Post by Deleted on Jan 20, 2012 0:07:29 GMT -5
Hello everybody,
I'm an infrequent visitor, but would very much appreciate some help with our situation. I'll try to include all relevant information, so please bear with me if this gets a little long!
We have a six year old Jersey cow that we bought three years (Oct 08) ago with a (Dexter/Jersey) calf at foot. It was her second calf so she was bred as a yearling, both by running with a bull. My husband is an AI tech, and insem'd her as soon as we noticed standing heat. As we didn't observe any further heats, we assumed her to be in calf. Unfortunately, we discovered since that she usually has very quiet heats, and by the time we noticed another one, it was a bit late in the season and we decided to skip one and milk her through. She was not in very good condition when we bought her and may have been selenium deficient, and we put the non-conception down to that.
She was bred again the next spring (09) - and again came back into (a quiet, but carefully looked for) heat. This time she received GnRH jabs, and held to the insem. She delivered a beautiful Angus/Jersey heifer Oct 2010, and had no problems calving. She did develop mastitis followed by ketosis, but recovered well with treatment. Unfortunately once again she didn't hold to AI, and we may have missed seeing the heats as they are not so obvious and we had rather a stressful time going on then. As it turn out, the semen used had not been stored correctly, and ours was one of a number of cows that did not get in calf!
The stress continued and we ended up mothering another calf onto her in March (2011) and stopped milking her. That calf was weaned and sold, and we bought another calf in October to handrear. That calf as well as her yearling are both in with her, and still drink off her! She must still be producing some milk, though very little, as her udder was well and truly dry to handmilk before we put her together with those two.
This spring she has been carefully observed and insem'd THREE times, the last with GnRH jabs - and she has come into standing heat AGAIN. We have all the boxes ticked: she's in (almost too) good condition, gets supplemented so no Se deficiency, good AI tech (I know I'm biased, but he got one of the top 24 awards out of over 1,000 techs for the 2010 season, and his non-return rate on his run of 4,700 cows is very good, he's gutted his own cow's not in calf!), semen is definitely good this time.
A vet we have spoken to says she's probably got damage due to a previous metritis, and it is not worth trying to treat it. We do have finances to consider of course, but she is a lovely cow and it feels traiterous to butcher her. But we cannot afford to carry a non-productive cow, and the kindest option then would be to homekill her rather than send her to the sales where she will meet the same fate at the meatworks.
If you have read this far, thank you for doing so. I would dearly love to have some advice/experience on what our options are and what to do next.
TIA,
Marjon
(New Zealand)
I'm an infrequent visitor, but would very much appreciate some help with our situation. I'll try to include all relevant information, so please bear with me if this gets a little long!
We have a six year old Jersey cow that we bought three years (Oct 08) ago with a (Dexter/Jersey) calf at foot. It was her second calf so she was bred as a yearling, both by running with a bull. My husband is an AI tech, and insem'd her as soon as we noticed standing heat. As we didn't observe any further heats, we assumed her to be in calf. Unfortunately, we discovered since that she usually has very quiet heats, and by the time we noticed another one, it was a bit late in the season and we decided to skip one and milk her through. She was not in very good condition when we bought her and may have been selenium deficient, and we put the non-conception down to that.
She was bred again the next spring (09) - and again came back into (a quiet, but carefully looked for) heat. This time she received GnRH jabs, and held to the insem. She delivered a beautiful Angus/Jersey heifer Oct 2010, and had no problems calving. She did develop mastitis followed by ketosis, but recovered well with treatment. Unfortunately once again she didn't hold to AI, and we may have missed seeing the heats as they are not so obvious and we had rather a stressful time going on then. As it turn out, the semen used had not been stored correctly, and ours was one of a number of cows that did not get in calf!
The stress continued and we ended up mothering another calf onto her in March (2011) and stopped milking her. That calf was weaned and sold, and we bought another calf in October to handrear. That calf as well as her yearling are both in with her, and still drink off her! She must still be producing some milk, though very little, as her udder was well and truly dry to handmilk before we put her together with those two.
This spring she has been carefully observed and insem'd THREE times, the last with GnRH jabs - and she has come into standing heat AGAIN. We have all the boxes ticked: she's in (almost too) good condition, gets supplemented so no Se deficiency, good AI tech (I know I'm biased, but he got one of the top 24 awards out of over 1,000 techs for the 2010 season, and his non-return rate on his run of 4,700 cows is very good, he's gutted his own cow's not in calf!), semen is definitely good this time.
A vet we have spoken to says she's probably got damage due to a previous metritis, and it is not worth trying to treat it. We do have finances to consider of course, but she is a lovely cow and it feels traiterous to butcher her. But we cannot afford to carry a non-productive cow, and the kindest option then would be to homekill her rather than send her to the sales where she will meet the same fate at the meatworks.
If you have read this far, thank you for doing so. I would dearly love to have some advice/experience on what our options are and what to do next.
TIA,
Marjon
(New Zealand)