How to Tell If – And Where – Your Cow Has Mastitis

The first day we milked Miss Dixie, after her milk had chilled and the cream had risen, I made a point to sample her milk and see how it measured up.  The kids said it was great, better than Maybelle’s, more like store bought.  (?!?!?!)  I said it tasted a little salty.  They all looked at me like I was crazy, but my instinct was to keep it out of circulation until we knew what was what.

Each day, morning and night, when I’m all done milking the cows, I bring it back inside and pour it through a filter and into the jars.  I filter milk for two reasons.  Hand milking, I’d often have bits of hay, a hair or two, and, occasionally, a fly, but with the machine, it comes through clean 95% of the time.  I still filter it, though, for the odd 5%.  I also filter it in order to check the milk for early signs of mastitis.  Dixie’s milk has had small clumps in it and it’s been getting worse.  And this morning, her front right quarter still had hard spots in it when we were done.

Our veterinarian was coming over this afternoon anyway, so I asked him to have a look at her.  “I’m going to tell you an old redneck trick,” he said, squatting down beside the cow.  He took a little squirt of milk in his hand from each teat and took a little taste.  “You just stick the tip of your tongue in,” he said, “just enough to get a taste of salty or sweet.  The quarter with the mastitis will taste salty.  You try,” he said, stepping aside.  “I know which one it is.  See if you can tell.”

So I did.  I bent down and took a little squirt from each teat and I tasted each one.  Sweet, sweet, sweet…salty!  And it wasn’t the front right quarter at all, but the rear left!  It’s subclinical, meaning she has no other symptoms besides the clumps and flavor, so we decided not to give her antibiotics and just milk her out frequently, discarding the milk from that one quarter, until she’s better.  Fortunately, I’d been milking her last and keeping her milk entirely separate from Maybelle’s.  I didn’t want to contaminate Maybelle, who we know to be healthy, with any infections that Dixie may have carried with her to our farm.

Now, I’m feeling quite empowered.  And vindicated.  That milk WAS salty.