vera juice, Giving her aloe vera pellets. seems to be helping quite a bit!!!


Cindy can you tell me where you get your aloe vera pellets and what brand of aloe vera juice you use?
Thank you,
Trisha


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## sammyd (Mar 11, 2007)

Dodgegal79 said:


> Are you sure it mastitis, I would think its colostrum. Its like that for the first few days. Usually red, bloody, clotty and watery, nothing like milk.


Colostrum shouldn't look like that.


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## cjb (May 2, 2006)

This is sooooo depressing. The quarter is hard as a rock and all I'm getting is dry wads of pus material. I am willing to bet that we lose this quarter too which renders Violet a 1 teater, which is pretty much useless. 

I love the heifer but.... ugh!


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## gone-a-milkin (Mar 4, 2007)

cjb, if Violet were my cow I would get a sample of that milk to the lab and find out what brand of germ you are dealing with. Then I would hit that quarter hard with whatever the vet prescribes. Actually, BOTH quarters need to be tested. You may still lose the quarter, but I would try anything.

At this point you are beyond the holistic approach with this cow. Sorry to hear it too. Mastitis SUCKS! (so glad you have your new little girl though!)


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## cjb (May 2, 2006)

Oh, I went STRAIGHT to the vet's treatment, believe me. I hit her with injectible pennicillin and teat tubes the morning after she freshened and am continuing with 3 days of tubes twice per day. As of last night, she still has alot of gunk up there and no milk.

It really took the wind out of my sails with this new calf. I'm happy to have a heifer but I don't understand why Mama has this problem over and over. I have dairy goats and have not had one case of mastitis so I don't think my place is necessarily crawling with bacteria.


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## gone-a-milkin (Mar 4, 2007)

Some cows just are really prone to it and it just lays up in there 'dormant' until it gets a chance to flare up again. Also, whatever strain it is the goats may have a resistance to it. Their natural bacterial colonies might not let it get a foothold. 

Did you get a name for the strain of bacteria you are dealing with? I have had some success with custom-made (by the vet) antibiotic teat tubes, ones that were made JUST to treat X (staph or Strep). 

I have known vets who wouldn't give out the 'big gun' antibiotics though. There is quite a bit of liability if those strong drugs get into the food supply. It is important to have a vet you trust, and just as important that they trust YOU. 

Good luck and good luck. 
~Wendy


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## Lazy J (Jan 2, 2008)

Sounds like it is time for some Violet Hamburgers. If she has chroinc mastitis then you will be highting it, plus if she is down to one quarter what will you do when she comes up mastitic next time she calves?

Jim


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## Cat (Jun 19, 2004)

Something else you can do is get something like Molly's Herbal Udder salve or UdderMint and apply that to the quarter that you're having problems with. It essentially increases circulation to the udder which helps fight the infection. 

http://www.fiascofarm.com/herbs/mollysherbals.php/products/mastitis--udder-massage-salve

If you go to the Keeping a Family Cow forum they're a great help & can recommend other options for you.

http://familycow.proboards.com/index.cgi?


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## DJ in WA (Jan 28, 2005)

Lazy J said:


> Sounds like it is time for some Violet Hamburgers. If she has chroinc mastitis then you will be highting it, plus if she is down to one quarter what will you do when she comes up mastitic next time she calves?
> 
> Jim


I agree.

Seems like we discussed this with you last year. Info was provided that mastitis like Staph will go chronic, never go away. Bacteria are trapped in pockets up in udder - abscesses or scar tissue where antibiotics cannot reach. That is when dairies get rid of them, sometimes to people like you and me who don't know better. I've been through this, though I didn't pursue it as long as you have.

Apparently you've got lots of money - most would have cut their losses long ago.


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## ArmyDoc (May 13, 2007)

cjb said:


> Oh, I went STRAIGHT to the vet's treatment, believe me. I hit her with injectible pennicillin and teat tubes the morning after she freshened and am continuing with 3 days of tubes twice per day. As of last night, she still has alot of gunk up there and no milk.
> 
> It really took the wind out of my sails with this new calf. I'm happy to have a heifer but I don't understand why Mama has this problem over and over. I have dairy goats and have not had one case of mastitis so I don't think my place is necessarily crawling with bacteria.


Have you sent cultures? If your dealing with staph aureus, it is likely resistant to penicillin. 

I doubt the problem is with your place. If I remember correctly, you bought this cow with one quarter down due to mastitis. It isn't that she's catching it on your farm, or that you are doins something wrong, but that she has a chronic infection. 

Do your best with her, but I think this should probably be her last calf. On the bright side, at least she gave you a replacement.


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## Cliff (Jun 30, 2007)

I actually saved all the quarters of an old dairy cow with recurrent staph mastitis. Hot compresses several times a day, milk absolutely everything out possible (huge stringy blobby clots - ugh, ) then infuse 10cc tea tree oil per teat and massage up into the udder extremely well. It was a pain, but it worked. 
She still freshened with some clots every year but after a couple days of milking out was fine.
The theory behind this is that when you inject a foreign substance like this into udder, it drives the immune system into od so it can clean more of the loculated pockets (some of the old guys used to use liquid tide or corn oil!) Also the tea tree oil itself is very effective against staph.
The tea tree oil didn't seem to cause any discomfort at all to the cow.


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## DJ in WA (Jan 28, 2005)

ArmyDoc said:


> Have you sent cultures? If your dealing with staph aureus, it is likely resistant to penicillin.
> 
> I doubt the problem is with your place. If I remember correctly, you bought this cow with one quarter down due to mastitis. It isn't that she's catching it on your farm, or that you are doins something wrong, but that she has a chronic infection.
> 
> Do your best with her, but I think this should probably be her last calf. On the bright side, at least she gave you a replacement.


Yes, as was mentioned last year with this case, Staph aureus is a form of contagious mastitis passed from cow to cow through milking equipment and handling. Very common and hard to eradicate from dairies. Can google contagious mastitis and read lots.

That is why I've recommended to cjb and others to avoid used cows from dairies, but many just want to take the risk. I don't even want a pure dairy cow with high production and more potential problems.

Interesting that some like to keep fooling with recurrent mastitis. Personally, I don't like the thought of drinking such stuff. And even though you may get her to work, her production will be down, as the milk producing glands are damaged. Then you're throwing feed away. If you want a cow with lower production, better to get a dairy/beef cross and have better beef production, imho.


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## Lazy J (Jan 2, 2008)

DJ in WA said:


> Interesting that some like to keep fooling with recurrent mastitis. Personally, I don't like the thought of drinking such stuff. And even though you may get her to work, her production will be down, as the milk producing glands are damaged. Then you're throwing feed away. If you want a cow with lower production, better to get a dairy/beef cross and have better beef production, imho.


Hear Hear!!!!!


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## cjb (May 2, 2006)

DJ, in theory, I agree with you. I told my wife/kids that Violet would go to freezer camp if she loses this quarter and she is very likely to lose it. To be honest, though, while I would like to think that I am pragmatic and practical, I love this stupid cow and I don't think that I could eat her.

Again, I agree with you, however, I think that your statement about people liking to fool around with this a bit uncalled for. Nobody likes to mess with this kind of thing. This cow came to me down one quarter because of an injury as a calf. There is a big scar right through that quarter and the teat so I think he was telling me the truth. However, she freshened last year with mastitis and lost another quarter. She came down with mastitis again in the middle of the year but I caught and erradicated it early on. This time, she has it bad again and I'm sure that she will be down to one working quarter.

With the two functional quarters, Violet was giving us 3-3.5 gallons per day - not bad. The remaining quarter gave more than the other so I'm betting we'll get 1.5-2, which obviously sucks when feeding a 1000 lb animal.

We have some friends that have expressed some interest in taking Violet and milking her just for their family until she is dry and then putting her in the freezer. I may do that and just raise this heifer. Hopefully, she doesn't have the same tendency as her mother.

If I had to guess, I would say that Violet has a weak sphincter in her teats because she leaks milk like crazy at milking time. In fact, there's almost always a puddle under her.

Ah well - DJ, I should probably have bought that jersey/angus from you years ago - live and learn. I'll figure something out. I do have 5 dairy goats a few of which should freshen soon so we'll have milk either way.


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## ozark_jewels (Oct 7, 2005)

cjb said:


> If I had to guess, I would say that Violet has a weak sphincter in her teats because she leaks milk like crazy at milking time. In fact, there's almost always a puddle under her.


Yes, and this is in itself the perfect invitation to mastitis. I'm sorry.


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## cjb (May 2, 2006)

ozark_jewels said:


> Yes, and this is in itself the perfect invitation to mastitis. I'm sorry.



I wonder if its hereditary?


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## ArmyDoc (May 13, 2007)

cjb said:


> ... I love this stupid cow and I don't think that I could eat her.
> 
> .... This cow came to me down one quarter because of an injury as a calf. There is a big scar right through that quarter and the teat so I think he was telling me the truth.
> 
> ...


It's tough when you get attatched to them. I suppose you could just keep her and not breed her again, but feed gets expensive. so your friends may be the best option. Also, you could see if a petting zoo or some other rescue organization might take her...

Your comment about the scar through one quarter makes me wonder if they did a quadrantectomy or drainage procedure in an effort to clear her mastitis... but then I can be overly suspicious, you know the seller better than I do.

I do think looking on the bright side is best. Breed that heiffer in a year and a half or two to a good beef bull. If she has a heiffer, consider keeping it and move her on as a cow calf pair the next year. If it's a bull calf - you can raise it for beef or sell it to make up some of your expences.

Best wishes,


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## bricned (Jul 3, 2006)

I would like to know where I can get the tea tree oil ?


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## Cliff (Jun 30, 2007)

bricned said:


> I would like to know where I can get the tea tree oil ?


I usually just pick it up at walmart.


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## Jennifer L. (May 10, 2002)

cjb said:


> DJ, in theory, I agree with you. I told my wife/kids that Violet would go to freezer camp if she loses this quarter and she is very likely to lose it. To be honest, though, while I would like to think that I am pragmatic and practical, I love this stupid cow and I don't think that I could eat her.


Confession time: I have a Shorthorn cow that has no functioning quarters. She just calved the other day with a nice bull calf and I was ready to take the calf to the barn to raise by hand when another fresh cow that lost her calf at calving stepped up to the plate and took over on the calf and it looks like they will share him. So sometimes you can keep the old girls around. 

She's not really a pet, but I got her from a dear friend that died later on that year in an accident, so "Shorty" gets to stay here for life.

Jennifer


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