Post by wyomama on Jul 14, 2008 8:53:53 GMT -5
Ugh - okay - the short version of a long story....
Last winter, Tig got frostbite on both left teats. Between pain and restricted teat opening, she got mastitis in the left front quarter. I called in the vet - wanting him to sedate her, open the teat back up, and give me lidocaine to use with rubber gloves so that I could treat the mastitis the way we normally do. Instead, he injected her with Baytril and Banamine and told me to dry her off, and let the teats heal. Even though I knew in my gut his recommendation was probably wrong, it was delivered with words like "inhumane" and "suffering", so I followed it instead of pushing the issue. So... despite the Baytril the mastitis got worse, and left front quarter abcessed and ruptured twice over the next three months. Before the abcess, was able to get a melt-away teat dilator in one of the affected teats - I'm pretty sure it was the front one.
She calved fine - in the midst of summer, calving, wedding, adjusting madness. The day before she calved, I checked both frostbitten teats, and assured myself that both quarters were feeling "normal" - although there is was a mass of scar tissue in the front one, and did squeeze out a bit of normal appearing colostrum out of each one, so both were open. Several times after birth, I noticed the calf work on all four quarters.
My plan was to use her to raise hers and Abby's calves, and she was back in the wind-break pasture, so I didn't bring her in to milk, and hindsight says I didn't keep a close enough eye on her udder. A week later when I start the fostering project, I find that the left hind is open, but mastitic. The teat on that one is about half gone, so I'm sure it's a little harder to nurse. The left front teat is closed off. I would guess that quarter is mastitic as well, but can't tell what's mastitis lumps from scar tissue lumps. She's got no fever, her udder is not hot, and she's not expressing any pain.
I tried to get a teat dilator into the left front teat, with no luck - it inserts about 3/16", then quits. I'm thinking I need to get that open, but what do I use?
I'm remembering one of the two other milk-cow owners in this county telling me about a similar experience with his cow and the same vet - complete with the vet telling him "you will lose that quarter, you should just ship her" so he (as I am thinking I won't either) didn't call the vet back - he used a 16g hypodermic needle to open the teat back up, and is still milking the cow.
But I wanted to get opinions before I embark on field surgery myself.....
Blah!
Last winter, Tig got frostbite on both left teats. Between pain and restricted teat opening, she got mastitis in the left front quarter. I called in the vet - wanting him to sedate her, open the teat back up, and give me lidocaine to use with rubber gloves so that I could treat the mastitis the way we normally do. Instead, he injected her with Baytril and Banamine and told me to dry her off, and let the teats heal. Even though I knew in my gut his recommendation was probably wrong, it was delivered with words like "inhumane" and "suffering", so I followed it instead of pushing the issue. So... despite the Baytril the mastitis got worse, and left front quarter abcessed and ruptured twice over the next three months. Before the abcess, was able to get a melt-away teat dilator in one of the affected teats - I'm pretty sure it was the front one.
She calved fine - in the midst of summer, calving, wedding, adjusting madness. The day before she calved, I checked both frostbitten teats, and assured myself that both quarters were feeling "normal" - although there is was a mass of scar tissue in the front one, and did squeeze out a bit of normal appearing colostrum out of each one, so both were open. Several times after birth, I noticed the calf work on all four quarters.
My plan was to use her to raise hers and Abby's calves, and she was back in the wind-break pasture, so I didn't bring her in to milk, and hindsight says I didn't keep a close enough eye on her udder. A week later when I start the fostering project, I find that the left hind is open, but mastitic. The teat on that one is about half gone, so I'm sure it's a little harder to nurse. The left front teat is closed off. I would guess that quarter is mastitic as well, but can't tell what's mastitis lumps from scar tissue lumps. She's got no fever, her udder is not hot, and she's not expressing any pain.
I tried to get a teat dilator into the left front teat, with no luck - it inserts about 3/16", then quits. I'm thinking I need to get that open, but what do I use?
I'm remembering one of the two other milk-cow owners in this county telling me about a similar experience with his cow and the same vet - complete with the vet telling him "you will lose that quarter, you should just ship her" so he (as I am thinking I won't either) didn't call the vet back - he used a 16g hypodermic needle to open the teat back up, and is still milking the cow.
But I wanted to get opinions before I embark on field surgery myself.....
Blah!