Post by anuttama on Feb 14, 2010 14:29:06 GMT -5
Hi,
I'm new here and would like to thank the group for being so helpful and knowledgeable though my first experience with mastitis. Dhana is almost completely over it and I'm just milking her twice a day now hoping the one affected quarter fully softens like the other one already has. Whew! Also she seems to be letting down the milk once her head is in the stanchion.
It seems like every day I have questions due to my lack of experience with different cows: I've cared for one cow every winter for the last 4 years and now I've got three: two calves and a 2 year old fresh mommie.
First question: Is it normal for a cow to have contractions for days after delivering her calf? Someone already said that a discharge for a few weeks is normal.
Is it normal for the back quarters to give less milk than the front?
Is it normal for individual quarters to start giving less milk than other quarters as the lactation winds down?
Is it normal for a first time Mom to leak quite a bit to all the time from her teats for a few weeks? She seems to be over the leaking now.
Is it normal for a calf to have large clots of blood (about 50% of the stool) in their stool. Our bull calf did when he was about 7 days old until he was two weeks old. He was eating and appeared healthy so my vet said, "just watch it." And it went away. Then the same thing happened to the heifer calf, only not as bad.
How much grain is appropriate for a cow? Rain arrived with rounded withers and a round spine and now she has pointed withers and I can see a ridge along her topline. I'm milking the front two and letting the calf have the back two and getting about 3-4 gallons a day. I don't want more milk, but I would like her to put on weight. I'm giving her leafy alfalfa hay, free choice and local grass. And about 8lbs of rolled barley/oats. I don't want to feed corn because it is almost all GMO. Additionally I'm not comfortable with anything in pelleted form because who knows what's in there, and it will definitely have GMO soya or some such. A dairy guy told me to feed 30lbs of grain, but that seems outrageous. Any advice?
I'm new here and would like to thank the group for being so helpful and knowledgeable though my first experience with mastitis. Dhana is almost completely over it and I'm just milking her twice a day now hoping the one affected quarter fully softens like the other one already has. Whew! Also she seems to be letting down the milk once her head is in the stanchion.
It seems like every day I have questions due to my lack of experience with different cows: I've cared for one cow every winter for the last 4 years and now I've got three: two calves and a 2 year old fresh mommie.
First question: Is it normal for a cow to have contractions for days after delivering her calf? Someone already said that a discharge for a few weeks is normal.
Is it normal for the back quarters to give less milk than the front?
Is it normal for individual quarters to start giving less milk than other quarters as the lactation winds down?
Is it normal for a first time Mom to leak quite a bit to all the time from her teats for a few weeks? She seems to be over the leaking now.
Is it normal for a calf to have large clots of blood (about 50% of the stool) in their stool. Our bull calf did when he was about 7 days old until he was two weeks old. He was eating and appeared healthy so my vet said, "just watch it." And it went away. Then the same thing happened to the heifer calf, only not as bad.
How much grain is appropriate for a cow? Rain arrived with rounded withers and a round spine and now she has pointed withers and I can see a ridge along her topline. I'm milking the front two and letting the calf have the back two and getting about 3-4 gallons a day. I don't want more milk, but I would like her to put on weight. I'm giving her leafy alfalfa hay, free choice and local grass. And about 8lbs of rolled barley/oats. I don't want to feed corn because it is almost all GMO. Additionally I'm not comfortable with anything in pelleted form because who knows what's in there, and it will definitely have GMO soya or some such. A dairy guy told me to feed 30lbs of grain, but that seems outrageous. Any advice?