Post by dwellandramble on Oct 30, 2019 23:47:58 GMT -5
So about a month ago my hubby noticed our usually very docile Jersey kicking at the milk machine during milking, and generally not wanting him to touch one of her quarters. My first thought was mastitis, and sure enough the milk strained very slowly that day. No blood or off smell, but a little stringy. The next day I investigated further and we got a positive on the CMT (nothing too thick or gooey, but a definitely thicker than the other quarters). Her quarter wasn't hard or red either, so I assumed a subclinical infection.
We had the vet out to run a milk test and check her out. The milk test prelims showed "Staph Other" 2+. I never was sent the final results, but the vet prescribed a 4 day treatment of Spectramast teat injections. We treated for the four days, and one week after the final treatment we were asked to take milk samples again. The milk from that quarter was still stringy and slow to strain, and the CMT showed a slightly thicker result for the affected quarter too. I called the vet and she was going to recommend a second round of the antibiotics. What would you do? Am I right in thinking this is all subclinical? Shouldn't a 4 day treatment of the antibiotics have knocked it out? I'm still waiting to hear back from the vet on an actual treatment plan. She is very slow to respond, which is frustrating (it took three weeks to finally get the antibiotics thanks to slow labs and a slow vet!!), but the only other vet available is an older gentleman who doesn't know anything about dairy animals (he prescribed antibiotics to a friend's goat that had a half-year milk discard period) and thinks nobody should ever drink raw milk, so I'm rather stuck with our current vet.
Our cow has one blind quarter due to a bad bout of Mastitis years ago, before we owned her. The affected quarter is the one the calf didn't favor so much, and it produces significantly less than the other two. We milk with a Surge Bellymilker, wash teats with hot water and clean towels, use pre and post iodine teat dip, and have been milking the clean quarters first and pouring the milk into a different bucket, then milking the affected quarter. All with the machine, but each quarter has its own inflation we use each time. I clean the machine very well with hot water and soap and a sanitizing spray used by brewers, and also do a vinegar rinse every week or so. I have used bleach water to clean the inflations too, with the mastitis issue. She is 10 months into lactation, and we share-milked from the beginning with her calf and another grafted on. The only thing I can think may have been cause for the infection is that I was the milkmaid in chief for several months up until I became pregnant, and then my hubby took over for the summer up until now (thanks, morning sickness!). She likes him lots now, and when I attempt to milk she will hold up and give me attitude. I can only think that the occasional switching up milkers on the weekends made her reluctant to let down and might have caused issues?
So, should I do a second round of the Spectramast? Anything else I can do to help treat, and is there anything else I can do to prevent this again?
We had the vet out to run a milk test and check her out. The milk test prelims showed "Staph Other" 2+. I never was sent the final results, but the vet prescribed a 4 day treatment of Spectramast teat injections. We treated for the four days, and one week after the final treatment we were asked to take milk samples again. The milk from that quarter was still stringy and slow to strain, and the CMT showed a slightly thicker result for the affected quarter too. I called the vet and she was going to recommend a second round of the antibiotics. What would you do? Am I right in thinking this is all subclinical? Shouldn't a 4 day treatment of the antibiotics have knocked it out? I'm still waiting to hear back from the vet on an actual treatment plan. She is very slow to respond, which is frustrating (it took three weeks to finally get the antibiotics thanks to slow labs and a slow vet!!), but the only other vet available is an older gentleman who doesn't know anything about dairy animals (he prescribed antibiotics to a friend's goat that had a half-year milk discard period) and thinks nobody should ever drink raw milk, so I'm rather stuck with our current vet.
Our cow has one blind quarter due to a bad bout of Mastitis years ago, before we owned her. The affected quarter is the one the calf didn't favor so much, and it produces significantly less than the other two. We milk with a Surge Bellymilker, wash teats with hot water and clean towels, use pre and post iodine teat dip, and have been milking the clean quarters first and pouring the milk into a different bucket, then milking the affected quarter. All with the machine, but each quarter has its own inflation we use each time. I clean the machine very well with hot water and soap and a sanitizing spray used by brewers, and also do a vinegar rinse every week or so. I have used bleach water to clean the inflations too, with the mastitis issue. She is 10 months into lactation, and we share-milked from the beginning with her calf and another grafted on. The only thing I can think may have been cause for the infection is that I was the milkmaid in chief for several months up until I became pregnant, and then my hubby took over for the summer up until now (thanks, morning sickness!). She likes him lots now, and when I attempt to milk she will hold up and give me attitude. I can only think that the occasional switching up milkers on the weekends made her reluctant to let down and might have caused issues?
So, should I do a second round of the Spectramast? Anything else I can do to help treat, and is there anything else I can do to prevent this again?