# *GRAPHIC*-Strep mastitis gone wrong-pic heavy-update 5/14



## Snowhunter (Apr 23, 2012)

So even though things are pretty much over and done with and this cow is recovering, I'm going to start things from the beginning. I want to post this for educational/informational purposes, because its not seen very often and I hope others can learn something from all this.

4ishyo Jersey cow, calved on a Mon pm, calf was pulled and dead. Cow was brought to the sale barn the next morning, not having been milked, and sat in the yard till 430 when she came through the ring. By the time I got her home, her udder was strutted and balloned out, very hot and hard as a rock.

Day 1 ( 3/28)
Here are a few pictures to give a better idea



















So we took a chance in the first place, but thought plenty of massage, milking 4-6 times a day and some good care would do the trick in a week or two. 

Day 2
This is the day after.. lots of massaging, milked out the 2 working quarters (right rear and left front) and got what I could out of the left rear (bad quarter) which wasn't much.





In this picture, you can see how bad the left rear quarter is, and how much it is pushing on the right rear





These show how much edema they can get










This picture shows where she had a scab. Bag balm and vit e applied liberally to keep it moist and allow it to heal. From what, I'm not sure. Keep this area in mind for later in the thread...







Day 4
After continual milking, massaging and uddermint, it was obvious something was brewing in there. We got milk samples to take to UGA to get cultured (so I would know what I was dealing with and what the bacteria was sensitive to, antibiotic wise) after the final evening milking and then infused all quarters with Colloidal Silver. 40cc in the left rear and 20CC in the left front and right rear. 10CC DMSO in each quarter following the CS, massaged up into the tissue. (the CS was continuted as a twice a day infusion into the left rear quarter only after this)

4/1-
Milking had been progressing.. she was giving about 1ish gal out of the 2 working quarters (Right rear and left front) and left rear had been slowly giving more goop. No stinky smell so I knew we weren't dealing with some kinda of major bad bacteria
This is what I was able to get out of the left rear quarter, 4/1am. Lovely, aint it?





Ended up not milking for a full 24hrs..extenuating circumstances but it seemed to be for the better.  

4/2 both working quarters milked fine, and I got an entire gallon out of the bad rear quarter. At this point, I was using a canula to milk that quarter to cause less overall pain then handmilking, as she'd went to kick flies and kicked a nice big booboo over 1/2 that teat. The Colloidal Silver and DMSO seemed to have really taken hold and went to work on some of the nasties in the quarter though..


4/3- While the left rear quarter seemed to be progressing well, not as hot or hard and shrinking some, it seemed to have spread to the left front quarter (Hot, hard and tender). Had to milk that one via canula as well, but the milk was coming out fine, about 1/2 gal. At evening milking, I infused 25CC of Colloidal Silver into both left quarters after draining them as best I could.

4/4- 1 gallon out of the bad left front quarter. The teat was hot and very firm and there was an abrasion on the skin. She probably caught it with her foot laying down or kicking at flies. Got about 3C from the bad rear quarter. More CS/DMSO infusion into the left quarters and lots of massage

4/5-BIG time improvement from the bad left rear quarter. The fluid that came out didn't turn the milk from the other two quarters red or anything. The left front quarter was still hot, tender and firm, teat too, but the milk was flowing well through the canula. Also got the culture results back-Strep Uberis, a pretty mild bacteria, but very contagious. So glad Sweet Pea and everything used on her was quarantined and kept seperate. Lots of rubber gloves used as well. I had already purchased a course of Spectramast from the vet and that was also the right antibiotic the Strep was sensitive too so the treatment is 1 infusion tube per quarter per day, 5-8 days of infusions. Started the infusions 4/5PM, also infused 5CC DMSO right after to help give the antibiotic a kickstart .

4/6pm- post 1st treatment milking went well. Got almost another gallon from the bad left rear quarter. Not much from the left front, about 2oz. Got her as empty as I could and infused more Spectramast, massaged the udder and let her back out.

4/7pm-The good working right rear quarter gave 1 1/2 gal, but I was only able to get about 1oz or so between the two left quarters. Whatever was in them, was coagulated and couldn't fit through the canula, and hand milking them out wasn't an option.

4/9-am-The big scab area in the rear quarter came off and I noticed the area was VERY thin, skin wise, and bulging out a bit. Not a good sign.

pm-The spot I saw in the AM decided to start rupturing. I was still using the canulas to drain what little I could from the quarters. 





4/10-Still doing what I can to drain the quarters, and doing the Spectramast and DMSO infusions with lots of massage
AM-only brought her in for morning grain. This is the teat w/the scab over 1/2 of it




You can see the small hole starting to drain.





Here is what it looked like in the PM
Her udder is a bit more even looking





Here's the underside view-note the hole was draining yellow goop










This is what I was able to get out of the hole via massaging and strategically pushing stuff towards it.





4/11-I went ahead and got to work on the left rear quarter, now that it had a hole, I could get more gunk out and leave the teat itself alone to heal up. Here is what came out





pm-lots of hot compress and massage and I got a good more bit of gunk out. The quarter is somewhat draining between sessions, on its own.


4/12-Working on the udder twice a day. Washed it gently and squirted 10CC Colloidal silver in through the hole, smothered the quarter in VitE  and let her go. Last Spectramast doses given.

4/14-amGoopy nastiness from the left rear quarter, nothing out of the left front and teat cool to the touch.

pm-Noticed the hole in the left rear quarter closing up. Not good. Contemplated lancing some, but decided to leave it be. Lots of massaging and milked the 1 working right rear quarter.

4/15-not much progress. Hole almost closed, so I just wasn't sure what to do. Massaged, milked the right rear quarter and called it a night

4/16-more goop out of the rear quarter, yay! Progress! About a cup or so






You can see the obvious "shelf" on the bottom half of the left side





Tried to dress the wound with antibiotic ointment and cover w/a dressing (w a hole in the center to allow drainage) and then cover all that w/fels naptha and another dressing to draw some of the stuff out, but by the time she'd walked to her stall, it all fell off. Dang cheap tape

4/17-Sweet Pea was fed up with everything and decided she didn't want any part of it. Ok.. I can understand that. She had been a total angel through everything so far, so I wasn't going to push her any more for my ego.


4/21-decided to pull her into the stanchion and get a good look at the quarter, since it was lookin a bit wierd. She'd been fine, bright eyed and bushy tailed otherwise. The hole was about the size of a silver dollar and there was a very obvious mass in that quarter trying to fit out of a hole way too small for it to do so successfuly. Nothing like glovin up and stickin yer fingers in a cows udder, a hole no less, to give ya the ickies!

4/22-decided the mass needed to come out. It wasn't doing any good staying in there and wasn't coming out on its own anytime soon.


We got Sweet Pea out and into the headgate we use to work the beef cows on. Sturdier, easier to reach where I needed and plenty of airflow and sunglight.






This is what the hole looked like (The dangley from the teat is the scab coming off and healthy tissue underneath yay!)





I took a sterile scalpel and made 4 incisions so there was more give to help get the mass out. There  was plenty of blood, but she didn't have much feeling in the tissue I cut, didn't even swat her tail. 

I started feeling around inside and gently but firmly pulling out the mas tissue in bits and pieces









Then, some of the goo started flowing around and there was a wave of pressure as the mass downshifted and was trying to come out on its own





After about 45 minutes I had got a bunch of stuff out, and then the last sections "fell" from the top half of the quarter





This is the last big piece that came out, and you can see the goo and such that was just sitting in the quarter, with no where to go due to the size of the mass





Here's everything that came out





We washed everything out, flushed the quarter and slathered ointment on. 

Now to keep things flushed out and clean so she can get healed up.

Here's a couple videos







Here is the hole yesterday evening. Gotta keep it open for drainage, otherwise, I'm just gentle washing with warm water, flushing the quarter with saline and dabbing antibiotic ointment to keep things from gettin infected.


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## Snowhunter (Apr 23, 2012)

So now that I've got it all posted, I hope it helps someone in the future.


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## SuburbanFarmChic (Apr 23, 2012)

Well I'm impressed.  Please keep us updated on how she does.  


 Interesting to see and I somehow suspect that this has been going on for a while. That solid of a mass of junk doesn't just build up over a week or three.


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## redtailgal (Apr 23, 2012)

Thanks for sharing that.  

How much of that mass do you think was part of the glandular tissue?


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## Snowhunter (Apr 23, 2012)

SuburbanFarmChic said:
			
		

> Well I'm impressed.  Please keep us updated on how she does.
> 
> 
> Interesting to see and I somehow suspect that this has been going on for a while. That solid of a mass of junk doesn't just build up over a week or three.


Actually.. the solid mass  did.. but I DO suspect the infection had been going on for awhile...and it seems once we hit her with the intramammary antibiotics, the mass formed and solidified. It was very spongy.. like spongy cheese


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## Snowhunter (Apr 23, 2012)

redtailgal said:
			
		

> Thanks for sharing that.
> 
> How much of that mass do you think was part of the glandular tissue?


I have no clue...its possible it was none, its possible it took everything with it... 

Maybe the mass built up in the udder cistern and pushed everything out of the way? Or it encapsulated everything and all thats left is the supportive tissue worm lookin thingy (Which I was able to see... really gnarly!)?


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## manybirds (Apr 23, 2012)

will she ever be able to freshen again?


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## HankTheTank (Apr 23, 2012)

Wow...when you say graphic, you MEAN it!!  I wasn't brave enough to watch the videos....I hope this can be of help to someone sometime


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## Snowhunter (Apr 23, 2012)

manybirds.. successfully, I don't know. If she heals up alright, from this, I'll be breeding her this summer and I reckon we'll know next year how it all goes.

Hank-told ya


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## clarmayfarm (Apr 23, 2012)

Hi, cool photos, sorry about your cow 

She should be fine to freshen again, but will likely lose the quarter. 

She will still give a good amount of milk, some 3 quartered cows milk as much as before the infection.


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## animalfarm (Apr 23, 2012)

Most interesting. Keep those pictures coming. I would like to see how the healing progresses over time. 

 That quarter is probably toast, but the odds are good that everything else will work when the time comes. What is the reason you don't use intra-muscular anti-biotics in addition to the local udder treatments, now that the mass is drained? I cannot use the teat route as my cow decapitated her front teats and they are essentially an open pipeline which cannot hold anything in and I found the shots to be quite effective.


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## Snowhunter (Apr 23, 2012)

The reason I didn't give any systemic antibiotics was that the infection was isolated in the udder. She never showed signs of going systemic once the initial inflamation went down. I kept an eye on her overall health, temp and went with my gut. 

Don't get me wrong, she looked to be coming close once and I had stuff ready to treat ASAP, but she was actually "stoned" on the banamine, not systemically infected. 

Even now, I will not treat if there is no reason, that just breeds antibiotic resistance. There is no infection other then what goop is left coming out of that quarter, which I'm able to get out with saline flushes and gravity. Being able to keep a close eye and check her multiple times during the day helps and I can ward off another infection before it gets out of control and does any damage. 

I think Sweet Pea is a SUPER cow. She stood the whole time I worked on her and cut into her yesterday, with only some tail swishing and a foot lift once when I touched a very tender spot. Same thing the whole time we've been dealing with this. This cow is somethin else. If nothin else, she's got the sheer darned determined will to get through this, and do it in style


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## ThreeBoysChicks (Apr 23, 2012)

Thanks for the education.


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## Snowhunter (Apr 23, 2012)

Interesting article..shows graphics and explains the how the whole udder works.. pretty interesting. http://agriculture .kzntl.gov.za/publications/production_guidelines/dairying_in_natal/dairy6_1.htm 

I was trying to find good graphics and an explanation of what I was seeing, if infact, the mastitis took out the entire quarter and it is now non productive, or if it just infected a small part....

Also found this article from the Univ of Kentucky
http://www.ca.uky.edu/agcomm/Ftrips/beef/milkpro.htm 

This one has some interesting stuff, on udder components and how it all works
http://classes.ansci.illinois.edu/ansc438/mams tructure/anatomy_5.html 

So Im no closer to figuring out what her quarter is doing.. but, after tonights flush and hole packing, I felt pretty good.

I was able to get my finger up inside and there is still goop in there, but it felt like things were closing up...but I can't tell if it was the udder cistern contracting back to normal size, or the whole quarter contracting back up together



I did forget to add, that Sweet Pea has been getting supportive nutritional care, a handful of comfrey, elecampane root and olive leaf 2x a day, acv in the water and extra Vit AD and E capsules as well.


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## WildRoseBeef (Apr 23, 2012)

Snowhunter said:
			
		

> Interesting article..shows graphics and explains the how the whole udder works.. pretty interesting. http://agriculture .kzntl.gov.za/publications/production_guidelines/dairying_in_natal/dairy6_1.htm
> 
> I was trying to find good graphics and an explanation of what I was seeing, if infact, the mastitis took out the entire quarter and it is now non productive, or if it just infected a small part....
> 
> ...


Just editing a link that accidently had a space put in it. 


Thanks for sharing all that, wow, what grossness.   

I was also wondering if some of that mass was mammary tissue, it's (IMO) highly likely it is, with all those alveoli possibly being so badly infected with the bacteria that they simply sloughed off from the rest of the tissue in the udder.  Again, IMO I think, from looking at the pictures, that she may have that quarter working again is very slim.  But, as others said, nothing wrong with having a three-quartered cow.

Thanks again, Snow, very educational!


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## Year of the Rooster (Apr 24, 2012)

Very cool! Thanks for posting such a detailed post. I hope she heals up well.


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## Snowhunter (Apr 24, 2012)

Thanks for fixin that, WRB!! 

Anything is possible, at this point..I wish I had xray type vision so I could really know whats goin on in there!!!!

Any yes.. much grosseness! LOL! 

Here are tonights photos.. I can't tell, just by looking and feeling, if the quarter truly had an abccess in the wall or the whole quarter.. either is possible by the way it looked this evening. Total crapshoot!  The inner part of the left quarter is soft and pliable.. has a pillow density feeling to it. Not hot or hard. The shelf that was on the bottom of the outside, is still there, but its shrinking.







Any here's the wound.. post saline flush





And gooped up with ointment and packed w.gauze to help keep it open so it heals from inside out





This could all go anyway...at this point, I'm just here to observe, flush and keep the wound clean so she can do the hard work of healing.

She does enjoy lots of scritches and lovins when we bring her in though


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## RPC (Apr 24, 2012)

Wow this sure was an interesting post thank you.


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## aggieterpkatie (Apr 25, 2012)

Very cool.  It must have been really satisfying pulling that huge mass out! I'm one of the weirdos who loves abcess and stuff.     Definitely keep us posted on the progress!


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## Snowhunter (Apr 25, 2012)

This stuff is pretty fascinating.. gross but fascinating 

This mornings pictures...

So.. yall remember me mentioning left front quarter was just doing nothing but sitting there, filled w/some sorta somethin? Guess what I saw this morning?





  That indicates SOME kind of healing.. the quarter is no bigger or hotter then its been before, nor is it anymore tender..the teat is still very much tender so I just ever so gently squeezed to see what happened, and I got this stuff out




Maybe there's hope for the front quarter yet.. 

This is what the backside of the udder looked like this morning..




I coped a good feel and the section towards the middle was soft and pliable and just warm to the touch, not hot. The floppy outside part is just, well, there.. doesn't seem to be fluid or air in there...just extra skin that has no where to go and stretched beyond repair... I could be wrong though.. I did NOT stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night  

The hole is doing well...draining, healing and doin its thang





I'm not sure how well you can hear, but I got a short video clip of Sweet Pea doing her moo thing...


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## Hillsvale (Apr 25, 2012)

both disgusting and amazing at the same time... we have a new to us ewe we got end of February 2011, lambed in late April one still born one fine... then we noticed a few weeks later that her udder was doing this same thing, down to the hole and the curd cheese like substance...  ... she lost that side but sucessfuly fed twins this year. I wish we knew to check over udders when we purchased the two of them but we were just newbies...

Good for you for rescuing this cow.


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## Snowhunter (Apr 29, 2012)

Just wanted to get an update posted...

Sweet Pea is doing VERY well...if you don't consider her udder issues. She's bright eyed, slicking out nicely and eating like there's no tomorrow.

The ruptured rear quarter is healing very nicely. We're flushing it 2x a day with warm saline solution and its still draining well, with a few goopies here and there (probably because its not on the very bottom of the quarter for best gravity drainage).

The left front quarter is back and forth. The other day it swelled up like a balloon and then I was able to gently work out about 2c of goop via the teat, 2x that day, but that seems to have caused some kind of reaction. The teat swelled up and seems to have a burnt like layer of skin over it, very hot hard and tender to the touch. I think it'll probably blow open before long, but I could be wrong. With this cow, everything goes a million different directions second by second.

Oh, and we've been monitoring her temp and its staying stable, and no signs of any kind of systemic infections going on, so thats promising.

So we're still playing the "wait and see" game and crossing our fingers that she continues to feel as good as she does while all this is going on.


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## Snowhunter (May 5, 2012)

Another update!

Sweet Pea is doing wonderfully..bright eyed, slicked out and mischevious  The only "treatment" she is getting now is 2 droppers of Oil of Oregano 2x day. Its a 2 person operation to get it in her, I gotta pinch her nose while DH squirts the stuff in her mouth, but she's better with it now then she was when we started.

When I was massaging some goop out of the rear quarter yesterday AM, I noticed there was stuff coming out of the front quarter...  The teat works! No blockages! YES! But, I can't touch it, or she "swats" at me with her foot. Not a meanness...just due to pain. So I got about 2C of goop out yesterday morning. Got a few bits of goop from the rear as well, the wound is still open and draining but healing very well.

(vids)







Last night, she came in w/a chunk of her front teat missing :/ not much, just a small section on the tip. Go figure, cuz I'd mentioned to DH that morning that it was starting to heal up nicely!










So I got it all cleaned up, did some compress and massaging but didn't get much from the front. She was a bit sore from the morning, so I didn't push things. She did get plenty of lovins after her oregano dose. DH snapped this pic





So we're still fightin this stuff.. but seems to have hit a smooth spot and just gotta keep goin and see how it all goes...


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## Snowhunter (May 14, 2012)

Here;s some updated pics. We're basically just in a holding pattern, waiting to see how this all goes. I also plan to get her sleeved to see how her insides are, and if she is breedable. Other then all that, she's happy, healthy and feisty as ever


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## Cricket (May 15, 2012)

That's looking good!  (I've seen Oil of Oregano at the feed store--I thought you put it in the tit, not orally.  Good to know!).  This has been really interesting.  I remember a cow we had a long time ago having a similar thing right in the milk vein along her side belly.  We pulled those hard clumps out for weeks.  She ended up recovering fully if I remember right.


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## brentr (Mar 11, 2013)

Just refreshing this thread to see if OP has any new updates on the story.  Really curious to know if cow was bred and if a calf is on the way.  Interesting story and lots of work that went into saving this cow.


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