Re: strange consistency of milk

[Guest guest]

Sounds like mastitis to me. Treat her quickly as per your vets instructions.

Debbie ChikouskyManitoba, Canadagdchik@..."The person who wants something will find a way. The person who doesn’t will find an excuse."

strange consistency of milk

One of my cows had a weird consistency in her milk a couple days ago. The consistency was like stringy globules. I could feel the globules while milking her, and they seemed to milk out ok. The day before this happened, she stopped milking because of noise and disturbance. The consistency remained for a couple days and then cleared up. That quadrant usually milks out before the other, however it is hardly producing since this started. Some things that may be of interest:

Bought her in July, bred her in Aug, she had been milked for 2 years when I bought her, she’s a 2-titter, grass-fed up until Dec 1st and then hay. Thanks for any help!

[Guest guest]

Sometimes when cows are spooked or primed and not

milked on time, or if she is trying to hold milk for

the calf.they will hold milk and this could cause some

clumps in the milk, but a simple CMT test will let you

know if its mastitis the kit is about $20.00 and lasts

for a long time. it is a cheap and easy way to find

abnormal milk.

--- Austin wrote:

> One of my cows had a weird consistency in her milk a

> couple days ago. The

> consistency was like stringy globules. I could feel

> the globules while

> milking her, and they seemed to milk out ok. The

> day before this happened,

> she stopped milking because of noise and

> disturbance. The consistency

> remained for a couple days and then cleared up.

> That quadrant usually milks

> out before the other, however it is hardly producing

> since this started.

> Some things that may be of interest:

>

> Bought her in July, bred her in Aug, she had been

> milked for 2 years when I

> bought her, she's a 2-titter, grass-fed up until Dec

> 1st and then hay.

> Thanks for any help!

>

>

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[Guest guest]

I suggest you use distilled water to reconstitute the CMT solution.

Treated utility water or well water can sometimes have mineral

content that will decrease the accuracy of the test. Also, I would

store the solution out of direct sunlight. If the solution is older

than a year? toss it and get a new batch. A few years back some of

our goat club members had problems with CMT that wasn't accurate

because the solution was over a year old.

Sounds like your cow is experiences some subclinical mastitis that's

cranking up to become a clinical case. What type of mastitis caused

her to end up two teated? As some are more prone to be a lifelong

chronic problem (like staph aureus.)

I would strongly suggest doing a sterile milk sample on her and

having it grown out to see what's brewing. And, if you can find out

what mastitis she had in the past. Then, discuss with vet your best

path to treat? Sometimes it's best to continue on milking and treat

until you know things are cleared up, then dry treat and dry her

off. Especially with her having been milked +2 years, her SCC is

bound to be high.

Donna

Safehaven Nubians

Dandridge, TN

>

> > One of my cows had a weird consistency in her milk a

> > couple days ago. The

> > consistency was like stringy globules. I could feel

> > the globules while

> > milking her, and they seemed to milk out ok. The

> > day before this happened,

> > she stopped milking because of noise and

> > disturbance. The consistency

> > remained for a couple days and then cleared up.

> > That quadrant usually milks

> > out before the other, however it is hardly producing

> > since this started.

> > Some things that may be of interest:

> >

> > Bought her in July, bred her in Aug, she had been

> > milked for 2 years when I

> > bought her, she's a 2-titter, grass-fed up until Dec

> > 1st and then hay.

> > Thanks for any help!

> >

> >

>

>

>

>

______________________________________________________________________

______________

> Be a better friend, newshound, and

> know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now.

http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ

>

[Guest guest]

Thanks. What is a CMT?

From: RawDairy [mailto:RawDairy ] On Behalf Of Albert Pereira

Sent: Saturday, January 05, 2008

5:38 PM

To: RawDairy

Subject: Re: strange

consistency of milk

Sometimes when cows are spooked or primed and not

milked on time, or if she is trying to hold milk for

the calf.they will hold milk and this could cause some

clumps in the milk, but a simple CMT test will let you

know if its mastitis the kit is about $20.00 and lasts

for a long time. it is a cheap and easy way to find

abnormal milk.

[Guest guest]

I was told she had mastitis that lost the

one teat and a calf stepped on the other. Do any of you use

Lampleys products? We use the vitamix for any sickness, so this is what I

started her on.

I know nothing about mastitis except that

it smells and is watery. She doesn’t have either, but I need to

read up on it. I was wondering if cows dry up on their own. Since

she has been milked for over 2 years now, I thought it might be a sign of her

drying up. Which will work out fine because I have 1 fresh and 1 overdue

to replace her until we wean her calf.

From: RawDairy [mailto:RawDairy ] On Behalf Of Donna R. Myers-Raybon

Sent: Saturday, January 05, 2008

6:19 PM

To: RawDairy

Subject: Re: strange

consistency of milk

I suggest you use distilled water to reconstitute the

CMT solution.

Treated utility water or well water can sometimes have mineral

content that will decrease the accuracy of the test. Also, I would

store the solution out of direct sunlight. If the solution is older

than a year? toss it and get a new batch. A few years back some of

our goat club members had problems with CMT that wasn't accurate

because the solution was over a year old.

Sounds like your cow is experiences some subclinical mastitis that's

cranking up to become a clinical case. What type of mastitis caused

her to end up two teated? As some are more prone to be a lifelong

chronic problem (like staph aureus.)

I would strongly suggest doing a sterile milk sample on her and

having it grown out to see what's brewing. And, if you can find out

what mastitis she had in the past. Then, discuss with vet your best

path to treat? Sometimes it's best to continue on milking and treat

until you know things are cleared up, then dry treat and dry her

off. Especially with her having been milked +2 years, her SCC is

bound to be high.

Donna

Safehaven Nubians

Dandridge, TN

[Guest guest]

California Mastitis Test, named because it was researched and

developed in California.

If you already have the paddle, it's about $12 for the reagent that

needs to be reconsituted with distilled water. If you have to buy

the complete kit, it's still under $20 and comes with the reagent and

the 'paddle' that's devided into four sections so you can very

quickly squirt milk from each quarter, add reagent, swirl and see if

it reacts.

Goat milk will always give you a very, very, very slightly slimey

reaction and still be healthy. But, cow milk, if it's the least bit

slimey will indicate mastitis.

Don't fool with the cardboard cards that are sold as mastitis test.

They are not accurate. Get a CMT.

One of the shortcomings of CMT is that you will get a 'false'

positive the first two weeks or so after freshening due to colostrum.

But, after that, it's a very accurate, cheap test.

It's also a very simple to read test, too. Pretty well idiot proof.

Clean teat, squirt a couple of squirts in the stip cup, and then the

next squirt into a quarter of the paddle. Add same amount of reagent

as you have milk, gently swirl by tilting the paddle, and pretty much

instantly it either stays totally liquid or gets slimey. A

really 'hot' case will flat gel solid!!!

Where it can really help you out is figuring out who has a low grade

chronic case that may be raising your tank count too high. And, even

more so, to figure out exactly which quarter it might be? on a

particular cow. Often you have a cow with one quarter that is high

SCC and other three quarters are OK. You can then just dry off that

one quarter or just milk it out by hand and dump or whatever.

Donna

Safehaven Nubians

Dandridge, TN

>

> Thanks. What is a CMT?

>

>

>

> _____

>

> From: RawDairy [mailto:RawDairy ] On

Behalf

> Of Albert Pereira

> Sent: Saturday, January 05, 2008 5:38 PM

> To: RawDairy

> Subject: Re: strange consistency of milk

>

>

>

> Sometimes when cows are spooked or primed and not

> milked on time, or if she is trying to hold milk for

> the calf.they will hold milk and this could cause some

> clumps in the milk, but a simple CMT test will let you

> know if its mastitis the kit is about $20.00 and lasts

> for a long time. it is a cheap and easy way to find

> abnormal milk.

>

[Guest guest]

>>I would strongly suggest doing a sterile milk sample on her and

having it grown out to see what's brewing. And, if you can find out

what mastitis she had in the past. Then, discuss with vet your best

path to treat? Sometimes it's best to continue on milking and treat

until you know things are cleared up, then dry treat and dry her

off. Especially with her having been milked +2 years, her SCC is

bound to be high.

What is a good source for reading up on

testing? She passed the CMT, but I don’t know anything about a

sterile milk sample or even testing for SCC.

[Guest guest]

I have a question here, if you are sterilizing the milk nothing will grow. So I don't know what you mean about a sterile milk test. I think you may mean taking it straight from the cow into the test collection tube. Long term milking will not necessarily give you a high SCC. I have been milking one of my cows for over 18 months and just did a SCC on her and it was 195,000 which is fine. A high SCC is just an indicator like the CMT that something is going on. If you culture the milk that will tell you what bacteria you are dealing with if any. If you do a sensitivity culture that will tell you what course of treatment will work. This can be done at any testing lab which you should be able to find either via the web or call a dairy in your area or a vet that sends out labs and they will be able to tell you. I love my lab. They are very helpful and very quick to respond. A SCC, Total Plate Count and a Coliform Count is 24.00 and Culture is 9.00. They send me results in about 2 to 4 days via the net and then I can call them to explain anything I don't understand. I treated both of my cows this year for mastitis and have not seen any drop in production.

Chris

>>I would strongly suggest doing a sterile milk sample on her and having it grown out to see what's brewing. And, if you can find out what mastitis she had in the past. Then, discuss with vet your best path to treat? Sometimes it's best to continue on milking and treat until you know things are cleared up, then dry treat and dry her off. Especially with her having been milked +2 years, her SCC is bound to be high.

What is a good source for reading up on testing? She passed the CMT, but I don’t know anything about a sterile milk sample or even testing for SCC.

[Guest guest]

You may be dealing with sub clinical mastitis, i would try adding some raw apple cider vinegar to their feed, a small amount at first, then if they like it raise it to a half a cup twice daily. this has worked nicely for a couple of my cows that had mastitis.

[Guest guest]

I believe it was not mastitis but caused by not totally

milking out one day (she stopped short of usual after the kids started yelling

outside the barn and then the garbage truck pulled up). Her mastitis test

was negative and the consistency cleared up in a couple days.