Implementing my staph aureus treatment plan...

[milkmaid]

starting tomorrow.

Subject?
Cow #311.

Lactating.

75 days fresh.

Third lactation, I *think*.

Culture at ~7 days past calving showed her clean of staph aureus.

Culture at ~21 days past calving showed her clean of staph aureus.

Culture last week showed staph - I suspect it's been there for a little while due to the way the quarter feels, but I don't think any longer than 30 days.

Clinical signs; few clumps at forestripping and scar tissue in the L/R quarter. Udder appears normal otherwise.

Treatment?
10 days on Twin Pen, 60ccs 1x/day.
7 days on Amoximast, 1 tube per milking (2x/day).

Anticipated treatment cost - approximately $60 in drugs.

Anticipated withdrawal time - approximately 14 days.

Goal? A clean culture 15 and 30 days past coming off antibiotics.

Still waiting on lab work to tell me what this stuff is succeptible to, but I'm going to go ahead and treat her now.

How's that sound to the rest of you?

 

[milkmaid]

Well, she's clinically clean at 7 days into treatment. Still more scar tissue in the quarter than I'd like to see (er, feel). Only time will tell at this point. Monday will be Day 10 and I'm treating with Amoximast and Twin Pen until then, and Monday afternoon I'll evaluate her and see where we're at.

 

[jaydill]

Wow Milkmaid. All I can say is... :clap:

 

[tom4018]

What is Amoximast?

 

[milkmaid]

Tom- it's Amoxicillin. Type of penicillin.

Jay, wait on the clapping just a few more days. :lol: ;-) Don't know if this is going to work yet or not.

Went over to the vet clinic this morning and checked on the sensitivity test results. It's sensitive to Ceftiofur (Excenel/Spectramast), Tetracyclines (LA200), and something else... I believe he said duramycin. I'll have to look that one up. Interesting. Didn't mention anything about a sensitivity to penicillin, but if she's clinically clean then it must be sensitive to penn... right?

The question then, I guess, is do I swap antibiotics - today will be the 10th and last day of treatment - and put her on something else to extend treatment a little longer, do I call it good, or, or...?

:???:

Hate having to make these sort of decisions. :?

 

[milkmaid]

After consulting with my vet this evening, I've decided I'll call it good and stop treatment today. So this afternoon's milking concluded the 10th and final day of the experiment, and my vet felt that with the levels of antibiotics I'd been putting into her she is still being "treated" indirectly for the next few days.

Perhaps penicillin wasn't what this strain of staph was most sensitive to, but as my vet says... the real test is how it works in the animal. And penn appears to have worked. So far anyways - keep your fingers crossed!

 

[GMN]

Seems like too long of a time to have a fresh cow out of the tank, why not try excenel first, send in a cell count, and go from there. That many drugs in a fresh cow, mark my words, will stay in her system alot longer than you think, especially penicilen, I avoid using penicillen on any of my dairy cows for this reason, but also because they get less susceptible against penicillen faster it seems.

GMN

 

[milkmaid]

She was on Spectramast for 8 days at the beginning - she'd had a positive ecoli result about a week prior, and I just figured it was ecoli. Didn't run a culture when she turned clinical. But as my vet put it, bacteria are creatures of opportunity. I'll bet that's when she was first infected with staph. She may have had ecoli before, but the staph jumped right in. We put her on Spectramast for the ecoli I thought she had, but it came back after coming off treatment. FWIW, Spectramast is the same stuff as Excenel, just packaged in an IMM tube. I can't treat her again with Spectramast.

We've put cows on Twin Pen before -- I'm aware of the withdrawals. Had one fresh cow on Twin Pen recently for a serious uterine infection. Every other day treatment for about 10 days and about a 10 day withdrawal. Another cow on Twin Pen daily for about 10 days with a 2 1/2 week withdrawal. It's not too big a deal to have 311 out of the tank as the milk goes to the calves; not like we're pouring it down the drain.

 

[milkmaid]

Antibiotic test came back good on May 31st and she went back in the tank then.

Culture on Friday shows her as clean in all four quarters - so far - I'm not considering her actually CLEAN until I've had at least one more clean culture. I'll do it in another 2-3 weeks.

So that's the update on how things stand right now.

 

[milkmaid]

She's clean once again in all four quarters via culture on a sample taken Thursday.

I feel like the scar tissue is disappearing from the quarter and it's beginning to feel more normal - which is a good sign - but what's bothering me right now is that the milk from the treated quarter is not exactly normal-looking. First few strips just look slightly watery/off color, but no clumps. After that it's fine. I always take culture samples from the forestrippings and then freeze them, so if there were staph hiding it should have an abundant growth on the plates. I wonder if she's had such severe damage to the milk ducts - can't remember the exact term - that while the infection is gone, the milk will not be normal. Might not look normal until next lactation, after rest, repairs, and recovery during the dry period, come to think of it. I'll have to ask my vet about that theory.

I ought to run a SCC on her too, out of curiousity. $2 over at the vet clinic; perhaps I'll do that tomorrow.

 

[milkmaid]

I wonder if she's had such severe damage to the milk ducts - can't remember the exact term - that while the infection is gone, the milk will not be normal. Might not look normal until next lactation, after rest, repairs, and recovery during the dry period, come to think of it. I'll have to ask my vet about that theory.

Well my vet isn't sure. First time I think I've ever seen him really uncertain. LOL. He thinks it's a plausible theory. I figure I'll give that cow another 15 days, culture again, and if she's still clean I'll just chalk it up to IMM damage. Vet didn't have the SCC counter at the clinic so it'll be later this week before I get a SCC check done on that cow.

 

[Knapview]

Milkmaid - just out of curiosity, do you dry treat and do you use Orbeseal?

 

[milkmaid]

Knapview, I do dry treat. No Orbeseal; haven't tried that one yet. On the dairy we use Tomorrow. My cows, I've recently tried Quartermaster since it seems like everyone who's anyone uses that -- and not been overly impressed. When one cow freshened with clinical ecoli in one quarter and subclinical ecoli (via culture) in another after 60 days of dry time, I decided I wasn't real happy.

Doing some serious thinking and studying drugs and labels, I've concluded that Tomorrow actually offers better protection against more bacterias than Quartermaster does. So in the future, I've decided I'm dry treating all MY personal cows with Tomorrow, and anything I'm planning to sell as a dry (one cow going in the paper next week) gets treated with Quartermaster since that's what all the big dairies use, and it sounds...better. :? Not that I usually like to operate by what sounds best - I prefer to go with what works best - but if it'll help sell the cow then I shouldn't complain.

 

[milkmaid]

I had that quarter cultured again - came back clean - SCC came back as 61,000 (in three quarters, not four - ought to check that fourth quarter out of curiousity - just didn't want a possible high SCC on DHI records). I took the yellow leg bands off yesterday that signify a staph cow; just been leaving them on until I'd had enough culture results to decide she was clean.

Anyhow, two months past start of treatment, that's how it all stands. I think I can call it a success. (Although I think I'd pick a different IMM drug if I were doing it again, rather than using two types of penicillin.)

 

[jaydill]

Anyhow, two months past start of treatment, that's how it all stands. I think I can call it a success. (Although I think I'd pick a different IMM drug if I were doing it again, rather than using two types of penicillin.)

Congratulations Milkmaid! Glad all is well! :clap:

 

[milkmaid]

Thanks Jay I just turned her back into a nurse cow today -- was waiting for a few more culture results before I dared put calves on. Just way too easy to transfer bacteria from one quarter to the next with calves.