Best antibiotic?

[hersh]

The cow I posted about with the absess is doing good. The hole has swelled, growed or whatever shut so you dont see in the utter. The calf is doing great. I had talked to the vet and he said I should start her on antibiotics, that night I gave her la200(last monday). Is there a better one for this. It still drains a little. should I hit her with something else? how often should I give it to her?

 

[milkmaid]

With a walled-off infection like that, especially one in the udder... I wouldn't even bother treating. You'd have to put some $200+ worth of drugs into her to even get it under control, and the chance of curing her is slim to none. Leave her be. It'll probably abcess and drain several times between now and weaning the calf. Just cull her in the fall.

 

[hersh]

She's proven to be a good mom, and is the one that makes it easy to work the herd. She spit the calf out in 30 min(first calf heifer), her epd's are good. So I'd like to try an keep her (paid good money for her :lol2: )

 

[milkmaid]

Well, if you want to keep her that badly, then you need to strip some milk out of the infected quarter and/or get some of what's draining into a ziplock bag or similar. Your vet should be able to culture it and see organism is growing. I can't tell you what would be the best antibiotic without culture results, because different antibiotics work on different pathogens, and mastitis can be caused by a million different types.

IMO I still wouldn't treat, no matter how much I liked her. Mastitis is a really tough problem to cure, especially when its been there for some time. At this point you'd be looking at 2x/day for 14 days minimum at extralabel dosages to even get her clinically (visibly) clean.

As long as the infection doesn't spread she can raise a calf fine on 3 quarters.

 

[Beef11]

I really enjoy stripping out a quarter that has mastitis all chunky and gross and stringy.