Post by mcdaid36 on Nov 30, 2011 7:40:35 GMT -5
I am really feeling like a failure with my milk cow. Smidge is sick once again, same symptoms as before. Her ketones are way up again, she won't eat any grain. This is day 2 of it. This morning all she'd eat were molasses covered marshmallows and her hay. As a result she is loosing weight and obviously milk production is down. I didn't even bother to milk her this morning because I could tell while washing her udder that there wasn't much in there so I just let the calf have it all.
This time she's not as depressed as she was the last time, it's coming out more as anxiety. She is very anxious about where her calf is, mooing for him constantly instead of the relaxed mother she used to be.
I managed to get 6 cc's of B Complex into her last night, and some of a ketosis drench I had for the goats, put some electrolytes and molasses into her water, which I guess she didn't like that much because she only drank half of it during the night.
I just don't know what more I can do to entice her to eat! And even if she gets over this bout of ketosis, what can I do to prevent it from happening again next week? Am I putting too much of a demand on her body by milking her and having her raise her calf (she is a dexter/jersey cross, gives me just over 1 gallon a day which is enough for us, the calf gets however much more she makes). Should I pull the calf and just bottle feed him so he's not demanding milk all the time (well, they're separated at night, so it's really only about 10 hours out of the day). She looks likes she's beginning to waste away and it makes me so sad. And I'm frustrated that I can't figure out what her issue is all about.
Thanks for listening to me vent....
This time she's not as depressed as she was the last time, it's coming out more as anxiety. She is very anxious about where her calf is, mooing for him constantly instead of the relaxed mother she used to be.
I managed to get 6 cc's of B Complex into her last night, and some of a ketosis drench I had for the goats, put some electrolytes and molasses into her water, which I guess she didn't like that much because she only drank half of it during the night.
I just don't know what more I can do to entice her to eat! And even if she gets over this bout of ketosis, what can I do to prevent it from happening again next week? Am I putting too much of a demand on her body by milking her and having her raise her calf (she is a dexter/jersey cross, gives me just over 1 gallon a day which is enough for us, the calf gets however much more she makes). Should I pull the calf and just bottle feed him so he's not demanding milk all the time (well, they're separated at night, so it's really only about 10 hours out of the day). She looks likes she's beginning to waste away and it makes me so sad. And I'm frustrated that I can't figure out what her issue is all about.
Thanks for listening to me vent....