Mystatus in beef cattle?

[Maxwell Farms]

I am looking for advice/treatment for mystatus in a 5yr. old black cow. I weaned the bull calf she had at about 6 to 7 months old. I noticed she appeared to have some sores on her front left udder/teat. Not long after that the udder/bag started to swell only in that front left quarter, so I caught her & gave her abought 50cc's of duramycian,& milked the udder out. She also would not eat very well either, & had started losing weight. It appears now after abought 1 week after treatment that the udder has ruptured/has a dime size hole in it, & has what appears to be puss ozzing from the wound. I really don't know what to do. Any advice would be helpful. [/list]

 

[*Cowgirl*]

I believe you're reffering to mastitis and with a bag that blown, I'd ship her. But you can get a product called Today that you put up in the teat if you want to try to treat her.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Dog food, High ho high ho off to the sale barn the cull go's.

 

[CowCop]

~

Had the same thing happen here on a 14 year old hereford last month.

Its important to keep the flys off or there will soon be maggots.

Spray the cow. Especially the udder area.

I keep a bottle of Absorbine ULTRA SHIELD in my truck
( $14.95 ) that I use on the horses, dogs and any individual cow who is having a fly issue. Lasts for 3-5 days. Has always worked very well for me.

I now buy it by the gallon ( less expensive ) and fill up 2 spray bottles so I can "double" spray at the same time. Its more effective and faster.

We shipped the cow, and calf, as soon as the oozing hole healed up nice and she regained some weight.

Bring the cow closer to your home/barn so you can spray her, feed her and get her ready to ship out.

 

[CowCop]

~

Here is a photo of the blown out left rear quarter.

 

[*Cowgirl*]

Ship her

 

[GMN]

We have had this happen in 1-2 of our dairy cows. Mastitis, infection, caused an abcess and it burst. In time the pus will drain, and the bag will close up. The quarter will probably be lost, but other than that, it should be fine. We gave Penicillen or Excenel, but the vet says, its draining, leave it, and it will heal. I wouldn't necessarily write her off, a calf can still suck on 3 quarters, and if you take her to the sale barn you aren't gonna get zip for her, with a bag like that, and as far as eating the meat, I wouldn't.

GMN

 

[TheBullLady]

Just had one about a month ago that got a trip to A & M. Eventually the quarter will "wall" itself off from the rest of the udder, and she'll only milk on three quarters. Really really keep an eye out for gangrene.. which can occur. It's sounds like she's over the initial infection, as long as she's eating now you can decide if you want to keep her, or get that udder cleaned up and ship her. The hole is for the infection to drain.. it should heal up in a couple of weeks. As others mentioned, be sure you keep fly spray on it.

 

[milkmaid]

Classic case of mastitis. Whether you want to keep her or not is really entirely dependent on how the udder looks in a few weeks. If that quarter and teat will shrink up to the point a calf would not be tempted (or able!) to nurse on the bad quarter, then I wouldn't write her off yet. On the other hand, if the teat on the bad quarter looks like a calf may be able to easily nurse on it, then ship her. The chance of a calf transferring the infection from that quarter to the ones that are clean, is too high to risk.

The only other thing I might be concerned about is if what's draining is getting on the ends of the other teats, as that can start an infection in the other quarters.

As the others pointed out, keep fly spray on it -- flies can transfer the infection to the other quarters as well.

BTW - don't even try treating it. You aren't going to be able to save that quarter.

 

[stocky]

The cow should be past the dangerous time if you keep the flies out of the hole. If you want to keep her, the quarter should seal up in time and she should be fine as a 3 quarter cow. If you want to sell her, I would keep her until the quarter dries up and heals and she gets her weight back. If you sell her before the hole dries up and heals she will bring about 5-10 cents per pound. If you wait, she will bring full slaughter price---right now that is 40-50 cents per pound. We had this happen at times to milk cows, we sold them when they healed. When it has happened to beef cows, we have kept them and continued to raise calves on them.

 

[Maxwell Farms]

I appreciate all the advise, I gave her 20cc of penicillin & I could see a difference the next day she is eating better & has started bulking back up, the ozzing of puss is just about over & the swelling is almost gone. I wormed her good & sprayed her wound with antibiotic spray. She is actually pushing some of the other cows back from the trough now. I will probally try & get this next calf out of her & either sell them as a pair this spring, or who knows I might just keep her. Thanks again.