Post by schnookiemuffin on Feb 23, 2011 14:16:47 GMT -5
I have a half Normandy half Jersey cow, Spot, who came to me about two months ago. Much to my heartbreak, she's had persistent mastitis since calving in early January (along with a retained placenta at calving). I had her milk tested last week and they came back with the worst news possible: pseudomonas aeruginosa in her rear quarter (she's only got two working quarters, the dairy I bought her from had trouble with mastitis in her other two quarters and killed them with a treatment they tried).
We're pretty dry here with a hard winter and there's no grass to be had, most of our pasture is dirt which turns to mud as soon as it rains. It's likely she contracted it from laying in some mud (since it's apparently a common bacteria in the dirt).
The problem is that the lab tested for sensitivity to all known types of antibiotics and it came up resistant to everything. Everything. *sigh*
So I'm left with the options of 1. removing the quarter surgically (I'm not a big fan of this as it could cause other issues and infections post-op on a cow that may already be immunocompromised) 2. Cull her and use her for meat (but she's got a 1.5 month old calf we'd have to bottle feed and we kind of like Spot, she's patient and leads well) or 3. purposefully kill the quarter and hope for the best.
I'm leaning towards #3 as it would be the least invasive of the the options, however that leaves her with only one good quarter, possibly not enough to feed her calf out to 4 months to wean.
I understand that most dairies just cull the cow that crops up with an infection, but in a home milk cow situation, that's not really a viable option considering the amount of money and time I've already invested in her.
Has anyone else had experience with pseudomonas aeruginosa mastitis infections? What did you do to remedy/mitigate?
Thank you,
joy
www.schnookiemuffin.com
We're pretty dry here with a hard winter and there's no grass to be had, most of our pasture is dirt which turns to mud as soon as it rains. It's likely she contracted it from laying in some mud (since it's apparently a common bacteria in the dirt).
The problem is that the lab tested for sensitivity to all known types of antibiotics and it came up resistant to everything. Everything. *sigh*
So I'm left with the options of 1. removing the quarter surgically (I'm not a big fan of this as it could cause other issues and infections post-op on a cow that may already be immunocompromised) 2. Cull her and use her for meat (but she's got a 1.5 month old calf we'd have to bottle feed and we kind of like Spot, she's patient and leads well) or 3. purposefully kill the quarter and hope for the best.
I'm leaning towards #3 as it would be the least invasive of the the options, however that leaves her with only one good quarter, possibly not enough to feed her calf out to 4 months to wean.
I understand that most dairies just cull the cow that crops up with an infection, but in a home milk cow situation, that's not really a viable option considering the amount of money and time I've already invested in her.
Has anyone else had experience with pseudomonas aeruginosa mastitis infections? What did you do to remedy/mitigate?
Thank you,
joy
www.schnookiemuffin.com