4 month old heifers calves with mastitis

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T & B farms

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Checking a pasture today and noticed 2 heifers with one side of their bag swollen.4 months old, and 350-400lbs. Got them up and was able to feel their udder. It was hard to the touch. I was only able to squeeze a tiny bit of bloody puss out. The teats were cracked and very sore looking. One teat was broken through and you could see puss. I gave both a shot of bannamine. Curious to what could cause this in such young heifers? I've have a few cases of mastitis in the past, but nothing near this young.
They are not being creep fed. All calves are very close to the same size, so I don't believe something is nursing them.
Both of them are very high on the replacement list, I don't want something messing up their bags.
Any ideas/ treatment suggestions are welcome.
 
Other calves sucking on them will do it. You need to strip out the quarters and put today up each one. Every day 3 days in a row. If it is getting better, on the fourth day, strip out and put a tube of tomorrow in there. Then leave it alone. Those quarters might be ruined.
 
Its been a long time since I had that problem, but did have a couple of heifers that had that happen. In their case it was likely something nursing them. I calved them out and they did raise calves but the udders looked pretty bad and some quarters were ruined.
 
Lucky_P said:
Sucking is a possibility, but more likely 'summer mastitis', spread by biting flies.

I have never had a case this bad but I see some scabs on the little replacement heifers from probably stable flies. I pour them with UltraBoss but I supplement that with spraying a 1 % synergized permethrin. I try to direct it up under them. I have wondered if getting permethrin directly on little udders and growing bulls affects udder and testicular development.
 
Thank you for all the reply's. I was able to get them up again this morning. Milked out all the puss I could, and Gave a Tube of amoxi-mast in each infected quarter.
While she was in the chute, I noticed an issue with the back feet on one. Inside hooves are growing in. Took a picture, but can't get it to post. Not sure where it came from, mom and dad have very good feet.
 
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