I just dealt with a case of mastitis 2 weeks ago. Mastitis is the result of bacteria gaining entrance to the mammary gland and causing infection/inflamation. Some types of mastitis will cause a systemic infection causing the cow to become very ill. Other types are confined to the mammary gland, or even just one quarter.
Almost any type of mastitis will cause changes in the milk -- my cow had clear yellow fluid with large yellow globs in it. In my case, I was pretty sure that the cow had mastitis when I bought her -- she had calved not more than 2 days before hand, and her udder was almost dragging the ground and one quarter was hot, but she showed no signs of systemic infection. She came from a commercial dairy and her udder had dropped so low that they could no longer use the commercial equipment on her -- so she hadn't been milked at all since she had calved. For my purposes, even if we'd lost the infected quarter, she would still have been a good deal at 26 cents a pound.
As for treatment, personally I would call in a vet -- our vet wasn't able to come out immediately and had me rig a sling around the udder and pack the infected quarter in ice, as well as milk out the infected quarter hourly. When he did make it out 2 days later, he treated the Jersey with 2 injections of long-acting penicillin (IM), and she was to be milked 4 times a day until all swelling and heat had left the udder. The day following the first antibiotic injection the fluid had been replaced by off-colored milk, and after a week the milk appeared normal and registered normal with a CMT. As of yesterday, I'm using the milk raw and our somatic count is low enough to be imperceptible.
One thing -- be sure to handle your other stock first and to wash and sanitize your hand after handling the cow. You don't want to inadvertently carry the bacteria on your hands to the other animals.
Ann B
> This cow calved 11 days ago and
> mom and calf were doing fine. A
> few days ago the calve didn't look
> 100% so today I put her and the
> calf in. Calf is gant so I checked
> the mother for milk and found all
> four quaters full of clear liquid
> and no milk. Is this a form of
> mastitus and could it be in all
> four quarters. What should I do to
> her while I bottle feed the calf.