Post by Deleted on May 29, 2005 17:22:44 GMT -5
I thought I would post here one more time about this even though I know I have picked your brains a million times about this. Maybe someone new has joined that will know the answer or maybe I will say this in a different way today that will cause somebody to think of something that will help.
I bought my Jersey 14 months ago. She was culled from a dairy because of severe arthritis in the hips. She has been milking now for 14 months. This is her fourth lactation. She is six years old.
She is an extraordinarily picky eater, to the point that she may die because of it.
I have been driving a ridiculous amount of time to buy hay to bring home, hoping that she will eat. Sometimes she eats it, sometimes she doesn't. When I find hay that she will eat, I go buy a bunch of it. But then she does this weird thing. Let's say I buy four bales. She'll eat the first one like crazy, but when the first one is gone and I break open the second one, she won't touch it. (Same hay, no apparent mold or damage).
She refuses hay that all other cows will eat.
Right now at least she has grass. But during the winter she just stopped eating hardly any hay to the point that she bloated because she was only eating grain (so the proportion of small particles in her gut was too high). She bloated repeatedly for about eight weeks. Finally I cut her grain in half, which I hated to do for a cow in such thin condition, but it did stop her bloat.
Something is definitely wrong. The vet says that there is fluid in the joints of her legs, and tightness in her lungs (like asthma). The vet thinks she might have a mold allergy, but didn't know what to do about it.
The homeopathic vet thinks that she has a nutritional deficiency. I called him for a remedy and he said that I should approach it nutritionally rather than homeopathically. Unfortunately, when I called the nutrition specialist that he recommended, the man was very condescending. He told me I should only buy the hay Gita likes and stop buying the hay Gita doesn't like. I was ready to cry and scream by the time I was off the phone with him. He has no idea the effort that has been put in, nor how much of a supply problem or storage problem I have had.
Anyway, does any of this suggest anything specific to any of you? Do any of you have a cow nutritional supplement that you would like to tell me about?
I have tried:
apple cider vinegar
alfalfa cubes
calf manna
kelp
probiotics
spraying the hay with molasses
leaving her to tough it out (she broke down the fence and ran away from home).
I have called several hay specialists. All they can suggest is to "beef her".
Thank you in advance.
I bought my Jersey 14 months ago. She was culled from a dairy because of severe arthritis in the hips. She has been milking now for 14 months. This is her fourth lactation. She is six years old.
She is an extraordinarily picky eater, to the point that she may die because of it.
I have been driving a ridiculous amount of time to buy hay to bring home, hoping that she will eat. Sometimes she eats it, sometimes she doesn't. When I find hay that she will eat, I go buy a bunch of it. But then she does this weird thing. Let's say I buy four bales. She'll eat the first one like crazy, but when the first one is gone and I break open the second one, she won't touch it. (Same hay, no apparent mold or damage).
She refuses hay that all other cows will eat.
Right now at least she has grass. But during the winter she just stopped eating hardly any hay to the point that she bloated because she was only eating grain (so the proportion of small particles in her gut was too high). She bloated repeatedly for about eight weeks. Finally I cut her grain in half, which I hated to do for a cow in such thin condition, but it did stop her bloat.
Something is definitely wrong. The vet says that there is fluid in the joints of her legs, and tightness in her lungs (like asthma). The vet thinks she might have a mold allergy, but didn't know what to do about it.
The homeopathic vet thinks that she has a nutritional deficiency. I called him for a remedy and he said that I should approach it nutritionally rather than homeopathically. Unfortunately, when I called the nutrition specialist that he recommended, the man was very condescending. He told me I should only buy the hay Gita likes and stop buying the hay Gita doesn't like. I was ready to cry and scream by the time I was off the phone with him. He has no idea the effort that has been put in, nor how much of a supply problem or storage problem I have had.
Anyway, does any of this suggest anything specific to any of you? Do any of you have a cow nutritional supplement that you would like to tell me about?
I have tried:
apple cider vinegar
alfalfa cubes
calf manna
kelp
probiotics
spraying the hay with molasses
leaving her to tough it out (she broke down the fence and ran away from home).
I have called several hay specialists. All they can suggest is to "beef her".
Thank you in advance.