Post by milagrofarm on Jul 8, 2011 19:59:10 GMT -5
Hi Y'all,
It has been awhile since I was last on KFC, my login wouldn't work, so I have a new one! All of the advice you gave me during the birth of our first calf helped us save him and gave me peace of mind. Well, now we are on our second freshening! The calf is SO cute and healthy. Basil, our cow/pet, is doing great.
So I let the calf have the first bit of time with her before I started milking, and after all of my reading decided to let them be together for the first 36 hours. Last night she was so engorged she could hardly walk! I kept her in the pen with the calf so she would have let down and I milked out 4 gallons, which was mostly cream and a touch of colostrum. Her udder was still really 'tight' and seemed hard. So this morning I milked her in the stanchion, where she could see her calf and she gave 1/2 gallon. It didn't have very much cream and I knew it was more of a let down issue. As I strained the milk I noticed about 7 pinhead size clumps, that felt like cottage cheese, some were white and a few were yellowish. When I milked this evening I put her in the stanchion again and she gave just under 3/4. When I filtered I found two small clumps. Her udder was still hard but loosening compared to last night. Does she have mastitis? What should I do?
I am a pretty good milker, so I don't think it is me. She was also chewing her cud, which was my telltale sign that she was relaxed before! Also I have a CMT test and it said that it is best to do the first test 8 days after calving since the cell count is high anyway during initial freshening. I did some reading on edema and I have been massaging her udder with dynamint too.
Please feel free to move this post if needed, but I do want to address the problem if she has mastitis.
Thank you for your time!
Amy
It has been awhile since I was last on KFC, my login wouldn't work, so I have a new one! All of the advice you gave me during the birth of our first calf helped us save him and gave me peace of mind. Well, now we are on our second freshening! The calf is SO cute and healthy. Basil, our cow/pet, is doing great.
So I let the calf have the first bit of time with her before I started milking, and after all of my reading decided to let them be together for the first 36 hours. Last night she was so engorged she could hardly walk! I kept her in the pen with the calf so she would have let down and I milked out 4 gallons, which was mostly cream and a touch of colostrum. Her udder was still really 'tight' and seemed hard. So this morning I milked her in the stanchion, where she could see her calf and she gave 1/2 gallon. It didn't have very much cream and I knew it was more of a let down issue. As I strained the milk I noticed about 7 pinhead size clumps, that felt like cottage cheese, some were white and a few were yellowish. When I milked this evening I put her in the stanchion again and she gave just under 3/4. When I filtered I found two small clumps. Her udder was still hard but loosening compared to last night. Does she have mastitis? What should I do?
I am a pretty good milker, so I don't think it is me. She was also chewing her cud, which was my telltale sign that she was relaxed before! Also I have a CMT test and it said that it is best to do the first test 8 days after calving since the cell count is high anyway during initial freshening. I did some reading on edema and I have been massaging her udder with dynamint too.
Please feel free to move this post if needed, but I do want to address the problem if she has mastitis.
Thank you for your time!
Amy