Post by ashleyh on Sept 30, 2014 22:38:12 GMT -5
Belle calved a week ago tomorrow. She is a jersey, this is her second calf. I have an extra calf on her, and it and her baby are eating well. I noticed her front quarters were both quite firm. I have not been straining the milk yet as I have not been keeping it (we are still refreshing her manners and she poops and pees every time!) things have just been to messing for my liking to keep any of it yet even though I machine milk. So yesterday I strained it and it filtered fast but there were about 8-10 small stringy chunks. I milked her out three times yesterday and today and did hot towel massages. No noticeable heat anywhere on her udder. I did my first and second cmt ever and I am pretty sure they both were negative. Everything stayed nice and liquid, did not notice any slime and definatly did not get thick (my test came with a pint bottle of concentrate to dilute in a gal. I just put 1/4 a cup in the extra pint bottle they sent and fill that with water. Is that okay?) So things that make me think NOT mastitis: no noticeable heat, no noticeable tenderness (I massaged hard and she didn't seem to mind), fast filtering milk and negative cmt. Things that make me concerned: firm front quarters and when I massaged I did feel some spots that felt like "rocks" in there, the stringy things on the filter. Oh and her production is not near where I thought it would be. Before drying off she was 14 months into her first lactation and I was still getting 3 gallons on once a day milking. So far I am getting 1 and 3/4 gal in the morning, and about 3/4gal in the evening. (The middle of the day milking yesterday and today I hand milked and the calves sucked at the same time. I just milked onto the ground so not sure how much)
So..... I don't know what to think. Any opinions or thoughts??
So..... I don't know what to think. Any opinions or thoughts??