Post by brigitte on May 15, 2017 10:06:40 GMT -5
My sweet cow Daisy- not the one of two seed cows I should have picked in hindsight over the past nine years, but one who forged a partnership and did all that she was asked. She and I have a special bond and have been through quite a lot together..
A shorthorn, red and white, with very good genetics, in fact "bred for milk" the farmer said. She didn't want to part with her. I wanted her for the same reasons, with experience on a similar sized commercial bulk milk dairy where volume was more important than other qualities. She was weaned at two months and wasn't raised on her likewise high producing mother, who only lived to be six or seven before she was culled from that herd. This is not the way I raise calves now.
Daisy is a little over nine years old. She's had five calves, the last one in March of 2016 when she suffered a very mild case of ketosis. She is still in milk from a very low hanging udder- which would be impossible to milk if she was fresh. I knew last year I would not breed her back. Ya just know when you spend so much time with each cow what her character and mental and physical state of health is. I knew it was her last round. I didn't breed her back when she finally came back into heat in December
I began by hand milking her after pulling her first huge calf seven years ago. A few years later, she would only tolerate the machine. Somehow it seems related. Her right rear leg would go up and threaten to kick.
Now she is weak in that rear leg, and hobbles on it. . I don't think its related to the udder, which i continue to milk once a day and seems healthy, but not sure. I have seen German Shepherds with paralysis and weak hind quarters and this seems vaguely similar. Now it seems to be a weakening rear quarter. She's on grass, good hay and a little grain. Best time of the year for a happy cow. She looks okay, just a bit off. I will get a picture, though it won't show much. the last time the vet was here he said she looks great for a nine year old cow, but I see more of her hips and she isn't quite what she was, she moans every now and then. Her condition, whatever it is, is clearly worsening.
I did a very careful complete survey of her. No nail in the hoof, no wound in the crease between the udder and the leg. My considerations are all over the place, ranging all the way to maybe a hardware metal that got past the magnet and lodged farther down? One more subtle symptom- her tail is now occasionally strutting out just a bit, sort of like it would be before calving.
I was debating whether to ship her in June, but I won't do it if she can't walk well. I gave her 6 cc of banamine this morning and she walked out to the pasture.
A shorthorn, red and white, with very good genetics, in fact "bred for milk" the farmer said. She didn't want to part with her. I wanted her for the same reasons, with experience on a similar sized commercial bulk milk dairy where volume was more important than other qualities. She was weaned at two months and wasn't raised on her likewise high producing mother, who only lived to be six or seven before she was culled from that herd. This is not the way I raise calves now.
Daisy is a little over nine years old. She's had five calves, the last one in March of 2016 when she suffered a very mild case of ketosis. She is still in milk from a very low hanging udder- which would be impossible to milk if she was fresh. I knew last year I would not breed her back. Ya just know when you spend so much time with each cow what her character and mental and physical state of health is. I knew it was her last round. I didn't breed her back when she finally came back into heat in December
I began by hand milking her after pulling her first huge calf seven years ago. A few years later, she would only tolerate the machine. Somehow it seems related. Her right rear leg would go up and threaten to kick.
Now she is weak in that rear leg, and hobbles on it. . I don't think its related to the udder, which i continue to milk once a day and seems healthy, but not sure. I have seen German Shepherds with paralysis and weak hind quarters and this seems vaguely similar. Now it seems to be a weakening rear quarter. She's on grass, good hay and a little grain. Best time of the year for a happy cow. She looks okay, just a bit off. I will get a picture, though it won't show much. the last time the vet was here he said she looks great for a nine year old cow, but I see more of her hips and she isn't quite what she was, she moans every now and then. Her condition, whatever it is, is clearly worsening.
I did a very careful complete survey of her. No nail in the hoof, no wound in the crease between the udder and the leg. My considerations are all over the place, ranging all the way to maybe a hardware metal that got past the magnet and lodged farther down? One more subtle symptom- her tail is now occasionally strutting out just a bit, sort of like it would be before calving.
I was debating whether to ship her in June, but I won't do it if she can't walk well. I gave her 6 cc of banamine this morning and she walked out to the pasture.