Post by Tamara on Apr 29, 2015 21:50:20 GMT -5
... is she just giving up after over 2 years in milk?
Tallulah all of a sudden went from 2-2 1/2 litres to 1-2 cups, about 5-6 days ago. At first I thought she was just in heat, as she quite often stops producing and holds up when in heat. She seemed frisky the next day so I thought it was just a particularly long heat. On the 3rd day I began to get worried. What's wrong with her? She did try to mount Ginger again.
I thought it might have been because we had some volunteer workers staying and they came with me to learn to milk, and perhaps she didn't like them. But they're gone now and haven't been here for today and yesterday's milkings.
Yesterday I got about 1 litre and I thought all was returning to normal. But this morning she only gave about half a cup. She did have more, but she was holding it up. I can tell because her udder was quite firm at the top. However ever since this started I can tell she doesn't have a lot more as her udder is always pretty soft.
Plus she was a bugger to bring down from the paddock today and actually tried to turn around and run away once we reached the stanchion area. She's still acting frisky and excited and keeps wanting to hang around with the neighbor's cattle.
Apart from the volunteers coming to milk, nothing has changed. Diet is the same, she's drinking from the same water as always (a dam), there's plenty of grass.
One unusual thing is her teats are all chewed up. They are little bites, like from flies. There are flies around. I've sprayed her udder with fly spray after milking and slathered her with cream. It doesn't seem to hurt her too much and she has had worse bites before.
Oh yes, it has also been colder lately. Not horribly cold, but it definitely gets rather chilly at night.
Any ideas? We have about a week's worth of milk left but it's starting to run out quickly
Tallulah all of a sudden went from 2-2 1/2 litres to 1-2 cups, about 5-6 days ago. At first I thought she was just in heat, as she quite often stops producing and holds up when in heat. She seemed frisky the next day so I thought it was just a particularly long heat. On the 3rd day I began to get worried. What's wrong with her? She did try to mount Ginger again.
I thought it might have been because we had some volunteer workers staying and they came with me to learn to milk, and perhaps she didn't like them. But they're gone now and haven't been here for today and yesterday's milkings.
Yesterday I got about 1 litre and I thought all was returning to normal. But this morning she only gave about half a cup. She did have more, but she was holding it up. I can tell because her udder was quite firm at the top. However ever since this started I can tell she doesn't have a lot more as her udder is always pretty soft.
Plus she was a bugger to bring down from the paddock today and actually tried to turn around and run away once we reached the stanchion area. She's still acting frisky and excited and keeps wanting to hang around with the neighbor's cattle.
Apart from the volunteers coming to milk, nothing has changed. Diet is the same, she's drinking from the same water as always (a dam), there's plenty of grass.
One unusual thing is her teats are all chewed up. They are little bites, like from flies. There are flies around. I've sprayed her udder with fly spray after milking and slathered her with cream. It doesn't seem to hurt her too much and she has had worse bites before.
Oh yes, it has also been colder lately. Not horribly cold, but it definitely gets rather chilly at night.
Any ideas? We have about a week's worth of milk left but it's starting to run out quickly