Understanding udder health
Last month we talked about why dry cow management is critical, though often overlooked. This month I wanted to dive further into the dry period’s importance to udder health.
This requires that mastitis-causing bacteria be measured, but until recently no fast, accurate means of taking that measurement has been available to the working farmer.
However, using the on-farm culture system Check-Up provides high quality measurement results within 24 hours, informing the farmer about his unique situation, which can vary during the season, between farms and from cow to cow.
Some mastitis bacteria ‘go away’ by themselves, shooed-off by the cow’s immune system, but other mastitis pathogens will not respond to an antibiotic, and some are not even bacteria.
Just as the bugs causing the problems vary, likewise treatments are not equal; some are broad spectrum and include large quantities of antibiotic unnecessary for most cases of mastitis; some are better than others at targeting pathogens. Some mastitis cases are painful and require a non-steroid anti-inflammatory drug for cow comfort.
It is essential to decide with your veterinarian how you will respond to cases of mastitis to ensure best results. Cow age, previous treatment history, yield and physical symptoms must be considered, along with on-farm culture results.
Some key points to consider when using on-farm culture are:
- Is the cow sick? 95%+ of the time a cow is not sick with mastitis. Cases generally don’t get nastier. If a cow is not sick you have time to measure what you have. If a cow has acute symptoms, take a sample for culture, but consult your vet for treatment advice without delay.
- How to take a sample. Take a clean sample to avoid wasting time and money. A clean sample gives you an indication of how clean you need to be when handling other teat products such as dry cow, teat seal and intra-mammary drugs.
- A short video on how to take the sample can be seen at www.farmmedix.com
- Identification of bacteria is important information. On-farm culture (or taking a sample to your vet to culture) will identify the bacteria involved in the case, drastically increase your chance of success with treatment, tell you if treatment is necessary and give you information about how this case came about.
- Like cliques of people, bugs tend to hang out in rather specific places; if you find out what bugs you have, your vet can advise you where your problems might lie, to help you prevent mastitis.
- Develop treatment protocol. Using the wrong antibiotic increases the likelihood of the case not being resolved. Be sure to discuss protocol with your vet: have him/her engaged to get best results and make sure you are on the right track.
- Get your treatment right to avoid creating problems. The presence of antibiotics doesn’t mean you don’t need to be clean. Cleanliness is essential when using any dry cow, intra-mammary or injectable remedy. Never wipe teats with paper towels or rags from the parlour; wear clean gloves and use alcohol swabs.
- Know when to stop. Sometimes antibiotics simply won’t work; some bugs are highly resistant to treatment and, worse, some are tough and highly contagious. Knowing what you have is the key. Identifying a case of contagious mastitis will ensure you can develop a protocol with your vet for all your treatments, and will help you to prevent spread to other animals. Whilst sometimes this might mean a bit of short term pain, the long term gains are realised quickly once strategies are in place.
- Mastitis costs more than just the drugs. Cows with subclinical mastitis are less likely to get in calf and have lower milk yields and higher SCC than ‘clean cows’.
- Strive for excellence. A 100,000 cell count herd has about 20% of cows with subclinical infections.
- Adopt contagious cow strategies. When Staph aureus has been cultured from your herd, it is likely there are more cows infected. Ask your vet for more information.
A short video on how to use on-farm culture can be viewed at:
• Natasha Maguire is a director of Farmmedix.
