Another Mastitis Question

[pfaubush]

I noticed at Monday nights milking that our cow's left, hind quarter was hard and hot. When I did a test, using the mastitis indicator (litmus type), it was positive. I treated with Today and did again the next morning. The indicator isn't nearly as green, now, as it was on Monday night, but it still has a greenish tinge. The other quarters were showing negative.

I've been using my milker, but hand milking the affected quarter and discarding the milk until the residue is gone.

This morning, I milked her out, tossed the bad milk and when I went to strain the 'good' milk, it was full of clumps and strings. Soooo,

My questions are can I give this milk to the calf, or will it make him sick? I am just starting to wean him (he's 3 months) and would hate to have to switch him over to milk replacer. This is my first time raising a calf, so it's all new to me.

My second question, how can I clear this up? Will a sub-q injection of LA200 work or do I need to go to the co-op and get something else. We had her AI'd on August 17th and she hasn't gone back into heat, so I don't want to give anything that could hurt her or the calf during pregnancy.

If you have suggestions for meds, could you tell me if it is something that I couldn't give the calf?

Thank you!

[pookshollow]

As far as the calf goes . . . at the dairy farm where I work, the milk from treated cows goes to the calf barn, so it can't hurt them too much! Probably better for it than switching to milk replacer at this late date.

I'll let the more experienced cattle people chime in on treatment - I let my boss do that.

[Tad]

As for the calf, the milk won't hurt the calf. One thing to consider when you treat a cow the antibiotics get into the blood stream of the animal. I personaly would not use the milk from the other 3 quarters for my self. Many people have tried quarter milkers on treated quarters and many people have bought truck loads of milk for it.