Why does mastitis keep coming back?

Often, we hear clients asking for the “strongest drug you have to treat mastitis.” The background to this question is usually a cow that has not been cured when treated repeatedly for mastitis.

There are several reasons why a cow with mastitis will not cure.

These include:

Cow factors such as increasing age, the position and number of quarters affected, teat condition and concurrent illness
Bug factors such as gram status, presence of bacterial pathogenicity factors and inherent susceptibility to antibiotics
Drug factors such as how well the drug penetrates the udder and the concentrations reached at the sites of infection.

Milk samples can help identify which of the factors above are contributing to mastitis treatment failures.

Identifying the bacteria involved, their susceptibility to commonly available treatments and cow factors, means you do not waste time and money on treatments that are not going to work, and enables you to effectively reduce new infection rates and reduce the costs of mastitis to your farm.

Talk to your local Franklin Vets clinic about how we can help you get the information you need to stop mastitis from coming back.