Generally characterized by redness, heat, pain, hardness or swelling; there can be fever, loss of appetite, lower milk production. There are four types of acute mastitis

Inflammatory : Accompanied by restlessness. At this stage there is no infection, therefore few or no lumps. Treatment should begin at this stage to avoid complications. Traumatic origin : following a change in habits, transportation, parasitic electricity, a fall, blow or nervous shock. - at calving - after a difficult calving, or if shes is a big producer.

Infectious : Pus begins to be generated, there are lumps and the animal is depressed.

E-coli : Milk becomes yellow, then watery, it can even contain blood. ( Act fast )

Summer mastitis : Carried by flies, it is caught near the forests, during a wet season. It mostly affects animals that are not lactating. It always starts in a very abrupt manner, affecting many quarters. Like in the case of the E.coli type, milk is yellow and watery. Chronic abcesses are formed in the udders. The discharge from abcesses is infected, thick as cheese and smells very bad. Scarring is very slow.

Sub-acute mastitisLittle or no acute stage : persistence of lumps and sometimes swelling, lower production, few symptoms.

Infectious : It is the continuation and the convalescence of an acute mastitis; treatment recommended at this stage has two aspects: one curative, to rid the teat from infection, and another preventive, to avoid a relapse or a chronic lesion to the teat.

Clinical : It never went through an acute phase, the animal's general condition did not seem affected, there are only lumps without swelling; this type of mastitis is quite frequent among cows that have already been treated with antibiotics, which suppress the acute phase. Left untreated, despite the mildness of symptoms, this kind of mastitis can lead to repeated bouts of mastitis, especially sub-clinical mastitis with staphylococci and high leucocyte count.

Little or no general or local symptoms, but a high leucocyte count due to staphylococci.

After effects of repeated bouts of mastitis at the level of the teat: humps, lesions, hardenings, damaged teats, lost quarter, nodulary thelitis, drop in milk production.