Post by evamommy on Oct 6, 2011 15:46:00 GMT -5
Well, we have a beautiful heifer calf, but it looks like Butter has also freshened with mastitis in at least 2 of her 3 working quarters. She delivered early this morning, and I've tried milking her out twice so far...she's not letting down for me at all, that I can tell. From her one working rear quarter, I can only get one or two squirts of a completely clear liquid, and then nothing more comes out. From her front left, I'm getting a small amount (1/2 a cup or so) of stuff that is remarkably like egg yolk in color and consistency. From the front right, I get a small amount (again, about 1/2 a cup per milking) of what appears to be fairly normal colostrum, but that quarter is also very hard and hot, like the others.
I've given the calf a bottle of colostrum I had in the freezer from our last calf. I've left her with mom, and have seen her try to nurse, but not yet be successful (she can't seem to get the teat all the way into her mouth, and mom isn't very good about holding still for her.)
I went to the vet's - I had called to let them know I was coming - and he had left for me a box of Pirsue, and a bottle of gentamicin. After doing a quick search on here about the gentamicin, I'm not so sure I want to give it to her. Perhaps I'm just pessimistic, but if we end up needing to cull her, if we can't clear this up, I don't want to be dealing with the 18 month withdrawal for slaughter. Should I ask the vet to give me something else to give her systemically?
I've been massaging her udder with coconut oil with peppermint and tea tree oil in it, and have given the first dose of Pirsue. I do also have a box of Today, from when we first got her. Her history is that I purchased her off of craigslist from someone who had obviously just gotten her at an auction, and she still had the ear tag from a dairy. I was told that she was 5 years old at the time, so if that was true, then she'd be about 7 now. I was also told that she had only very recently dried off (yeah, right), so I tried to milk her....she was mastitic in two quarters at that point, I dosed her with Today, and dried her off. (I realize now that I should have gone back and gotten some Tomorrow, instead.) That was 2 years ago. She's been with us since. About 5 months ago, (so, 4 months pregnant), she was leaking milk out of her front two quarters really frequently. I brought her in to milk once at that point, just to see what was going on, and milked out her front two quarters ( the ones that were spraying all the time), and at that point they seemed fine, no mastitis. But her back left quarter was very hard, and I couldn't get anything out of it. So, perhaps both back quarters are a lost cause?
From my reading here, I'm guessing that I should have her "milk" cultured....how do I go about that? Should my vet be able to have that done, or do I send it off somewhere myself?
Is there anything else I can be doing at this point? I plan on milking her out 3-4 times per day, for the next several days at least, until something either gets better. I don't want to be too discouraged, but with her history (mostly unknown, and what I do know can't be good), I worry that I won't even be able to get enough good milk out of her for her own calf, let alone any for us.
Thanks for any advice,
Carrie
I've given the calf a bottle of colostrum I had in the freezer from our last calf. I've left her with mom, and have seen her try to nurse, but not yet be successful (she can't seem to get the teat all the way into her mouth, and mom isn't very good about holding still for her.)
I went to the vet's - I had called to let them know I was coming - and he had left for me a box of Pirsue, and a bottle of gentamicin. After doing a quick search on here about the gentamicin, I'm not so sure I want to give it to her. Perhaps I'm just pessimistic, but if we end up needing to cull her, if we can't clear this up, I don't want to be dealing with the 18 month withdrawal for slaughter. Should I ask the vet to give me something else to give her systemically?
I've been massaging her udder with coconut oil with peppermint and tea tree oil in it, and have given the first dose of Pirsue. I do also have a box of Today, from when we first got her. Her history is that I purchased her off of craigslist from someone who had obviously just gotten her at an auction, and she still had the ear tag from a dairy. I was told that she was 5 years old at the time, so if that was true, then she'd be about 7 now. I was also told that she had only very recently dried off (yeah, right), so I tried to milk her....she was mastitic in two quarters at that point, I dosed her with Today, and dried her off. (I realize now that I should have gone back and gotten some Tomorrow, instead.) That was 2 years ago. She's been with us since. About 5 months ago, (so, 4 months pregnant), she was leaking milk out of her front two quarters really frequently. I brought her in to milk once at that point, just to see what was going on, and milked out her front two quarters ( the ones that were spraying all the time), and at that point they seemed fine, no mastitis. But her back left quarter was very hard, and I couldn't get anything out of it. So, perhaps both back quarters are a lost cause?
From my reading here, I'm guessing that I should have her "milk" cultured....how do I go about that? Should my vet be able to have that done, or do I send it off somewhere myself?
Is there anything else I can be doing at this point? I plan on milking her out 3-4 times per day, for the next several days at least, until something either gets better. I don't want to be too discouraged, but with her history (mostly unknown, and what I do know can't be good), I worry that I won't even be able to get enough good milk out of her for her own calf, let alone any for us.
Thanks for any advice,
Carrie