Mastitis in hind quarters ?

[Stocker Steve]

I have a short heavy milking 6 year old that struggled with her current calf. The calf only used the front quarters at first, and the cow had very swollen rear quarters for a while. What can I expect if I keep her for another calf?

 

[Aaron]

Do you think it might get better the 2nd time around? :lol2:

I think it was 5 or 6 years ago, had a spring cow, about 6 years old with April steer calf, real aggressive little bugger - but stubborn. Only would suck 1 back teat for the first 6 weeks. You can imagine what kind of horror show that was to deal with. Udder went all to h3ll, continually milking out and treating and smothering the 'preferred' teat with every unappetizing concoction I could think of. Calf only started sucking all 4 quarters (how much they were milking at that point, I don't know) a couple weeks before I shipped both of them in the fall.

Any mastitis problem, I've always hit it early with milking out and antibiotics. The real bad cases will lose those quarters, but do compensate in the others. Lots can make it on 3 teats, very few on two (except the heavy heavy milkers). Best to not even make the work stick around for another year and just ship them.

 

[bigbull338]

if she had mastitis in the rear teats you might as well cull her.because she will most likely be 2 teated when she calves back again.

 

[Stocker Steve]

I didn't expect her to improve, but "Baby's" calf is one of the bigger ones this fall, as usual. I was hoping she could hang in there for a couple more...

 

[Taurus]

I didn't expect her to improve, but her calf this year is one of the bigger ones, as usual...

Perhaps she has plenty of milk but what you do with her is up to you.

 

[Chris H]

We hadn't had mastitis in several years, but had one last fall. It was a 2 year old that developed it after we weaned her calf. It started in a back quarter and spread to the front. I gave her an antibiotic shot but couldn't milk her out.
When she calved this spring I got her penned to see what her udder was like. She lost 1 quarter. She's doing OK on 3 and will stay around. Her udder looks healthy, just a blind quarter.

 

[angus9259]

Just because she had heavy back quarters doesn't mean she had mastitis. Did you check? I have some heavy milkers as well - one lopsided one where the calf is only drinking from one side. If the calves don't get to those quarters they will bag real heavy then dry up - like what happens when you wean the calf. If she truly lost two quarters to mastitis, it's salebarn time.

 

[glacierridge]

Just because she had heavy back quarters doesn't mean she had mastitis. Did you check? I have some heavy milkers as well - one lopsided one where the calf is only drinking from one side. If the calves don't get to those quarters they will bag real heavy then dry up - like what happens when you wean the calf. If she truly lost two quarters to mastitis, it's salebarn time.

This is about what I would have told you.
You need to strip those quarters a little yourself to see what's going on.
How big is her bag on the whole?
If she is a good cow and you are really impressed with what she raises, perhaps she could do the job on two. But more would be better!
Not too many could do it on two, but some could.
But.
Hopefully when you check her, you'll find that things won't be as bad as you fear.