Post by finallyfarming on Aug 8, 2015 15:28:10 GMT -5
My cow, The Troublesome Cupcake, was producing so much milk I bought two calves to drink it up. They have been drinking 2 1/2 gallons a day each and the cow has her own calf on her during the day. Well, Cupcake now has Mastitis in two quarters and things are not looking well for her. It hit me last night when the first chunk came out of the second quarter that this was A BIG DEAL and I had to make some serious changes and feeding the babies was one of them. I fed the bottle calves this morning what should have been the house milk from my second cow and they got 3 quarts each for breakfast. I have a bit of freezer milk thawing for their dinner, again a bit less than a gallon each. The natural calf got to drink from the two front quarters (I did a CMT test on them first) with me awkwardly shielding the two back, bad quarters from her, (as I think either she or I transferred bacteria from the infected quarter to the second one,) and I have no idea how much she got. I was looking up milk replacers on the the net and it is so expensive to feed! Plus you then need to buy calf starter with is also pricey and my calves start looking like a real money drain. So here is where I need some input from people with more experience than rather overwhelmed and stressed out me to figure out what to do here. So here is the low down on what is going on cow wise.
Cow #1, Cupcake, has mastitis, high fever, not eating much and filled with anti-biotics from vet. I am sure she now has ketosis, too. If she pulls through this she won't be producing much milk.
Calf #1, Cupcake's heifer calf, Cinnamon, 11 weeks old, 1/2 Milking Shorthorn 1/2 Scottish Highlander. Not sure if there will be enough milk for her to nurse her mother tonight.
Cow #2, Nelly. I milk the front 2 quarters in the morning after separating her calf overnight. I usually get a tad less than 1 1/2 gallons. There is nothing to milk in the evenings after her calf has been on her all day.
Calf #2, Nelly's bull calf, Stinker, 11 weeks old, 1/4 Holstein, 1/4 Jersey, 1/2 Scottish Highlander.
Calf #3, Holstein Heifer, Sweetie, 14 weeks old, supposedly not a free martin but who knows.
Calf #4, Foxy, Milking Shorthorn bull calf, 6 weeks old.
Every time I try to figure out what to do I start crying and all productive thought goes out the window. Seems like an easy fix, just sell the calves or buy milk replacer and keep them but I just don't know what to do except go out to the barn and try to get Cupcake to eat some watermelon. Help!
Cow #1, Cupcake, has mastitis, high fever, not eating much and filled with anti-biotics from vet. I am sure she now has ketosis, too. If she pulls through this she won't be producing much milk.
Calf #1, Cupcake's heifer calf, Cinnamon, 11 weeks old, 1/2 Milking Shorthorn 1/2 Scottish Highlander. Not sure if there will be enough milk for her to nurse her mother tonight.
Cow #2, Nelly. I milk the front 2 quarters in the morning after separating her calf overnight. I usually get a tad less than 1 1/2 gallons. There is nothing to milk in the evenings after her calf has been on her all day.
Calf #2, Nelly's bull calf, Stinker, 11 weeks old, 1/4 Holstein, 1/4 Jersey, 1/2 Scottish Highlander.
Calf #3, Holstein Heifer, Sweetie, 14 weeks old, supposedly not a free martin but who knows.
Calf #4, Foxy, Milking Shorthorn bull calf, 6 weeks old.
Every time I try to figure out what to do I start crying and all productive thought goes out the window. Seems like an easy fix, just sell the calves or buy milk replacer and keep them but I just don't know what to do except go out to the barn and try to get Cupcake to eat some watermelon. Help!