Post by spiritedrose on Oct 6, 2008 19:02:10 GMT -5
My friend purchased a young cow a year and a half ago from some people that are her hay customers. They were unable to pay their hay bill, so they gave my friend Angie the Jersey heifer and for a few hundred they sold her the cow because they were supposedly moving.
We did advise her to buy the cow because she was very functionally correct and is a very nice Jersey. When she arrived at my friend's farm she had lice or something eating away at her hair, so a good bath of powder fixed that problem. She's also been wormed. She was a few months into her second lactation, I believe. The heifer was her second calf and only a few months old. (Now the heifer is bred and very happy and healthy, due to calve early summer!) Along with having a patchy coat, she was extremely malnourished. Maybe not on death's door, but very underweight and unthrifty looking. Angie's husband bales hay for a living and they have the best feed in the area. Soon, the cow Cricket began gaining good weight and doing well. She didn't show any signs of heat, so the vet gave her a shot and my DH bred her and she calved just fine this summer.
Here's the thing:
A couple of months after Angie got Cricket, she really got the runs and we were worried about her having some disease and feeling bad about it. Angie came out to the vet's office where I was working and brought along this nasty bucket and inside it looked like the intestines of her cow. Angie said Cricket had this come out when she was going to the bathroom. The vet thought it looked like the lining of her intestines and wasn't sure what could've cause it or what to do about it.
So, Angie just kept taking care of Cricket and a week or so later she was back to normal, gaining weight and milking a lot.
Last week, Cricket went back to doing the same thing (not shedding, but the runs). She looks sickly, but it seems like it will go away again...? I can't remember exatly what Jay recommended Angie do, but I think we gave her banamine and tried to get her to eat oat hay to firm up her stool.
Both times it's happened mid-lactation summer-fall time.
Any clues what could be going on?
We did advise her to buy the cow because she was very functionally correct and is a very nice Jersey. When she arrived at my friend's farm she had lice or something eating away at her hair, so a good bath of powder fixed that problem. She's also been wormed. She was a few months into her second lactation, I believe. The heifer was her second calf and only a few months old. (Now the heifer is bred and very happy and healthy, due to calve early summer!) Along with having a patchy coat, she was extremely malnourished. Maybe not on death's door, but very underweight and unthrifty looking. Angie's husband bales hay for a living and they have the best feed in the area. Soon, the cow Cricket began gaining good weight and doing well. She didn't show any signs of heat, so the vet gave her a shot and my DH bred her and she calved just fine this summer.
Here's the thing:
A couple of months after Angie got Cricket, she really got the runs and we were worried about her having some disease and feeling bad about it. Angie came out to the vet's office where I was working and brought along this nasty bucket and inside it looked like the intestines of her cow. Angie said Cricket had this come out when she was going to the bathroom. The vet thought it looked like the lining of her intestines and wasn't sure what could've cause it or what to do about it.
So, Angie just kept taking care of Cricket and a week or so later she was back to normal, gaining weight and milking a lot.
Last week, Cricket went back to doing the same thing (not shedding, but the runs). She looks sickly, but it seems like it will go away again...? I can't remember exatly what Jay recommended Angie do, but I think we gave her banamine and tried to get her to eat oat hay to firm up her stool.
Both times it's happened mid-lactation summer-fall time.
Any clues what could be going on?