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Mastitis

Nicky

Well-known member
We've had two cows get mastitis in the last month (we calve in feb/march), and it's the type where they get SICK fast. We gathered on sat and moved the cows to the pasture closest to home and cow number 511 was perfectly fine. Yesterday she was gaunt, one quarter was swollen, and she was sick. She made it home but barely.

So what makes them get mastitis this time of year?
 

gcreekrch

Well-known member
My guess is one of two things....

Big fat lazy calves, cows on fresh grass, increase in milk production and the calf isn't taking all the milk or sucking regularly.

or....

You have some kind of virus going through your cow herd.
 

Kato

Well-known member
That kind of mastitis is nasty. It can kill a cow, so I wouldn't wait long to treat it. Seems to me that the toxic mastitis is e coli related, if I remember correctly.

We seem to get one every year or two lately, but just in the spring. This time of year is weird. The last one we had was the worst one we ever had. She had a whole bottle of Excenel before she was back to eating, and then she blew the side out of one quarter anyway. One neighbour told us to shoot her, because she'd never get over it, but we saw as soon as that bad quarter opened up and drained, she started gaining weight and felt better. She survived, and gained about 400 pounds over the summer, and healed up good. Other than a deformed udder, you'd never know she'd been so sick. Someone else volunteered to raise her calf, and it's doing well too. The cow is being culled.
 

hillsdown

Well-known member
Take a sample into your vet so you know which strain you are dealing with. If it is staph , isolate the infected cows and cull when they have reached their required withdrawl time. Staph can spread terribly fast and it is a horrible infection to get out of a herd as once your cow has it she will have it for life.

There is also ecoli mastitis which Kato was speaking about and that moves quickly and kills them fast. Quarantine the area that the infected cows were in asap as it spreads very easily in fresh cattle .
 

cure

Well-known member
Having to deal with mastitis quite a bit in our dairy herd it sounds like you have ecoil mastitis. Do what hillsdown and kola said about getting her away from the herd and then start treating her with 60 cc pen intermuscular a day and give her 20cc a day of excenel in the quarter along with 40cc of some stuff called spectrgaurd scour check. The spectogaurd is pig scour medicine it works really well for some reason. Also strip the quarter out into a pail so you don't contamant any more ground. Good luck
 

Nicky

Well-known member
Thanks all. I didn't know there was E coli mastitis but I bet thats what it is. The first one we gave Baytril to and it worked good. This one we gave LA200 cause that's all I had yesterday, she was sick enough Mike gave it to her while she was going down the steep trail. Will probably give her Baytril when the LA wears off.

No we didn't wean the calves, they go on the 6th.
 

Denny

Well-known member
I had one get it so bad last spring her udder split open and the inside mammary gland which was rotting fell out on the ground. I gave the cow 80 cc of LA 200 and left her be she's healed up now and still raiseing her calf which is doing just fine but she's going down the road this fall.
 

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