I Got a call from a farmer on Tuesday about a cow that was calved two days previously. It had suddenly gone off form and he "wasn’t happy with her". On arrival at the farm, I found she had a watery mastitis in one quarter. I examined her and she had a temperature, had gone into shock and had developed an ‘ecoli mastitis’.

This is a type of mastitis often called acute coliform mastitis and is an emergency. It can affect a cow at any stage of the lactation but we commonly see it in the first few weeks before and especially after calving.

The ecoli bug will be picked up in the dry period or when a cow starts milking. It can affect cows that have other underlying complaints, such as milk fever, or some other immunosuppression. It can also affect healthy cows.

Signs

The main clinical signs are severe depression, shock, temperature and the affected quarter will have a watery discharge. Treatment success depends on how early you intervene. It is the endotoxins that the bug releases when they die which cause the severity of the condition. Tubing these cases is waste of time, in my opinion.

Treatment

I will treat these aggressively with I/V fluids, oral fluids, anti-inflamatories and a covering antibiotic. The important thing is this endotoxic shock is reversed quickly and that the affected quarter is stripped out vigorously and regularly. It is important if stripping out the quarter that the discharge is removed and not done in the calving area.

If left, cows will often deteriorate and go down. They can subsequently develop gangrenous mastitis which has a very poor prognosis. In a freshly calved cow, I would classify true coliform mastitis as a medical emergency.

Prevention

It can happen sporadically, but if it occurs in more than 2% of the herd, dry cow management and environmental hygiene should be assessed on farm. Most of these ecoli are found in manure so the hygiene in the environment and at milking is of the utmost importance.

Freshly calved cows should be checked regularly for teat hygiene. Disinfection greatly aids in reducing the risk. Make sure calving boxes are cleaned regularly; avoid the build up of slurry indoors; and make sure the cubicles are cleaned and limed frequently. Ensure that the cluster is put onto clean dry teats and a good post teat dip is applied.

I always have this in the back of my head in any cow that is down or is getting sick quickly. Your own vet is best placed to advise you on treatment protocols for your farm. This is classed as an environmental mastitis and farmers must try maintain hygiene in housed dairy cows too the best standards.