MASTITIS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21210, 3 December 1938, Page 17

MASTITIS

PREVENTIVE METHODS A TASK FOR RESEARCH WORKERS Preventive methods in Britain in connection with mastitis have achieved little more progress than has been made in New Zealand as far as actual prevention of the disease is concerned. The position is similar in America whose research workers also seem to be up against a brick wall as far as a definite cure is concerned.

The treatment of mastitis is somewhat comparable to the treatment of pneumonia in the human family, states an American jurnal. The latter ,it says has not changed greatly during the past 25 years and the results are about the same.

The journal goes on to give the Amerian treatment of cute mastitis, as follows: (1) Provide clean comfortable surroundings free from dampness. (2) Remove the grain ration and limit green, succulent food. (3) Administer a saline purgative (epsom salts). (4> Remove the Infected milk out of the diseased udder not night and morning but 6 or 8 times a day. (If you do this many otherwise spoiled quarters will remain sound and useful for many more lactations). (5) Do not strip the infected milk on the floor. (6) Apply moist hot fomentations of a saturated solution of epsom salt. Dry the udder and apply a stimulating ointment or linament, massaging it in gently.

During inclement weather an application of antiphlogistine may take the place of hot fomentations. This is best kept in place by means of a suspensory bandage. In very acute cases where there is much swelling, inflammatory heat and pain hot fomentations are advantageously substituted with ice packs. The ice may be held in position by a suspensory bandage or a canvas bag. Such treatment may bring almost immediate relief. After two days of ice packs the treatment may be switched to hot fomentations. Gentle massage of the affected quarter with a stimulating ointment or liniment assists in the resorption of the swelling. Especially hard areas can be painted with a mixture of one part of iodine and four parts of glycerine. More recently a new drug sold in America under the trade name of Sulfanilamide has been highly recommended for streptococcus in the human. Its application to animals such as the cow is still in the experimental state and to what extent it will prove useful in the control of mastitis remains to be seen.