E-coli Mastitis

RD10

Hi all, i know there's probably been threads done on this already, but have a cow due to calf in about a month & a half, With e-coli mastitis.
Have been drawing her out for past 3 weeks, shes in good form and eating away. Has it in 3 of the quarters. Still watery and No sign of it healing yet. She has been on antibiotics and vet took sample from her the other day.
Anyone have any experience of this? Do ye think theres a chance she'll come back into milk for the calf when she calves?

Mooooo

RD10 wrote: »

Hi all, i know there's probably been threads done on this already, but have a cow due to calf in about a month & a half, With e-coli mastitis.
Have been drawing her out for past 3 weeks, shes in good form and eating away. Has it in 3 of the quarters. Still watery and No sign of it healing yet. She has been on antibiotics and vet took sample from her the other day.
Anyone have any experience of this? Do ye think theres a chance she'll come back into milk for the calf when she calves?

If she's not lactating the milk won't be there to turn milky. Is the swelling gone? Ecoli would normally have the cow sick as well. Did the vet confirm it as that? May be best to hope she'll calve ok and prepared to rear the calf on bucket or sell.

Dakota Dan

The only time I had cows with E. coli was with lactating dairy cows in early lactation. It can be fairly severe with the cow going off food and barely able to move or going down. What ever quarter they get it in will be slack in n milk for the rest of the year or they could lose that quarter.

freedominacup

Mooooo wrote: »

If she's not lactating the milk won't be there to turn milky. Is the swelling gone? Ecoli would normally have the cow sick as well. Did the vet confirm it as that? May be best to hope she'll calve ok and prepared to rear the calf on bucket or sell.

If it is ecoli mastitis that she has you're already ahead of the game in not having a dead cow. Everything from here on is a bonus.

Mooooo

freedominacup wrote: »

If it is ecoli mastitis that she has you're already ahead of the game in not having a dead cow. Everything from here on is a bonus.

Last cow that got it here got it 3 weeks before due date, aborted the calves battled on for 2 weeks and ended up in the knackers lorry, would have been considered one of the strongest cows in the place. Prior to that it would have been milking cows if not picked up straight away normally wouldn't survive 24 hours. Fortunately only one case in the last 3 years

freedominacup

Mooooo wrote: »

Last cow that got it here got it 3 weeks before due date, aborted the calves battled on for 2 weeks and ended up in the knackers lorry, would have been considered one of the strongest cows in the place. Prior to that it would have been milking cows if not picked up straight away normally wouldn't survive 24 hours. Fortunately only one case in the last 3 years

The only ibe I ever got any real result with caught my eye when I was getting them out of the paddock for morning milking sometime in mud April. I managed to draw a bit from her on the road to confirm she had it and rang the vet. She had iv antibiotics within an hour of this and then he threw the kitchen sink at her. She wasn't even properly sick when I spotted her. Still lost the quarter but not a bad result for this situation.

RD10

Not confirmed as e-coli yet but i had a feeling myself it was and vet feels pretty confident it is too - we wont know for sure until results come back.
Im suprised myself shes not sick with it, and has lasted this long with whatever it is - calf was weaned in october, i first noticed her at begining of december, although i had been keeping an eye on her for a week or so because i had my suspicions about her b4 that, her bag looked like it hadnt fully dried off.
Thing is the teats arent hard or very hot. Just maybe a bit warm near one.
Shes been on a few antibiotics, one into blood this week while waiting on results.
Had one before that went gangrenous within hours so im suprised shes doing as well as she is.

RD10

Have a few calving around same time so if she isnt able to feed the calf herself i can adopt it onto another hopefully.
Would it be a case that she never dried off properly from previous calf?

The man in red and black

Common misconception is that all "watery mastititis" is E. coli mastitis. In reality it's about 70%. Impossible to say they are E. coli without culture. Treatment is the same regardless (with speed of treatment, fluids and anti-inflammatories more important than choice of antibiotic) so alot of people just call all watery mastitis E. coli for convenience.

Fingers crossed that cow comes around. Hate to see a cow with any type of mastitis in 3/4 quarters never mind watery!

The Rabbi

If it is E-coli I definitely would not be keen on giving the calf a feed of it.

RobinBanks

I have a cow that took E-Coli mastitis in early march. the fact she is alive is a miracle she was that sick. she was down for a few days. Once she started to come round and got up she was very shaky and lame. Vet said the mastitis travels up through them and the whole body will be stiff. She lost a huge amount of weight aswell. She was 800kg plus belgian blue ow. She is around 600 now maybe less.

2 months on she is still very stiff and sore looking and failing by the day. She is eating away but just looks down. I wonder should i get the vet back again? I dont know if he can do anything for her other than give her time? Just dont like seeing her this way.

greysides

The vet may decide the best option is to lance the teat to let the quarter drain, if it's appropriate.