Mastitis: drying off quarters

DairyNerd

Member
Livestock Farmer
Had a few with mastitis recently, most cured ok with 3-4 tubes ubrolexin. No new cases for 10 days now but the last two which i have treated had 5 and 6 tubes ubrolexin plus metacam; appeared to have cleared it up, quarters still had a small hard 'ball' in but were milking out with no clots so thought they would be ok. This morning both are worse again, one is full of clots the other is harder again. I am thinking i just dry the quarters off now but what do others think? Re treating seems like bad practice.
 

Devon lad

Member
Location
Mid Devon
Had pretty good results using orbenin La treating staph, 1 tube a day for 6 days but you really need to know the bug first. Heres an idea from Irish farmers journal about drying off 1/4’s
 

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Cowabunga

Member
Location
Ceredigion,Wales
You need to clearly identify the ¾ cows using tail tape and red paint, especially if it is dried off using dry cow tubes. First though you need to clear the infection as much as possible, otherwise the quarter will be permanently damaged.
 

Farmer Keith

Member
Location
North Cumbria
The advice to test samples is sound but IIRC you really need to take the sample before you start treating so the test on any samples taken off the two cows in question now may be compromised. I’ve had good success with drying off individual quarters. Happy to milk them as 3/4 cows with no impact on herd SCC and reduces the risk of infecting more cows, particularly important if it does turn out to be straph.
 

vantage

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Pembs
You do realise your treatment protocol is off label, pretty sure you need to dump milk for 28 days, officially.
Unless of course it's no longer 2 tubes .
We gave up on it, despite it supposedly treating what we had on farm.
 

Spudley

Member
Location
Pembrokeshire
You're right. If you put tubes (lactating or dry cow) in one quarter the milk from the other quarters must not go in the tank for the full length of the withdrawal time.

When we've dried quarters off in lactation we just stop milking the quarter but do put a tube in when we dry off.
 

Farmer Keith

Member
Location
North Cumbria
You're right. If you put tubes (lactating or dry cow) in one quarter the milk from the other quarters must not go in the tank for the full length of the withdrawal time.

When we've dried quarters off in lactation we just stop milking the quarter but do put a tube in when we dry off.
Yeah just to clarify I don’t dry cow tube mid lactation it’s asking for an antibiotic fail in my opinion. Just get them cleared up and stop milking them.
 

DairyNerd

Member
Livestock Farmer
You do realise your treatment protocol is off label, pretty sure you need to dump milk for 28 days, officially.
Unless of course it's no longer 2 tubes .
We gave up on it, despite it supposedly treating what we had on farm.

I dump for 7 days if give more than 2 ubrolexin and always dump all quarters, think that is ok. Never dry cow tube mid lactation, by dry off i just meant stop milking, done it before with good results but obviously not ideal to lose a quarter at all.
 

jerseycowsman

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
cornwall
You're right. If you put tubes (lactating or dry cow) in one quarter the milk from the other quarters must not go in the tank for the full length of the withdrawal time.

When we've dried quarters off in lactation we just stop milking the quarter but do put a tube in when we dry off.
I always put 2 tubes in the dried off quarter at dry off. Seems to help bring it back for next lactation
 

jimmer

Member
Location
East Devon
Had a few with mastitis recently, most cured ok with 3-4 tubes ubrolexin. No new cases for 10 days now but the last two which i have treated had 5 and 6 tubes ubrolexin plus metacam; appeared to have cleared it up, quarters still had a small hard 'ball' in but were milking out with no clots so thought they would be ok. This morning both are worse again, one is full of clots the other is harder again. I am thinking i just dry the quarters off now but what do others think? Re treating seems like bad practice.
Apologies,I'm going to sound like an arse now ,but bear with me
Your not milking a big number of cows , and correct me if I'm wrong but your out grazing full time
4 cases of mastitis on your number of cows out at grass is pretty high in my opinion
Yes I would be stopping milking a quarter if it's been treated twice and is bad again
But go back to basics and try and determine the cause , flies ? , Gathering under trees for shelter , bulling , vacuum level , post dip etc etc
Sending off samples is fine but the lab isn't on farm looking at things
Pretty sure your not far from me , which vets are you with ?
 

In the pit

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Pembrokeshire
What is the issue with tubes ??
When I get a cow with mastitis I always treat with a full course of tubes .this treatment of a tube here and a tube there is going to cause a massive issue with mastitis and scc
 

DairyNerd

Member
Livestock Farmer
Apologies,I'm going to sound like an arse now ,but bear with me
Your not milking a big number of cows , and correct me if I'm wrong but your out grazing full time
4 cases of mastitis on your number of cows out at grass is pretty high in my opinion
Yes I would be stopping milking a quarter if it's been treated twice and is bad again
But go back to basics and try and determine the cause , flies ? , Gathering under trees for shelter , bulling , vacuum level , post dip etc etc
Sending off samples is fine but the lab isn't on farm looking at things
Pretty sure your not far from me , which vets are you with ?

I agree, you are right only got 45 cows and they are out full time and i am disappointed with the number of cases. I am trying to do that too but think i need to get the treatment right also.

Parlour has been recently serviced, only been milking since 4th April. I have fly sprayed cows a couple of weeks ago which coincides with cases stopping but could just be coincidence. Will see how it goes now and then look at parlour routine but don't want to change a lot at once otherwise it's impossible to know the cause.

Also all cows bought in dry in February with no antibiotics given at drying off, mostly low SCC anyway but even so that possibly won't help matters this year. This isn't meant to be an excuse, as I say i'm not happy with this many cases already. Apart from this mostly going alright so would be nice to get on top of it.
 

In the pit

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Pembrokeshire
I agree, you are right only got 45 cows and they are out full time and i am disappointed with the number of cases. I am trying to do that too but think i need to get the treatment right also.

Parlour has been recently serviced, only been milking since 4th April. I have fly sprayed cows a couple of weeks ago which coincides with cases stopping but could just be coincidence. Will see how it goes now and then look at parlour routine but don't want to change a lot at once otherwise it's impossible to know the cause.

Also all cows bought in dry in February with no antibiotics given at drying off, mostly low SCC anyway but even so that possibly won't help matters this year. This isn't meant to be an excuse, as I say i'm not happy with this many cases already. Apart from this mostly going alright so would be nice to get on top of it.
Dry period won’t be affecting mastitis rates now, it’s more a parlour /field issue
 

DairyNerd

Member
Livestock Farmer
Dry period won’t be affecting mastitis rates now, it’s more a parlour /field issue

I thought i had told by vets that clinical infections during lactation often come from sub clinical infections originating in the dry period? Happy to be told otherwise though if thats wrong.
 

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