G 4 What to do with this quarter?

[Shawn]

(Mods, I forgot I was in ATF, could you move this to FC.)

I'm struggling with Emma's LF quarter. She had a raging case of mastitis in it after I took her to visit the bull in late Sept. (Which I will never do again.) She stressed out and we ended up treating her with two rounds of Excenel and about 3 times the recommended dosage of Today. I water bathed her udder TAD as much as I could for about a week to get the heat and swelling out. Finally that resulted in us getting down to just two knots in her udder about the size of baseballs.
She has a 10 mo calf on her. I turned her back out with calf and we had milk in that quarter, we seemed on the way to recovery. About 2-3 weeks later ? not really sure, she came with crud in the quarter again. I did another round of Today and started treating her with SCC (Superior Cow Cream).
Again we got back to milk. I kept up the SCC for about week to 10 days.

Yesterday I noticed she has it again. I'm really wishing I could somehow dry this quarter off. But is that possible with a calf on her?
Also, if I dried her off now like this, would she just freshen with a raging case of mastitis again?
What other options do I have? I think since she has milk in that quarter sometimes, that killing that quarter probably is overkill, no pun intended.
As a side note, I'm pretty sure she bred to the bull, but then lost it during all the aftermath. She didn't show any heats for a while and then we AI'd her on Nov. 10th, and I think she took to that AI.
And we still have the two knots in her quarter.

What to do, what to do?

[Becky]

Shawn, I am no pro, but I think it would be really tough to dry that quarter off with a calf, and I also think you are right about the freshening with mastitis if you don't get a handle on it now. If you haven't already, I would get a culture done and see what you are dealing with. Maybe talk to your vet about using a different infusion that has a different active ingredient? I am assuming that you have already gone the multiple milking route, so is there any way that you could milk out the other three quarters and "force" the calf to nurse that one, if you aren't already doing that? I had good luck infusing with tea tree/peppermint, but man was *that* scary Just throwing that out there as an option. Feed her garlic ALOT As much as 8 heads (not cloves) a day, and if you don't want to mess with the raw stuff, load her up with the granulated. Sal, my cow, gleefully ate it top dressed on her grain. If she won't eat it top dressed, make or get some garlic capsules and just dump some caps in her grain. Overdose her on vitamin C should help too (capsules work great for this, too). Give her enough garlic that you can smell it in the milk. Maybe try a comfrey hot pack? Feeding her comfrey should help as well. I took a pail of the hottest water I could handle and put a bunch of epsom salts in it and hot packed Sal with that. I don't know that it helped with healing, but it really did seem to make her much more comfortable, which made milking more productive. Ummmmmm, that is about all I can think of right now. Don't know if it is much help Sorry you are having to deal with this. It is SUCH a bummer........

Becky

[Becky]

Shawn, how is your girl tonight?

Becky

[Rhein-O-Ranch]

We have had good luck with a product called Pirsue that has to come from the vet. It is a new kind of antibiotic that also gets into the blood stream from an infusion and only has to be given once every 24 hours.
I saw one post on here that the people used it for 2 days and waited 36 hours and used it for 2 days and did that for 3 cycles and got rid of the mastitis.
Hope this helps.

[Shawn]

Sorry, Becky, we've been out of town. Thanks for asking.

The calf is nursing that quarter and has brought it back in to milk during these bouts. So I really don't have to force her, thankfully. She willingly checks it.

Well, I think tomorrow I will call about the Pirsue, that was recommended to me by someone else. My vet's never one to volunteer much, but he'll give me anything I want. We've been customers of his for a long time.

I have to say "multiple milkings" amount to me checking the quarter TAD when her calf is on her 24/7. With working full time and trying to keep up with 2 kids and these animals, DH starts to grumble if I spend more than my usual amount of time in the barn. He has given up grumbling about the usual amount of time.
Well, now with a bit of a "vacation" from work and animals, I'll start fresh again and see what I can do. Just being too short on time, wears a person down to a nub.

[Becky]

I totally understand that about working, animals, kids, DH, and being tired. Just last week I realized that I am just tired of being tired. So, with the weather and a couple extra days off, I did get a couple of good naps in. Kinda like milk, does a body good

Becky