Prognosis for cows with severe clinical coliform mastitis

A retrospective study was performed at the New York State college of veterinary medicine, ambulatory clinic to determine the prognosis for cows with peracute or acute coliform mastitis. Eighty-eight cows were identified by their clinical signs and positive culture of coliform organisms. In 59.1 per cent of the affected cows the quarters returned to a milk-like secretion approximately one month following treatment. The 59.1 per cent was composed of 37.5 per cent (of the initial 88 cows), which milked in the affected gland the following lactation, 11.4 per cent which were culled, and 10.2 per cent which had not yet calved and begun their next lactation. The remainder of the affected cows failed to return to milk in the affected quarter that lactation. This percentage consisted of 17.0 per cent which were culled for hypogalactia, 6.8 per cent which died during the attack, 4.6 per cent in which the affected quarters were rendered inactive with an irritant, 1.1 per cent in which the outcome was undetermined since they had not begun their next lactation and 11.4 per cent which remained in the herd. Of the 11.4 per cent, half produced milk in the affected quarter the following lactation, and half failed to return to milk.