Blood in udder? Staph - need ideas vet is clueless

[jennywho]

I will start this by saying the mare is under the care of a vet, however I live in an area where breeders are few and mainly backyard so the vets don’t see a lot of strange stuff. I am often their favorite Guinea pig

Mare is due 3/21 about a month ago I noticed that she was bagging up unevenly. A week later she started dripping a bloody serum from one teat.

Vet looked at the fluid and said there was an abnormally high level of WBCs so we puts her on two weeks of SMZs and tried stripping the fluid twice a day as much as she would tolerate. There was no change and about the same amount of fluid is present each time. It is a red serum that doesn’t appear to be milky at all. It will drip from her teat throughout the day and kind of coagulates at the end of her teat between strippings.

Vet was back out today and took some fluid to send off to the lab, but I’m wondering if any experienced Cothers out there have dealt with the same thing.

Vet says it doesn’t present like a normal case of mastitis which was my original thought.

[everafterfarm]

It sounds like you are already doing all you can with your vet.

I had 1 maiden who had blood come out of her udder, but it sounds very different than yours. She was about 360 days along, gotta love maidens! Anyway, I went out and checked on her and saw blood dripping from her udder mixed with “milk”. I rushed inside, called an my vet, and tried to scare the crap out of myself with Google! Had the vet lined up to check her in the morning as this was late into the evening like 10pm. I watched a movie, went back to check her, and surprise! There was a filly already on her feet. Very healthy filly, but momma retained placenta so vet was out in the middle of the night. By the time we got mom taken care of, filly was running about. So perhaps you will have a similar happy ending! Good luck!

[jennywho]

So the culture came back positive for staph. A sensitivity test showed that it was highly sensitive to Excede. Treated her twice with excede, the last treatment being on Friday (one week tomorow) and NO change. I am still getting the same amount of bloody fluid from the teat. The vet just keeps saying she doesn’t know why the excede didn’t work and doesn’t have any ideas.

In the meantime mare is 348 days and has been dripping milk and waxed for 11 days now. Not sure if the early foaling symptoms are due to he staph or if its an entirely different issue. I wish it was nervous rookie breeder syndrome, but alas it’s not.

I am getting desperate for ideas. Vet sys absolutely don’t let he foal nurse from that teat with infection present. I’m guessing that’s much easier said than done

[skydy]

I cannot tell by your post if your mare has foaled yet.

Out from left field here, however, I would not be "stripping’ a teat that has a bloody discharge and is positive for staph. If it was swollen, hot, and not “dripping” I might be concerned and want to dislodge a blockage, but since she seems to be draining I wouldn’t be aggravating a bloody discharge with manual manipulation…

I’M NOT A VET… just from my experience… Do call a veterinary hospital for a second opinion, since your vet is not famiiar with this.

[Derby_Lyn_Farms]

I understand about being in an area where there are no good repro vets. I am also the guinea pig.

Never had this happen. I would definitely do an IgG test on the foal when it is born. Did you reculture after antibiotics? Best wishes.

[TaliaCristianna]

I realize this is a different species, but the composition of the mare’s udder and the human breast are so similar they often have similar afflictions. This type of thing is not unheard of among pregnant women. The symptoms are reminiscent of a human breast abscess. Breast abscesses are usually caused by staph infections.

http://breast-cancer.ca/miscellaneous-breast-lesions/breast-abscess.htm

[jennywho]

Thank you all for your ideas. I will respond more in a bit, but here is a short rundown.

I finally got some answers from a different vet today.

The staph infection is coagulase negative meaning that it was probably picked up from the outside of the teat when the sample was taken. He thinks that the mare probably had a subclinical case of mastitis at some point that damaged the mammary gland on that side and that she will no longer produce milk on that side. The serum is a result of increased blood flow to the udder and will decrease once she is weaned, but will probably never completely go away. It will probably not be harmful to the foal, but the vet did reccomend that we try to keep it from ingesting any of it until after the gut is closed. He also said that it is highly likely that she will produce enough milk on the working side to support the foal.

[bdzaugis]

blood in udder

have your vet talk to a Dairy vet., sorry seriously.

Treating udder infections if not that easy with sestemic ABs.
they are very common n Dairy cows and can happen iin horses.

some times from trama and you get bloody clots coming out or start out with pink milk indicates and infection source.

they have alot of good intra Udder ABs and some may be effective in horses.
with cows we would strip out the milk then apply abs directlry into the udder. easier said on a cow than a horse. but the Vets would know best.
Heat and swelling often accompaines.it.

Hope things get better.

beth

[Slewdledo]

I’m no help on the nursing or not, but we have a one-titted mare and her babies do just fine with a little supplementing once they start eating grain.

[Whitfield_Farm_Hanov]

Have you thought about calling a top TB breeding/foaling facility & talking with their manager. I bet they’ve seen just about all.

[nashfad]

IDK but maybe you should line up a nurse mare for the foal so it does not get sick if it nurses the mother? I like Whitfield’s idea. Good luck.

[jennywho]

[QUOTE=Whitfield Farm Hanoverians;6912388]
Have you thought about calling a top TB breeding/foaling facility & talking with their manager. I bet they’ve seen just about all.[/QUOTE]
Well hit me over the head and call me stupid. I don’t know WHY I didn’t think of this, but I’m very grateful for the suggestion. I even have contacts back there. Thank you! I’m going to blame it on sleep deprivation