Post by saskjoey on Mar 17, 2024 23:23:22 GMT -5
Let me start this long, drawn out post by saying that, if my dad wasn’t a dairy farmer for his whole life, my cow would surely be dead! He lives two provinces away from me, but I’m sure grateful for his help.
As I had mentioned previously, Peach was due to calve on March 5th with a pure jersey heifer calf (sexed semen.) She went overdue, and starting from two weeks before her due date, we were bringing her into the head gate each night to give her some barley and help her get used to the milking setup/check her over. A couple of nights before she ACTUALLY calved, we noticed that she was acting a little funny, and that she wasn’t very interested in eating her barley. Upon closer inspection, we realized that one (or more) of the little black angus calves was sucking on her, and that her front left quarter was a little firmer than the rest. We thought maybe she was finally going to have her baby! We kept her in the barn overnight totally separate from the other cows/calves. The next day, she was suddenly NOT looking good. High fever, hard to get her up, little bit of a cough, and the quarter was now terribly swollen and hard. She would not eat or drink one bit, not even molasses water or anything. We got the vet out, and they gave her spectramast, excenel, ketoprofen v, and cal mag. The vet decided she had mastitis, pneumonia, and possibly milk fever. The anti inflammatory seemed to make her feel a bit better, and the next day she drank a little and ate a little, but the quarter was not looking even a little better. But of course we didn’t think it would be fixed overnight. At 12:45am, she had her perfect heifer calf. It was healthy and well, she licked it off, got it nursing, hooray! We went back out at 6:30am, and she HAD LAID ON HER CALF AND KILLED IT! We were heartbroken. Not only that, but she was also looking terribly sick again. No eating or drinking at all, despite having given birth. Very high fever, and now the quarter was leaking blood. We milked her out that morning (and twice a day since + many times a day for the bad quarter) and there was a gallon of colostrum which we saved. She went down hard after that. Droopy ears, high fever, miserable, and the nastiest clear liquid and blood coming out of the quarter. We honestly thought she was going to die. Made the vet come out again ($$$$$$ as we live 45 min from town.) She didn’t do anything besides give us more Spectramast and tell us to continue on with the same program we’d been following.
I finally called my Dad and explained the situation to him. He told me it sounds like she had a coliform mastitis that had gone toxic, and that there was a high chance she would die. He instructed me to go to the vet myself, and make them give me Trimidox (Borgal.) He told me to quit the Spectramast and excenel, but to continue with the Ketoprofen V, as keeping fever and inflammation down are critical for making the cow feel good enough to eat and drink. I ran out to the vet right away and we started treating her with the drugs he recommended, plus adding in supportive therapy to try and help her recover. He suggested warm water with electrolytes and 18% calf starter grain to try and give her a boost. She looked on deaths door for a couple more days, but after the second day of Trimidox and Ketoprofen V, she started to come around. She really liked the warm water, and wouldn’t drink it cold. She started nibbling at her silage as well. Right after her calf died, and right before we realized how terribly ill she really was, we ran out and bought her a new little jersey/heifer calf to love. She bonded to it right away, but we have been keeping them mostly in separate pens where they can see each other. We have been feeding milk replacer to the calf.
Since the gallon of colostrum on the first day she calved, she has produced basically nothing since. I assume it is because she was so close to death that she literally has no milk. This morning and tonight we got the most out of her that we have yet - 2 litres in the morning, and 1 litre tonight. Still better than the literal skim of milk on the bottom of the milk can the milkings prior… It’s not because she’s holding out for the calf. We gave her a shot of oxytocin and it didn’t make any difference.
At this point, I’m fairly confident that she will pull through. She is acting much more like her old self, and is back to eating and drinking consistently. The quarter is still hard and red as all get out, though. I have read every pub med article I could find about e.coli mastitis, so I don’t have much hope of her saving the quarter. But what I haven’t managed to find in all my reading, is whether or not she’ll ever produce during this current lactation out of the healthy quarters? It’s so sad because we thought we’d be drowning in milk at this point, and the reality is that I don’t want to touch the milk (even from the good quarters) for a very long time after all the meds she’s received. Has anyone gone through this before? Is she drying herself off five seconds after calving? Or is there hope that once she’s all healed up that the three healthy quarters will bounce back into milk?
What a week it’s been, that’s all I know. We have five little kids at home, and dealing with all this cow drama has been more than enough stress to last me a lifetime. I’ve been spending the majority of my days out in the barn just observing, supporting, and caring for Peach (and baby Dot.) Either that or driving to the city to get things from the vet.
As I had mentioned previously, Peach was due to calve on March 5th with a pure jersey heifer calf (sexed semen.) She went overdue, and starting from two weeks before her due date, we were bringing her into the head gate each night to give her some barley and help her get used to the milking setup/check her over. A couple of nights before she ACTUALLY calved, we noticed that she was acting a little funny, and that she wasn’t very interested in eating her barley. Upon closer inspection, we realized that one (or more) of the little black angus calves was sucking on her, and that her front left quarter was a little firmer than the rest. We thought maybe she was finally going to have her baby! We kept her in the barn overnight totally separate from the other cows/calves. The next day, she was suddenly NOT looking good. High fever, hard to get her up, little bit of a cough, and the quarter was now terribly swollen and hard. She would not eat or drink one bit, not even molasses water or anything. We got the vet out, and they gave her spectramast, excenel, ketoprofen v, and cal mag. The vet decided she had mastitis, pneumonia, and possibly milk fever. The anti inflammatory seemed to make her feel a bit better, and the next day she drank a little and ate a little, but the quarter was not looking even a little better. But of course we didn’t think it would be fixed overnight. At 12:45am, she had her perfect heifer calf. It was healthy and well, she licked it off, got it nursing, hooray! We went back out at 6:30am, and she HAD LAID ON HER CALF AND KILLED IT! We were heartbroken. Not only that, but she was also looking terribly sick again. No eating or drinking at all, despite having given birth. Very high fever, and now the quarter was leaking blood. We milked her out that morning (and twice a day since + many times a day for the bad quarter) and there was a gallon of colostrum which we saved. She went down hard after that. Droopy ears, high fever, miserable, and the nastiest clear liquid and blood coming out of the quarter. We honestly thought she was going to die. Made the vet come out again ($$$$$$ as we live 45 min from town.) She didn’t do anything besides give us more Spectramast and tell us to continue on with the same program we’d been following.
I finally called my Dad and explained the situation to him. He told me it sounds like she had a coliform mastitis that had gone toxic, and that there was a high chance she would die. He instructed me to go to the vet myself, and make them give me Trimidox (Borgal.) He told me to quit the Spectramast and excenel, but to continue with the Ketoprofen V, as keeping fever and inflammation down are critical for making the cow feel good enough to eat and drink. I ran out to the vet right away and we started treating her with the drugs he recommended, plus adding in supportive therapy to try and help her recover. He suggested warm water with electrolytes and 18% calf starter grain to try and give her a boost. She looked on deaths door for a couple more days, but after the second day of Trimidox and Ketoprofen V, she started to come around. She really liked the warm water, and wouldn’t drink it cold. She started nibbling at her silage as well. Right after her calf died, and right before we realized how terribly ill she really was, we ran out and bought her a new little jersey/heifer calf to love. She bonded to it right away, but we have been keeping them mostly in separate pens where they can see each other. We have been feeding milk replacer to the calf.
Since the gallon of colostrum on the first day she calved, she has produced basically nothing since. I assume it is because she was so close to death that she literally has no milk. This morning and tonight we got the most out of her that we have yet - 2 litres in the morning, and 1 litre tonight. Still better than the literal skim of milk on the bottom of the milk can the milkings prior… It’s not because she’s holding out for the calf. We gave her a shot of oxytocin and it didn’t make any difference.
At this point, I’m fairly confident that she will pull through. She is acting much more like her old self, and is back to eating and drinking consistently. The quarter is still hard and red as all get out, though. I have read every pub med article I could find about e.coli mastitis, so I don’t have much hope of her saving the quarter. But what I haven’t managed to find in all my reading, is whether or not she’ll ever produce during this current lactation out of the healthy quarters? It’s so sad because we thought we’d be drowning in milk at this point, and the reality is that I don’t want to touch the milk (even from the good quarters) for a very long time after all the meds she’s received. Has anyone gone through this before? Is she drying herself off five seconds after calving? Or is there hope that once she’s all healed up that the three healthy quarters will bounce back into milk?
What a week it’s been, that’s all I know. We have five little kids at home, and dealing with all this cow drama has been more than enough stress to last me a lifetime. I’ve been spending the majority of my days out in the barn just observing, supporting, and caring for Peach (and baby Dot.) Either that or driving to the city to get things from the vet.