[Hillview Farm]

Put the ewes on a paddock to graze tight for weaning, weaned lambs and left the ewes for a period on the tight field. Moved to a slightly better paddock, nothing lush quite stemy.

Notice a ewe who had twins had a wonky enlarged udder. Mastitis!

Stripped a few clots out then it's just like water??!?  Big shot of la antibiotics, metacam ( pain and for the swelling) and I have a spare drying off tube too from the cows.

Couldn't get hold of a vet!! I will be having words!

Anyone share any advice? Will call vet today! I take it she is likely to loose that side? Or it drop off?

[Me]

Where do all these vets work where you can't get hold of them? I want a job there! Once when trying to relax on holiday with my wife I got called twice to see a dead horse! One - its a horse.... Two - its dead.... Three - I'm on F@.)*&^ holiday!!!! Out of hours couldn't see why I couldn't just nip out and see it as it was only half an hour away...

Yes she will likely lose that side, my choice of antibiotic would be Micotil if you worry about gangrenous mastitis. It won't save the side but it does seem to result in a live ewe more often than not. If the call out fee is a concern take her to the surgery in the truck.

[Hillview Farm]

I have no idea where they hide!

Have rung the vet and waiting for one to get back to me. They are pretty good at giving advice and drugs.

Will update you with what they say! If she is blind in one side I take it the other side will work?

[SallyintNorth]

Sometimes they will recover completely, although my experience is that, even if the quarter works, the milk on that side is never as good/plentiful as before and the ewe will need support to rear twins.

If the other quarter is ok then there's no reason why that side wouldn't work fine if you decide to keep her.  Of course she would need help / one removing if she had twins.

If the affected quarter sloughs off, so long as the infection hasn't reached the other side, then I assume the other side would still work, but I haven't any experience of this situation.

[Marches Farmer]

This summer we had our first two cases of mastitits for many years and put it down to the muddy ground the ewes were grazing (and lying on) coming up to lambing.  One has just lost the affected half.  Thought we might lose her but we put her in the shed, gave a/bs and a painkiller and kept topping up the hay with stuff from the hedgerows and a handful of sheepnuts to keep her interested in food.  Once the udder started to slough off the smell attracted the flies (it was that humid spell we had a couple of weeks ago) so we sprayed the udder with a/b spray every morning and dotted around the area with citronella oil every other day, to mask the smell.  She's doing fine now but she'll be culled, as wil the other one.

[Bionic]

Vets told me last week that they had seen a lot of mastitis this year

[Hillview Farm]

Sorry but what does Slough off mean?

It's encouraging to hear that she may be ok but if I expect the worse it cam only be better if I'm lucky!

[Hellybee]

Drop off.   We had one, she's lost one side, but the other side is fine. Marked to go, such a shame she's a real sweet mum.

[Melmarsh]

Hi! Sorry to hear about your problems, slough off does lead to the side dropping off but the skin and tissue die first, due to infection. The dead area will turn black eventually ,which leading up to that time does smell and will attract flies, as does all decaying tissue. Sorry for the detail but I didn't want you to be unprepared by thinking that it would be healthy tissue that drops off.

[farmvet]

If she's not yet sick and the quarter is warm ,not very hot or stone cold, you may have a chance of saving it still. Keep stripping out, ideally every few hours for the first day, but otherwise 2x daily. I've been using synulox intramamary tubes plus injection this year with good results. A lot depends on how early you start treating & the particular bug involved.

[Hillview Farm]

Thank you for your honestly melmarsh.

She wasn't boiling hot but could feel heat and it's a solid ish lump.

Very odd, my vet said to not strip out as I'd just take all the tube out. How long does a tube take to be absorbed?

Just so everyone knows, if her udder was to drop off I would not keep her!

[SallyintNorth]

I think the idea is that you strip and then insert the tube of a/b. 

[Me]

Shhh Sally I have shares in mastitis tubes!

[Hillview Farm]

I stripped before hand but I think the reason she said not to strip again is because I used a drying off tube and they are longer acting?? 

Me how much do you charge 

[Tim W]

My advice is free ---and will get the same end result 

Treat with LA AB----dry up and cull asap