Hunny Do Ranch
Well-known member
I have a call into the vet because I have never had a cow with mastitis this bad, but he is away until next Friday so I am SOL.
I started to dry her off Jan 18, 2008 because she wasn't holding her weight very well and is quite skinny. She calved Aug 24, 2007 and she did have a bad case of milk fever which we got her treated and up, but after that she lost a lot of weight and isn't putting it back on. It took her a long time to get back on feed. She is 7 years old and is a very high producer. I think the dairy life was hard on her. So... we decided to dry her off and give her a break until spring 2009 and see if we could get her bred. I have been checking her bag for signs of mastitis and she didn't show any until 2 days ago. As soon as I noticed I did milk out the infected quarter and treated it with a IMM. I milked her out again today (just the infected quarter) and there was a bit of stringy blood and really bad milk that came out. It was a as thick as pudding. I also treated it again today. The quarter is hard and hot. She is eating and drinking well and doesn't have a fever. What I am debating is should I start milking her again to get this cleared up ( we can put the calf back on for a while if we had to I guess) or should I keep milking her out and treating her? Would it be better if the quarter was drained constantly by the calf and still be treated at night when he can't suck? Is there a way to tell what type of mastitis it is? Any help would be appreciated.
Hope that makes sense.
I started to dry her off Jan 18, 2008 because she wasn't holding her weight very well and is quite skinny. She calved Aug 24, 2007 and she did have a bad case of milk fever which we got her treated and up, but after that she lost a lot of weight and isn't putting it back on. It took her a long time to get back on feed. She is 7 years old and is a very high producer. I think the dairy life was hard on her. So... we decided to dry her off and give her a break until spring 2009 and see if we could get her bred. I have been checking her bag for signs of mastitis and she didn't show any until 2 days ago. As soon as I noticed I did milk out the infected quarter and treated it with a IMM. I milked her out again today (just the infected quarter) and there was a bit of stringy blood and really bad milk that came out. It was a as thick as pudding. I also treated it again today. The quarter is hard and hot. She is eating and drinking well and doesn't have a fever. What I am debating is should I start milking her again to get this cleared up ( we can put the calf back on for a while if we had to I guess) or should I keep milking her out and treating her? Would it be better if the quarter was drained constantly by the calf and still be treated at night when he can't suck? Is there a way to tell what type of mastitis it is? Any help would be appreciated.
Hope that makes sense.