Mastitis

Question 1

What are the normal clinical parameters of a dairy cow

Answer 1

HR
RR
Temp

Question 2

What is severe or peracute mastitis?

Answer 2

Very ill cow that may have a gangrenous udder with watery or blood stained milk

Question 3

What is clinical or acute mastitis?

Answer 3

Cow looks healthy but udder is swollen, hot and painful. Milk may have clots

Question 4

What does subclinical mastitis look like?

Answer 4

Healthy cow with no change in udder conformation. Cow has cell count greater than 250K

Question 5

How does loss of function occur in a quarter that has previously had mastitis?

Answer 5

The milk glands atrophy and can become fibrosed so are no longer able to produce milk

Question 6

What are the two kinds of bacteria that cause mastitis and give an example of each?

Answer 6

Cow associated bacteria spread in the milking shed and an example is Staph aureus.
Environmental bacteria that come from the paddock and include E. coli

Question 7

What are the major pathogens in mastitis?

Answer 7

Staph, strep and coliforms +/- mycoplasmas

Question 8

What are the minor pathogens in mastitis?

Answer 8

Coag neg staph and corynebacterium