Udder Sores & Mastitis

[pfaubush]

My neighbors bought a 3 quarter Jersey a couple weeks ago that was in very sad shape. The people they bought her from had been trying to treat for mastitis with a vet. They had 2 calves on her and she was very thin and her hair was pretty thin. My friend is treating with antibiotics, wormer, extra grain and is seeing some overall improvement.

So, one quarter in this girl is completely shot now, and cannot be milked at all. The issue she is seeing is that the bad quarter is developing sores and once they 'pop', they ooze pus. They are thinking that this is mastitis trying to work its way out of the quarter, and that is how it is doing it. I'm wondering if there is something else going on.

Could anyone shed some light on whether or not mastitis manifests itself this way? My Jersey has had mastitis, but I catch it so quickly, that its cleared up within a couple of days. Advice would be sooo appreciated!

[Chixarecute]

I've never seen mastitis come through the udder wall...not that it can't, and I by no means have vast experience, but a fair amount.

What about cow pox?

[sammyd]

seen more than a few quarters go away and have never seen what you are describing. I wouldn't think mastitis would "try to work its way out" of the quarter it's usually pretty happy in there and you have to kill it or constantly strip it out, never seen it leave on its own...

[prairiegirl]

Just this Fall we experienced something similar. It began with sores/scabs/scar-like areas on the udder. I kept her milked out, clean and rubbed Bag Balm (nice thick coating) on her udder each milking. The vet said he could give me a fungicide type cream or an iodine based topical something if she didn't get better, but we didn't get to that point. Her milk SCC tested high, but within the allowed guidelines (not my standards, but someone elses) The guy at the lab advised me to use a diluted iodine and rub that on her udder. All this helped, but after 2 months she developed signs of mastitis which we treated with the help of our vet.

For two months I milked her out and kept up with the bag balm, alternating with the iodine. The milk was safe to drink, but I'm very cautious so the pigs and chickens got it. Once the mastitis was cleared up, I dried her off. It was time anyway as she will be calving.

I've been milking this cow for over 6 years and she's never had a problem. Hopefully, this was a one time thing. We never did find out a name for the sores, but are pretty certain it wasn't cow pox. The areas didn't look like it and she didn't have other symptoms.

Probably way more info than you wanted, but thought I'd share our experience and what worked for us.

[gone-a-milkin]

I have seen udders abcess and drain.
Always it was on much older cows with very big udders who had been around and around w/ mastitis
and the quarter was unmilkable from scarring.
Does she have lots of little sores, or 1 big one like an abcess?

It could be a lot if different things though. The best thing would to have the fluid cultured by a lab.

Topically applied tea tree oil has done wonders for odd sores, IME.

Good luck to them. I hope this cow comes right.

[pfaubush]

Thank you, everyone. The cow came with a couple of sores...one was about the size of a half-dollar. Those were clearing up nicely when she developed the latest one that is much smaller. She is alternating 2 different antibiotics orally and applying penicillin directly onto the sore after thoroughly cleaning udders and teats. I Googled Cowpox and that is not it. I did find the Merck Manual online and the herpes sounded possible to me, but she said that she figured it would spread pretty quickly, creating more sores on the udder if so, since herpes is so contagious. I'm at a loss on what it could be, but am sure that it's not mastitis.

[springvalley]

Originally Posted by gone-a-milkin

I have seen udders abcess and drain.
Always it was on much older cows with very big udders who had been around and around w/ mastitis
and the quarter was unmilkable from scarring.
Does she have lots of little sores, or 1 big one like an abcess?

It could be a lot if different things though. The best thing would to have the fluid cultured by a lab.

Topically applied tea tree oil has done wonders for odd sores, IME.

Good luck to them. I hope this cow comes right.

I`m with Wendy here, I have seen a couple of these happen in my thirty some years, mostly older low hung cows. And I have never seen or heard of one that has died from it, it is very nasty thing, but they do heal up, but never milk on that quarter again. It must be a very strong strain of bacteria that does this that antibiotics can`t kill. > Marc

[WJMartin]

I had a cow this year that did the same thing, she came to me preg but in very good shape. As a 4 year old she was preg with 3rd calf but I found out had never raised a calf, prev calves had died. When she calved in June her udder was huge and the calf couldn't nurse, long story short, I had never seen mastisis so didn't realize what was happening and we didn't expect to be milking, my background is with beef so can you picture a bad rodeo?! After several trips to vet and treatments for mastisis and being sent to a farmer to be trained to be milked, she had one quarter that erupted in two spots that leaked out pus, alot of nasty pus, vet tried to kill that quarter but couldn't keep enough stuff in the quarter. That quarter has finally dried up and she has continued to raise her calf, now 6 months old and doing well.
In the meantime we have built a milking station for the next time because she will have this problem with each calf.
When the calf is weaned we will go back to vet and see about having the quarter killed again, its the only one that had mastisis but this will always be an issue with this cow, just glad the learning curve for me didn't kill her.
As a side note, I kept hoping to finally get some milk to drink but the calf is a greedy little girl, sigh, maybe next year.