Post by AnnB (NE) on Feb 13, 2007 12:30:43 GMT -5
Yesterday I AI'd a cow for a board member and agreed to go and look at a Jersey cow belonging to a friend of hers.
An "old dairyman" has told the owner that the cow has cancer, the vet told her this morning that nothing is wrong with the cow.
There is obviously something wrong with the cow, her symptoms are very puzzling and I'm hoping that the boardmembers can help to brainstorm what might be going on with this cow.
I'll try to tell as much as I know about the cow, and her physical appearance, some of it may be completely irrelevent, but I figure the more information about her, the better. I did not have a thermometer with me, so could not take her temperature.
The cow is supposed to be 6 years old (I did not check her teeth), she came from a dairy a few months ago. She looks like a much older cow.
The cow is thin, but not overly so -- probably at a 2.5 BCS.
Her manure is of normal consistency -- not runny, but not overly firm either.
Her hind hooves are very overgrown, deeply ridged, and appear to me to be the result of a previous foundering (she has a good 2 inches of healthy hoof above the damaged portion).
She is not lame, does not show any signs of discomfort when walking, but does show a bit of puffiness at the cleft between the toes, and also shows a bit of tenderness when the area is pressed.
She has failed to settle, although she is cycling and upon palpation, her reproductive tract feels normal -- she was supposed to have been in heat 2 days earlier, the uterine horns still had a bit of tone to them, were the same size, and the ovaries felt normal. The cervix also felt normal.
There was a small cyst/lump present on the right side of the pelvis (grape-sized). It felt like it was attached to the wall of the pelvis itself, and could be a lymph gland.
The lymph glands in her "groin" area (where the torso meets the hind legs) are obviously swollen. I palpated her neck, the glands in her neck are also swollen.
The cow is in milk, the owner says that she had a bout of mastitis when she first got her, but that the "old dairyman" treated her with Today for 2 days and it appeared to clear up. Upon questioning, she did say that she's still seeing some flakes on the milk filter and the milk is straining slowly.
I palpated the cow's udder, both front quarters and the left rear quarter each contain a golfball-sized lump - which don't seem to be overly tender to the cow. There was no heat or swelling in the udder.
Has anyone ever heard of mastitis causing swollen glands? Could it be that a long-running mastitis might result in swollen glands? Or do you think that there is something else going on? I mean, for the glands to be swollen, they have to be filtering something.
The "old dairyman" pronounced cancer when the glands were brought to his attention.
The vet dismisses the lumps in the udder as "just fiberous tissue" and didn't seem concerned about the swollen glands.
This poor gal (the owner!) needs our help, and I feel like I didn't do her any good at all yesterday -- especially when the vet dismisses mastitis as a factor.
Ann B
edited to add -- her eyes are bright, her nose is clean, and she has good appetite.
An "old dairyman" has told the owner that the cow has cancer, the vet told her this morning that nothing is wrong with the cow.
There is obviously something wrong with the cow, her symptoms are very puzzling and I'm hoping that the boardmembers can help to brainstorm what might be going on with this cow.
I'll try to tell as much as I know about the cow, and her physical appearance, some of it may be completely irrelevent, but I figure the more information about her, the better. I did not have a thermometer with me, so could not take her temperature.
The cow is supposed to be 6 years old (I did not check her teeth), she came from a dairy a few months ago. She looks like a much older cow.
The cow is thin, but not overly so -- probably at a 2.5 BCS.
Her manure is of normal consistency -- not runny, but not overly firm either.
Her hind hooves are very overgrown, deeply ridged, and appear to me to be the result of a previous foundering (she has a good 2 inches of healthy hoof above the damaged portion).
She is not lame, does not show any signs of discomfort when walking, but does show a bit of puffiness at the cleft between the toes, and also shows a bit of tenderness when the area is pressed.
She has failed to settle, although she is cycling and upon palpation, her reproductive tract feels normal -- she was supposed to have been in heat 2 days earlier, the uterine horns still had a bit of tone to them, were the same size, and the ovaries felt normal. The cervix also felt normal.
There was a small cyst/lump present on the right side of the pelvis (grape-sized). It felt like it was attached to the wall of the pelvis itself, and could be a lymph gland.
The lymph glands in her "groin" area (where the torso meets the hind legs) are obviously swollen. I palpated her neck, the glands in her neck are also swollen.
The cow is in milk, the owner says that she had a bout of mastitis when she first got her, but that the "old dairyman" treated her with Today for 2 days and it appeared to clear up. Upon questioning, she did say that she's still seeing some flakes on the milk filter and the milk is straining slowly.
I palpated the cow's udder, both front quarters and the left rear quarter each contain a golfball-sized lump - which don't seem to be overly tender to the cow. There was no heat or swelling in the udder.
Has anyone ever heard of mastitis causing swollen glands? Could it be that a long-running mastitis might result in swollen glands? Or do you think that there is something else going on? I mean, for the glands to be swollen, they have to be filtering something.
The "old dairyman" pronounced cancer when the glands were brought to his attention.
The vet dismisses the lumps in the udder as "just fiberous tissue" and didn't seem concerned about the swollen glands.
This poor gal (the owner!) needs our help, and I feel like I didn't do her any good at all yesterday -- especially when the vet dismisses mastitis as a factor.
Ann B
edited to add -- her eyes are bright, her nose is clean, and she has good appetite.