Treating and managing mastitis in heifers is real pain - especially when you face a large number of cases. To avoid being overwhelmed with mastitis at calving, it pays to put energy into preventing cases, by preparing in the weeks leading up to calving.

Actions that reduce the number of bacteria near the teat end and improve teat health will minimise the risk of new mastitis infections occurring. Here are some hints:

Provide a super-clean calving area: give your heifers the best of your calving areas

In seasonal herds, it is often a complex juggle of resources when allocating the areas for calving.  Batches of animals may have different paddocks or periods on a pad depending on the weather (rain) and number of cows calving in any few days.  Give the heifers the best areas available. They spend longer calving and are more frequently on the ground than mature cows, so their udders are more likely to be soiled with faeces and have bacteria contacting the teat skin.

The Countdown guidelines say “clean and dry” with less than 2 pats of cow dung per square metre.  If there is more cow manure than this, the area is too dirty to calve heifers.

You can calve heifers on grass without worrying about milk fever, so give them that luxury. If this is a separate area from the cows, they won’t be bullied as much when they choose their calving spots.

Disinfect and soft teat skin by teat spraying

If you are lead feeding or training heifers through the shed before calving, consider also spraying teats with teat disinfectant and emollient. Use your regular teat disinfectant made up with 10% glycerine in the final mix. Teat spraying the heifers before calving reduces the population of bacteria on the teat skin and helps soften it in the days leading up to first milking.

Act on swollen udders or dripping milk

Fluid swelling in the udder (oedema or ‘flag’) reduces teat tissue health. Dripping milk indicates that teat ends no longer have the seal which protects against bacteria entering.

Get all heifers with udder oedema or milk leakage into the shed and milked out completely as soon as possible. Some may require prostaglandin induction in the last few days of pregnancy. Some may also need treatment for oedema for a few days after calving. Talk to your veterinarian about the treatment options.

Image and caption:
A well presented heifer – ready for a promising milking career  

Countdown Farm Guideline or Technote
Farm Guideline 1.1, 1.2, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4

Keywords
freshly calved heifers, calving area, teat end health, udder oedema

Word length
401