Why Is My Cow Sick?
Over the past 2 months on our farm we’ve been in a winter hole. Cold, dark and nothing growing. The cows and chickens look at me with a bit of disdain, as if I could make the sunshine and their home green and lush again. I inform them that Mother Earth is a bit more in charge than their farm mother, but I think it’s getting lost in translation
After our milk-cow Dolly came down with what appeared to be mastitis this past month (swollen warm udder, decreased production and presence of small specs in her milk,) I spent many late nights researching why and how to prevent future episodes. I’ve learned that, much like we humans, the variables are many as to why illness can strike. Like us, it appears to be a soup of environmental, physical, and, to a degree, emotional factors that can lead to mastitis, and each case of mastitis can manifest differently. And, despite what conventional medicine offers, there are ways to treat illness with natural remedies. While I know not everyone will find this interesting, family farmers, like me, may find our story helpful as I would have loved some assistance along our journey.
Our vet, who is a good guy, follows his standard veterinary training fairly closely, which follows the western medical approach of treating disease more than preventative care. When we called him out, seeking advice, he offered few reasons as to why she “had mastitis”, didn’t offer to officially test her, but was ready with an arsenal of antibiotic treatments and prophecies of her losing her ability to produce milk altogether if I didn’t act quickly and swiftly. Basically, she’d be hamburger. We were taken back…it just didn’t make sense… we take such good care of her! Organic alfalfa and grass, clean and dry shelter, open field to graze. What more could we do? Our vet assured us it was common, it wasn’t due to her diet and there was no sense trying to figure out why, but rather we should get busy treating her. He'd seen many cases where it was a lost cause but the quicker it was treated, the more likely she'd at least retain some of her milk production capacity.
Fearful, I followed his lead and he injected one of Dolly’s quarters with an antibiotic . He informed me that it could be very difficult to rid her of mastitis once the infection had taken up residency in her udder, and if she had it at some other time without us knowing, she could have extensive scar tissue that would prove problematic. So now that we had loaded her up with antibiotics, rendering her milk contaminated for at least 7 days, it all might be for naught. Just great. I felt a bit like I had failed as an organic farmer, as a caretaker for Dolly and as a provider for my family’s wholesome dairy food supply. I tried to remain hopeful that she would heal as I knew my wounded ego would.
Five days after the antibiotic treatment, her first quarter still had those “specs”, the milk wasn’t really flowing, and now one of her other quarters began to react the same way. Now, if the antibiotic was suppose to have a 7-day residual, and it would also spread to her other quarters, why was this happening? I called our vet back and he said we should inject each of her other 3 teats with antibiotic and follow it with an intramuscular antibiotic. This seemed drastic as we still hadn’t established what was causing the problem. If the first treatment wasn’t doing any good, and she was in essence getting worse, what good would this do? Without treating the cause, wouldn’t we just continually be chasing infection with drugs?
Something in my gut told me to look for more answers.
Thank God for the internet! After searching the dark corners of Google, I was armed with 20 different things to try, and even though it seemed like I would be throwing spaghetti on the ceiling, I went about collecting the necessities and implementing my own remedies. She is improving slowly each day. The hardened mass in one of her quarters has decreasd dramatically, the inflammation and heat are gone and her milk is increasing a little. She still has specs in her milk from one udder and I can tell she still has a ways to go, but at least we are seeing an improvement. She may never regain her full milk potential, but hopefully she'll stay out of our freezer for many years. Here is what I’ve discovered will help with mastitis and the overall health of your cow and what we’ve implemented so far:
MASSAGE: We had noticed, sort of by accident, that the backside of Dolly’s milk sac felt as if there was a hard mass. The vet explained this was due to scar-tissue and it would never go away and only get worse. After much reading, I became convinced that massage would help by increasing the blood flow to the atrophied area and encourage healing by helping the lymph system eliminate stored yuck. I began hot compresses at milking time, along with massaging castor & tree tree oil on her udders and the outside of her milk bag. Castor oil has long been touted as a cure for many ills (many claim it acts as a cleanser for the lymphatic system) as tea tree oil is reported to have anti-bacterial properties. Seemed like a good massage concoction! When I massaged her milk sac, I could feel small pea-size lumps. When I pressed on them, her milk would flow better and many times a “chunk” of what looked like butter would be expelled. I began thinking maybe her problem was due to a plugged or aggravated milk duct. I read that many times high-butter-fat producing cows can get “clogs” and that can cause trouble, or it can also cause no trouble at all. If a calf is on the teat, most likely their powerful suckers pull those right out, but hand-milking isn’t as effective at draining the udders dry.
TEAT DIP: My vet did recommend I dip each teat in an iodine solution to kill any bacteria on the outside of her teat. It seemed reasonable and for good measure, I decided to do it after each milking.
HYDROGEN PEROXIDE: I came across several sites discussing how farmers who incorporate a solution of hydrogen peroxide into their watering troughs were able to cure almost all cases of bacterial mastitis in their herds. Since I keep a bottle of 35% food-grade H202 on our farm, I immediately treated the cow’s tank (1 ounce of 35% strength to 100 gallons.)
REDUCE HIGH PROTEIN FEED: Because we already knew the local grange’s hay is not organic and most likely treated and possibly GMO, we buy high-quality organic alfalfa from the Klamath basin that is known for fertile soils. This is the mainstay of her diet. What we didn’t consider is that in winter, her diet is almost exclusively dry alfalfa, which is very high in protein. And, we had been offering about 4 cups of organic grain at feeding as a treat. We learned that too high of a protein diet is not healthy for herbivores. So the alfalfa and grain were possible culprits. We cut out her alfalfa and all grain and switched to pure grass hay for two weeks and slowly introduced back in alfalfa to give her gut a break.
INCREASE IMMUNE RESPONSE: This last summer I harvested our Echinacea plants and made a tincture from the roots, leaves and flowers. Echinacea is a well-documented natural immunity booster used by many naturopathic physicians and luckily I had made lots! I began adding 17cc’s to her diet twice a day. As an added boost, I added 1 cup of aloe vera juice to her feedings. Aloa Vera offers many antioxidants that prove to be an anti-fungal, anti-viral, anti-bacterial and anti-inflammitory.
VITAMINS & MINERALS: In winter, farm animals are at the mercy of the farmer to provide nutritional feed. A common farming practice is to give hay and grain when the fields are dormant, yet it does not consider what those dried feed products are lacking and that the animals are missing in the absence of normal forage in green grass, weeds and forest vegetation. I began loading Dolly up with a mineral & vitamin supplement as well as adding 2 ounces of kelp meal to her feedings, and 2 TBSP of powdered rose hips for natural vitamin C.
REDUCE ACID: Disease proliferates in an acidic environment and since her health had declined, her body was most likely in a state of acidosis. I knew from my own health regimes that Apple Cider Vinegar is a health tonic that can help to alter an acidic body so I’ve begun adding a couple ounces of raw apple cider vinegar to her daily feedings.
HERBS: I discovered that the poke plant (phytolacca) has been used in several primitive cultures and in naturopathic medicine to treat a variety of lymphatic and metabolic disorders, including tumors, cancer and mastitis. It is a very potent and potentially toxic herb due to the alkaloids it contains and while I was leary, I read old farmers’ stories about their terribly ill milk cows consuming and being healed by the poke plant. For 4 days I gave dolly ½ tsp x twice a day of powdered poke root mixed in with her food. I decided to air on the side of caution for this first go round to see what results we had.
FRUITS & VEGGIES: Because it is winter and she is lacking her normal green pastures, common sense told me she needed some living food in her gut. I began offering her fermented carrots (for a slew of probiotics,) apples, parsley, and bits of winter greens (cabbage, spinach, cauliflower leaves) our garden was producing.
With the above ingredients, I threw in some organic rolled oats for texture, a tiny sprinkling of stevia & molasses for sweetness and trace minerals and she gobbled it all up. The only time she baulked was when I tried to add in cayenne pepper. That was a no-go.
CMT: As I mentioned, my vet had not tested Dolly’s milk to determine what type or to what extent she had mastitis. The signs I offered were, according to him “absolutely mastitis.” I went online and located a DIY mastitis test kit that is used all over the world and it was loved because it was quick, easy, accurate...and affordable. When the test kit arrived, I was nervous. Oh no, what if she really has a terrible case… what will I do? Well, the good news is, she doesn’t have a bad case of mastitis, rather she’s looking good! Yet she still has those “clumps” now and then. Hmmmm… so we're still uncertain as to what's happened. It's possible the antibiotic did clear up the mastitis yet she was left with damage/scar tissue.
The above regiment may seem to be a bit over-the-top yet if I think only of what we’ve invested into Dolly, it is financially prudent. The time I’ve invested to ensure she heals and remains healthy hopefully keeps our family milk cow producing milk for years to come, ensures a healthy source of dairy and provides healthy milk to 6 families in my community. Oh, and our 1,000 pound pet will be happier, too. I guess we could have moved her to the top of the cull list as so many websites, and veterinarians said was protocol. I sure hope I’m not moved to the top of that list when I require a little time and TLC. I do not doubt that there are times when antibiotics are not only reasonable but life-saving. What I have learned through this is trust your instincts, be watchful, question authority, and that animal health care, much like our own, can benefit from a blending of treatment approaches. And be humble... there's always something to learn.
I find it interesting that your "non traditional" treatments are pretty much the same as traditional MD recommendations for human mastitis. I had several bouts of "possibly blocked ducts, possibly early mastitis" during M's first six months, with similar symptoms ... hard mass, hot to touch, pain, blood present in the milk. I was told to apply heat packs frequently, massage the breast often and express or feed despite the pain. Antibiotics were a last option for severe/extreme cases.
ReplyDeleteI wonder why a vet doesn't start with more conservative options. Maybe because it's an animal and can't communicate fully about symptoms or take responsibility for treatment measures? Maybe because most dairy cows are an investment and it's more financially prudent to start with worst case scenario response?
Anyway, I feel more like a dairy cow. And, I'm wondering if my milk has a high fat content (leading to duct blockage). Looking at M's thighs, I'm thinking maybe I do.