Mastitis saga - when do you see improvement?

[cjb]

Our vet gave Violet her first tube in her teat on Friday - I just gave the 5th tonight and she has two more. I milk out the chunky, pus crud first, of course. Also, gave her a shot of "banamine"? every day for 3, some antibiotic called Exerel for 3 days and than 40 cc's of a strong peneccillin today.

She still has crud in her teats. How long before that clears up?

The vet said she will prob lose the quarter - do I try massaging and milking out anyway?

She's now 3 weeks from delivery, as soon as I give the last teat treatment (2 days) do I stop doing anything?

When he milk comes in, is that udder at risk of getting mastitis again?

[Teacupliz]

sometimes quarter never clears- with a quarter like that we had the vet out right at the first minute of trouble- after months of work- being dried off- it came back and abcesses- 5 months later- just had the vet out to cut the teat off so it could drain.
Even a simple cause of mastitic take wks sometimes to clear.
what made you finally want to treat?
good luck- Liz

[matt_man]

If the infecting bacteria are not gone, then she could freshen with mastitis in that quarter again. Did the vet suggest using a long lasting infusion designed for cows that are dry. Tomorrow is one brand, I am not sure of the "active" antibiotic in it and how it compares to what you are already giving her.

One of our cows developed mastitis in one quarter after drying off. I noticed it when her bag was shrinking, one of the quarters looked the same, even though I had been checking and there was never any heat/redness. The milk in that quarter was thick, yellow nasty stuff. I milked it out, gave her the Tomorrow infusion, and she freshened just fine. No hint of mastitis.

Rachel

[jerzeygurl]

have you seen ANY improvement?

typical vet treatment for mine has been 2 doses of pirsue and one or 2 shots of naxel
no withdrawal (dump time) on naxel 36 hours withdrawal on the pirsue

they are always better before the withdrawal time of the pirsue is up...

yes massage and milk out...just like any wound or like a sinus infection, the more out the better (crud wise) at this point you want to prevent gangrene and death....

some cows will always freshen with masitis, i would keep a watch out, i would also ask the vet withdrawal times for the drugs he used, i couldnt locate them on the chart on this site( this was a good read, just found it today googling for the names of the meds)

http://www.ext.vt.edu/pubs/dairy/404-403/404-403.html

explains about withdrawal times for meds , the vet explained to me that the drugs with zero withdrawal are metablized so quickly that they dont have a chance to make it into the milk or meat...dunno how that works....I usually add 12 -24 hours to the withdrawal just because im well fussy...

the cow i used the dry cow on last fall, ( one dose i beleive was supposed to do it) i ended up doing a second dose as she was still yucky a few days later, but the swelling and such had improved( she is the problem one i mentioned before, this is the so called once blind quarter) she is bagging up fine now with no lumps...as of yet

[chamoisee]

I know very little about cattle, but if she were a goat, I'd be out there milking her really often, like 6-8 times a day, and massaging the udder area with Bag Balm.

The more you can empty that udder, the better.

However, if medicine had been injected into the udder after each milking, then you'd be squeezing it out at each small milking. Better call the vet and see.

In either case, lots of bag balm.

[peter_g]

If you'd like a homeopathic remedy, at least for the swelling and heat to make it easier to milk out, get Phytolacca 30X (or 30C) and put 10 pellets in her vulva. Give her 5 to 10 minutes then start stripping her. We've never used antibiotics for mastitis...

[cjb]

Liz, i didn't treat before because the CMT showed negative for mastitis, so I dried her out. She started bagging up and the udder looked swollen to me. When I milked it, cruddy gunk came out - she also looked a bit ill. The fact that she was eating less caused me to make the decision to bring the vet out. In hindsight, I wish I had him out sooner.

I see great improvement in how she acts/eats/feels. However, 4 days into treatment, I'm still getting gunk out of her teat. The quarter feels very hard and the vet said that it has already started 'walling itself off', so he assumed that we will lose the quarter.

Last night, I gave her 40cc's of some strong penicillin or antibiotic (sorry, i forget) per his instructions, so maybe that shot will do the trick. I am to continue through Thursday on the meds in her teat.

I will call the vet back. I was just wondering what others have experienced here. She is now due in 3 weeks.

[Teacupliz]

Hi- CJB-
I think sometime no matter what we do, it is never right. I pray she freshens fine for you. With lots of milk for your family and a heifer!!
have you tried the mint rub?
liz

[Jennifer L.]

If she's only three weeks from freshening, I'd continue to milk that quarter out as long as possible. As soon as she starts to bag up, the edema will make it even more difficult to deal with and you want to get the quarter in as good a shape as you can before that happens. Once she freshens and the edema goes down IF she is trying to produce milk in the quarter, the milk will help flush the quarter out and make it easier from that point on.

If the vet says she is going to lose the quarter it doesn't sound good, but even if she is going to lose it, continuing milking it out will make less of a mess. Mastitis this mean will continue to abcess and break out through the wall of the udder weeks or months down the road, so if you can clean it up as much as possible it's better. If you can continue to milk it and get "something" out of it, it's less junk that the cow has to deal with herself, and she can heal it faster.

It pretty much comes down to your "how much do I want to mess with this" quotient as far as how long you do it, though. She's not going to die from it at this point, at least. Good thing you acted when you did.

Jennifer

[cjb]

Hi Liz,

Yes, in addition to the medical treatment, I have been massaging her udder with bagbalm that has drops of mint oil in it. I swear that the hardness has subsided some since. We are also giving her apple cider vinegar and grape seed extract.

When I first start milking it out - big chunks come out and it is clearly painful for her. As I continue, she seems to calm down and allow me. I put the tube in her teat at night so it can sit awhile before I try milking it out again.

[Teacupliz]

you can also give her Kelp and make a garlic tincher and give her that too. I feed lots of kelp to my cows- Liz

[peter_g]

Apple Cider Vinegar is good, but I read something disturbing on it today... on the jug. I usually just buy the cheap stuff at the store.. well if you read it (which I never had before) it says Apple Cider vinegar Flavored! I thought, well that's useless! So to get AC vinegar that actually does what it's supposed to do, you need to get raw AC vinegar from a health food store or make it yourself. Which is actually pretty easy to do. I'm currently making pineapple vinegar right now.. though right at this moment I'd probably get pretty drunk off of it.. lol Has to be pineapple wine before it can be vinegar!
Susan

[cjb]

Pineapple wine.. mmmmm...

Thanks and we did get the actual raw AC vinegar.

Violet had her last tube last night. Just before, I milked the gunk out but then she had streams of what looked like normal milk. Hopefully, this is an indication that she's getting better.

[robin f]

are you going to keep on milking her out ?

[cjb]

Yes, until I can get a hold of the vet to ask him.

I did tonight but could barely get anything out at all.

[robin f]

i would keep milking her out, as often as posible, it sure won't hurt her and may make the differance between losing the quarter or not, i'm keeping my fingers crossed up here for you