Post by kellyj on Oct 18, 2008 9:31:49 GMT -5
First a small scratch now mastitis...
The scratch was healed as of Thursday but this morning there were clots when I strained and that teat's milk was very salty. There is no heat or hardness to that quarter.
The last few weeks things have been a little different with Shasta; for one her milk has been almost half cream and there is less than usual. Also she doesn't seem to be letting down for the machine so well. I have to do a lot of handmilking to strip her out, some nights I have been only handmilking as she has dropped from 6 quarts to 4. And the last quart I have to strip by hand. So it seems pointless to setup and clean the machine for so little (especially as I still give the calf 2qts at night). It also seems that her production is higher when I only handmilk.
Would going back and forth from machine to hand induce mastitis? Or did having the scratch in some way create a problem? The scratch was exactly at the rim of the inflator cup or would hit the top of my knuckle when I hand milked. So perhaps she wasn't letting down properly.
I think she was successfully bred about a month ago. The only other change in her lifestyle has been that I usually feed her beet pulp along with her grain and I have replaced half her beet ration with chopped up turnips that weren't good enough for winter storage. I doubt that a turnip a day would mean anything like mastitis for her but...
I am treating her according to all recommendations and after applying heat, herbal massage this morning she dropped an extra two cups of milk from the infected teat.
Perhaps I should go to just hand milking her. As my ten year old has observed "there is nothing Shasta likes better than having her teats touched" .
She leans on me, rests her chin on the corner of her stanchion and shuts her eyes. I daresay she got mastitis just I would have give her more attention!
KellyJ
The scratch was healed as of Thursday but this morning there were clots when I strained and that teat's milk was very salty. There is no heat or hardness to that quarter.
The last few weeks things have been a little different with Shasta; for one her milk has been almost half cream and there is less than usual. Also she doesn't seem to be letting down for the machine so well. I have to do a lot of handmilking to strip her out, some nights I have been only handmilking as she has dropped from 6 quarts to 4. And the last quart I have to strip by hand. So it seems pointless to setup and clean the machine for so little (especially as I still give the calf 2qts at night). It also seems that her production is higher when I only handmilk.
Would going back and forth from machine to hand induce mastitis? Or did having the scratch in some way create a problem? The scratch was exactly at the rim of the inflator cup or would hit the top of my knuckle when I hand milked. So perhaps she wasn't letting down properly.
I think she was successfully bred about a month ago. The only other change in her lifestyle has been that I usually feed her beet pulp along with her grain and I have replaced half her beet ration with chopped up turnips that weren't good enough for winter storage. I doubt that a turnip a day would mean anything like mastitis for her but...
I am treating her according to all recommendations and after applying heat, herbal massage this morning she dropped an extra two cups of milk from the infected teat.
Perhaps I should go to just hand milking her. As my ten year old has observed "there is nothing Shasta likes better than having her teats touched" .
She leans on me, rests her chin on the corner of her stanchion and shuts her eyes. I daresay she got mastitis just I would have give her more attention!
KellyJ