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Mastatest – Mastitis Testing

 

Mastatest Milk Testing

Dealing with mastitis? Did you know Town & Country Vet can do an in-house milk test from your cow, sheep or goat to find out what bacteria is present in the milk. Not only that, we can also tell which antibiotic will be best to treat with, targeting the pathogen quickly and efficiently.

All you need to do is drop a clean fresh milk sample from the infected quarter/s, and 24 hours later we will have the results.

How to take a sample:

  1. Prior to milking, clean the teats you’re wanting to collect a sample from. Scrub each teat end with an alcohol teat wipe or cotton wool ball soaked in 70% meths. Use new wipe / cotton ball until clean.
  2. Strip the quarter, discard the first 2-3 squirts, then hold sample pottle at a 45 degree angle to avoid dropping dirt into the pottle, and fill. We have sample pottles you can buy, otherwise we need at least 50ml of milk to run a test.
  3. Make sure you disinfect hands/equipment before touching any other quarters to reduce the spread of infection.
  4. If you’re collecting from more than one quarter, take separate samples.
  5. Label pottles with your name, animals name or number, and the quarter the sample was taken from.
  6. Keep sample refrigerated till you can bring to clinic (best done straight after sample collecting or some time that day)

Things we need to know:

  1. Date & time the sample was taken
  2. When she calved
  3. Is she hand milked daily, or a nurse cow/calf at foot
  4. If the animal is sick, and when symptoms started
  5. If she has been treated with anything (we can’t run the test if she has recently been treated, as this reacts with the culture and gives inaccurate results)

Things you need to know:

  1. We don’t run tests on the weekend
  2. $28.80 inc. gst for a clinical test (abnormal milk appearance, sick cow etc)
  3. $48.20 inc. gst for a sub-clinical test (normal milk appearance, but gluggy on the RMT, not culturing cheese correctly or going off quickly)
  4. For more information in keeping house cows and udder health on your cow, sheep or goat, give us a call.