mastitis cow still with us

[angus9259]

Well, four days since I found the cow with 106.5 temp and two rock solid quarters. She's still with us. Temp this am was 103 so trending down about a degree a day I guess. Still comes looking for her calf. Maybe she wasn't "toxic" yet and just suffering the fever from the mastitis itself?

I don't think her two good quarters are milking now as she has quit eating and isn't drinking much. I penned him up last night and he drank a gallon or so of dilute milk replacer out of a bucket.

Any idea if her "working quarters" will milk again if she pulls through and starts eating? She has a 30 day withdrawal period from the antibiotics and banamine so I have to wait a month to take her to slaughter anyway...

 

[cowmilker]

Milk out whatever you can.

 

[dun]

Milk out whatever you can.

Yup, then haul her to the salebarn when the withdrawl period is up

 

[angus9259]

Bad quarters are rock solid - no milking out those - I assume that's what you mean by "milk out what you can??

I'm wondering about the good quarters. Her calf is still nursing those - though not much in them at the moment I don't reckon. Calf is only 2 weeks old. I'm wondering if the good quarters will produce milk after she starts eating to get the calf to 2-3 months so I can just wean the calf to pellets and not have to deal with milk replacer.

 

[TCRanch]

viewtopic.php?f=19&t=99623&hilit=holy+rump+roast

The above link is my drama with the same thing - tried everything but ended up with rock hard hind quarters. She raised a huge calf on only 2 teats but was miserable, like walking with a bowling ball between her legs. One of my absolute favorite cows, I still miss her.

 

[cowmilker]

My typing skills are rough and my fingers are too fat. I'll pm you my phone number if you want to discuss.

 

[Nesikep]

If the calf keeps nursing, she may continue to produce in the 'working' quarters, though perhaps not a lot, it may be a survival ration for the calf and it'll get him raised.. I probably wouldn't keep her to try again though

 

[angus9259]

probably wouldn't keep her to try again though

Ha! No.

 

[regolith]

"Milk out what you can" presumably means concentrate on the live quarters to save production.

It's anyone's guess if that's possible or not. I haven't had one with true toxic mastitis that came through the ordeal without drying off completely.

I did have some heifers in a different herd... one got mastitis, I saw her getting sick I said to the owner that's Black mastitis, he got the vet, the vet said it's not black mastitis but it's certainly heading in that direction.
We carried on milking her and the quarter blew out and the other affected quarter dropped in production (she was out of my best cow) she milked that first lactation on 2 1/2 quarters and did average production. Two years later as a 3quartered cow she was in the top five cows of my herd. Never got a heifer out of her before she died, unfortunately.
I saw another heifer and another cow blow out a quarter and carry on milking, at that same time; apparently that's staph mastitis that does that, horrible experience for the cow but once she's over it, production is as good as ever (minus the sloughed quarter, the other three make up the difference). I hope I never see another.

You'll know in a month. If she's blowing one or more of her bad quarters at that point you won't be able to cull her anyway, can't remember how long it takes to all heal up might be closer to three months. At that point, if she's got two quarters still working she might as well raise the calf.

 

[farmerjan]

I am assuming that what you all are calling black mastitis is what we call gangarene mastitis here. It will blow out the quarter, and stinks to high heaven but once it drains and sloughs off it heals over and the rest of the udder will go on. In the meantime if you keep the other quarters milked (by hand or calf) it will keep the production in them going, maybe a little less than before.

 

[regolith]

I am assuming that what you all are calling black mastitis is what we call gangarene mastitis here. It will blow out the quarter, and stinks to high heaven but once it drains and sloughs off it heals over and the rest of the udder will go on. In the meantime if you keep the other quarters milked (by hand or calf) it will keep the production in them going, maybe a little less than before.

I don't know if it's the exact same thing - 'black mastitis' is the name farmers here give to the sort of mastitis that makes the cow sick and turns the quarter cold and purple, one vet said e. coli and staph are usually involved.
All I know is every cow I've seen with it, there was no keeping the other quarters going... I did try, if she wasn't a downer, but invariably the production in them fell away to nothing whether or not the cow survived.

 

[farmerjan]

No black mastitis is not the same as what we know as gangarene mastitis. It sounds more like what we see here as klebsiella, they go from say 60-100 lbs a day to nothing in a few hours and it will kill the cow if you don't catch it quick. Coliform mastitis here usually starts with a hard quarter, very little milk, gets watery and a high temp. The cow will usually recover if you treat it aggressively, and will often come back in to production but not as much as she was making. Klebsiella will just ruin the production if you even save the cow. She won't come back and will often abort if preg. If you save her, after the drugs are out most everyone ships them, although there have been a few cases that I have seen the farmer kept them when they didn't abort and they came back into the barn but they never milk as good. Mostly they wanted to get the calf.
Gangarene mast will usually only affect one quarter, and it will literally "rot" off the cow and she will keep milking in the other quarters. Gross, but they keep on producing. Naturally they have to be milked in the bucket due to the drugs, but the cow will survive it, and come back in as a 3 qtr cow. Looks like you "cut off" one qtr., which in essence it sloughed off.

 

[angus9259]

Coliform mastitis here usually starts with a hard quarter, very little milk, gets watery and a high temp. The cow will usually recover if you treat it aggressively, and will often come back in to production but not as much as she was making.

So far this is the story with mine. Her fever got to 106.5F but is back to normal now. Came down about a degree a day with oxy and banamine every day for 4-5 days. She looked like death - every day I went out there I thought for sure she'd be feet in the air. Today she's obviously uncomfortable when laying down but she's eating and pooping and chewing her cud again. Still lays down most of the time and can't seem to walk just right (perhaps for obvious reasons) but her odds seem to go up a little every day.

 

[farmerjan]

Sure hope she makes it, and don't hesitate to keep up the treatment even past what seems enough. Usually we treat coliform in the quarter too, but not always practical. IV is the usual route then injections. Hopefully she will come back enough to raise her calf and you can get some salvage value out of her. Cull cow prices were in the low 60's this past friday here, a little better than I thought they would be.