full bag in beef cow

[A is 4 appaloosa]

Hello All,

I'm writing in the hopes of finding more information on a friends cow because i'm a horse person who knows very little about cows other than that they say "moooo". :lol:

What I'm told is that a small herd has been brought in from pasture and that one of the cows had an overly full bag but only a teaspoon of milk was coming out when milked.

They did give her a dose of cloxacillin I think, which they said did not help. Since she wasn't sick, they didn't feel she had mastitis. They do not have the cow anymore due to time and unsafe handling. This was her 4th calf.

I have been hunting all over the net for information on other possible causes other than mastitis. All I keep finding is milking volumes and sanitation of equipment on dairy cow operations or oodles of stuff on dairy goats.

does the information apply to beef cows as well?

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[dun]

Generally mastitis is accompanied by some oddity in the milk, off color, watery, pink, chunks, etc.
If the could had just calved, it could be edema which sometimes accompanys calving. It's inflammation of the tissue which causes swelling and can be easily treated with a diuretic. Could be an old case of mastitis that has caused excessive scar tissue in the udder and she can;t produce as much as expected. Cows that are unused to be handled/milked will frequently hold up their milk when you try to milk them. Without any of the obvious signs of mastitis I would probably blame it on edema if the calf couldn;t suck her down any. If she hasn;t just calved it woudln;t be edema andwithout laying hands on the cows udder I woudln;t know where to go from here.

dun