Post by nchase on Oct 14, 2011 11:38:32 GMT -5
I am a brand new cow owner. I got Thistle (6 year old Guernsey) a little less than a month ago. A few days ago, she had a nice little heifer calf, Ivy. So far, so good.
Problem #1:
Ivy was born with tight (not quite knuckled over, but nearly so) hind fetlock joints. Because of that, she couldn't get up right away. I milked Thistle, and bottle fed Ivy to make sure she got plenty of colostrum in the first 24 hours.
Ivy has a good appetite and is happy to be bottle fed, which is fine. But she's now 4 days old and although she CAN walk, she still seems unusually wobbly to me, at least compared to the newborn lambs and foals I've raised before. She spends almost all of her time lying down, and when she walks, she still wobbles like a newborn. Because of the tight tendons, she still walks mostly up on the toes of her hind feet. Maybe that's why she seems so awkward?
I guess I just want some reassurance that this problem isn't something too serious, and the tendons will gradually ease up on their own.
Problem #2:
Because Thistle is a mature cow, and I didn't know too much about her history, I decided to err on the side of caution and give her a calcium drench after she calved, to hopefully stave off any chance of milk fever.
I had read on this forum that the calcium drenches can be kind of caustic, but I imagined that meant, "sting the throat like a shot of strong whiskey" not "burn the throat like a glass of Draino."
From the time I gave that drench, my tame, friendly cow immediately became terrified of me and now runs away rather than letting me near her head. In addition, her throat was so sore afterwards that she stopped eating for almost 2 days. She wasn't sick or lethargic, and she acted like she WANTED to eat, but it hurt too much to swallow. I asked my vet about it, and he said, "Oh yes, that stuff is like battery acid. It really burns!." Great! Now you tell me!
Naturally, with not eating or drinking much for 2 days, her milk production dropped to almost nothing. I still milk her twice a day, but for 2 days I was getting only about 1/4 cup per milking. She's eating again now, and I was encouraged to get 2 pints out of her last night, but this morning it was back down to only a few tablespoons. (The calf is being completely bottle fed---we had to break down and buy milk replacer for her---so I know Ivy isn't stealing all the milk.)
Thistle's production WILL come back, right? As long as I keep trying to milk her regularly?
Problem #3:
This morning when I milked what little I could get out of her, one of the teats gave only very dark blood-colored liquid. There's no sign of injury, no heat, no pain, no hardness anywhere in the udder or teats. Thistle was not bothered at all.
I have read that at freshening, some blood in the milk is normal because the fullness of the udder can cause capillaries to break. But with the whole calcium drench = no milk issue, her udder hasn't been full for 2 days.
So, if I can't find any other symptoms of mastitis, is this bloody milk a problem, or is it just kind of gross? Will it go away on its own?
One good thing out of all of this is that Thistle is an angel to milk. We don't have a stanchion, so I just tie her to the wall, without even any food in front of her, and she stands still for all my inexperienced fumbling, and hardly ever even lifts a foot. I'm so grateful for that, and if I can get over all these other issues, I think she's going to be a terrific family cow for me.
Problem #1:
Ivy was born with tight (not quite knuckled over, but nearly so) hind fetlock joints. Because of that, she couldn't get up right away. I milked Thistle, and bottle fed Ivy to make sure she got plenty of colostrum in the first 24 hours.
Ivy has a good appetite and is happy to be bottle fed, which is fine. But she's now 4 days old and although she CAN walk, she still seems unusually wobbly to me, at least compared to the newborn lambs and foals I've raised before. She spends almost all of her time lying down, and when she walks, she still wobbles like a newborn. Because of the tight tendons, she still walks mostly up on the toes of her hind feet. Maybe that's why she seems so awkward?
I guess I just want some reassurance that this problem isn't something too serious, and the tendons will gradually ease up on their own.
Problem #2:
Because Thistle is a mature cow, and I didn't know too much about her history, I decided to err on the side of caution and give her a calcium drench after she calved, to hopefully stave off any chance of milk fever.
I had read on this forum that the calcium drenches can be kind of caustic, but I imagined that meant, "sting the throat like a shot of strong whiskey" not "burn the throat like a glass of Draino."
From the time I gave that drench, my tame, friendly cow immediately became terrified of me and now runs away rather than letting me near her head. In addition, her throat was so sore afterwards that she stopped eating for almost 2 days. She wasn't sick or lethargic, and she acted like she WANTED to eat, but it hurt too much to swallow. I asked my vet about it, and he said, "Oh yes, that stuff is like battery acid. It really burns!." Great! Now you tell me!
Naturally, with not eating or drinking much for 2 days, her milk production dropped to almost nothing. I still milk her twice a day, but for 2 days I was getting only about 1/4 cup per milking. She's eating again now, and I was encouraged to get 2 pints out of her last night, but this morning it was back down to only a few tablespoons. (The calf is being completely bottle fed---we had to break down and buy milk replacer for her---so I know Ivy isn't stealing all the milk.)
Thistle's production WILL come back, right? As long as I keep trying to milk her regularly?
Problem #3:
This morning when I milked what little I could get out of her, one of the teats gave only very dark blood-colored liquid. There's no sign of injury, no heat, no pain, no hardness anywhere in the udder or teats. Thistle was not bothered at all.
I have read that at freshening, some blood in the milk is normal because the fullness of the udder can cause capillaries to break. But with the whole calcium drench = no milk issue, her udder hasn't been full for 2 days.
So, if I can't find any other symptoms of mastitis, is this bloody milk a problem, or is it just kind of gross? Will it go away on its own?
One good thing out of all of this is that Thistle is an angel to milk. We don't have a stanchion, so I just tie her to the wall, without even any food in front of her, and she stands still for all my inexperienced fumbling, and hardly ever even lifts a foot. I'm so grateful for that, and if I can get over all these other issues, I think she's going to be a terrific family cow for me.