Hi Amanda, I don't think I was posting on this board when you were here, but welcome back! I have a dairy cow question for you. I have an old (9) Jersey cow that has chronic mastitis. Staph in the front quarters and possibly something else in the rear. Need to get that cultured. It doesn't effect her as far as milk production, we use her as a nurse cow. She'll take any calf we bring her. The problem is the milk isn't good to drink - salty tasting because of the mastitis. Have tried multiple treatments, but as you probably know, Staph is very resistant as it sort of sequesters itself off. I read recently on Dairy-L that one of the dairy farmers vets recommended injecting the cow (IM) with 10 cc's of milk from the infected quarter with each milking for 3 milkings. This dairy farmer tried this, and he claimed excellent results, with 3 of 6 cows with chronic mastitis completely cured, and the others with vastly improved cell counts. Have you ever heard of this? My cow will freshen in April, and I was considering trying it. I'm a critical care nurse, so have some knowledge of physiology. There's a possibility of an infection at the injection site, and I guess if it got bad enough she could get septic, but I wouldn't let it go that far. Sorry for such a long post, but I just read your post below and was excited that someone else with dairy cow experience joined the forum. Anyway, let me know what you think, and if you know of any other "miracle" cures for this type of mastitis.

-- Paula (chipp89@bellsouth.net), February 23, 2002

Answers

Paula I wish I could give you a better answer on this. The best thing I know to do is to make sure when you buy a cow that she doesn't have mastitis. I've worked at several dairies. Almost all mastitis is caused by improper milking and filthy living conditions. The last dairy I worked on had such a high mastitis cell count in their milk that they were 1 week from being unable to sell their milk. The owner was too cheap to buy medication for the poor beasts. I should have known then that he wasn't a person to be trusted, but frankly I couldn't leave the cows in that kind of shape so I worked for him for a couple of months. By taking extra time with the cows I managed to bring down the overall mastitis count in the cows and cleared up several cases of rampant mastitis. I would completely hand strip infected quarters....actually I would classify it as severe stripping and I would never recommend this with a hand milk cow. I sanitized my hands often to keep from spreading it to other cows in the herd. If you do decide to try and milk her make sure you strip her well. This involves milking her dry and then bumping/massaging the udder well(remember how hard those little calves butt her to get her to give down more milk) and just really work her to get out every drop of milk. Double dip her when you use teat dip(and please do use teat dip on her). Make sure the area where she lays down is clean and dry. It seems some cows will pick the nastiest, wettest place to lay down in and it seemed to me that these were always the ones that ended up with mastitis the worst. Jerseys are excellent nurse cows and with her age I would recommend that you leave her in this capacity (as long as a vet has assured you that her milk won't harm the calves). When you go to buy another dairy cow just remember that it is much easier to keep them from getting mastitis than to treat it. If a cow has ever once had mastitis I would never consider her for a family cow. I'm sorry I can't advise you on the proceedure you described....I've never heard of it.

-- Amanda (mrsgunsmyth@hotmail.com), February 24, 2002.

I'd be interested in reading the article, do you have a web site address for it? I have several opinions, if you are interested, based in immunology and physiology, but would rather read the article before posting them.

-- BC (desertdweller44@yahoo.com), February 24, 2002.