My cow is sick.... please help

[Deleted]

Hello, my name is Larisa and she is my first cow. If Anyone can help, please .
She dropped milk production to more than half, and now i hardly get about 1,5 gallons a day. I've got her in April of this year, and she was giving 3,5 to 4 gallons a day. I fed her 20% protein mix, sweet grain mix, corn, some alfalfa and coastal hay. She always had a good appetite, but now she is rejecting 20% protein biscuits at all, only munching on some grain ( very little) and hay.She thrives alfalfa though.
About 2 months ago, I started was giving her some fruits and veggies, like apples or bananas, or whole corn. I thought it would be an addition to her diet, and it became "after milking" treats. But this is just so happened she started dropping milk production about the same time, but i did not linked these two until recently... now i do not give her fruits anymore.
He milk turned to more yellowish color and cream rises very fast. Yellow- yellow cream.... In two days milk turns to slightly bitter taste, and it was not like this before. He milk tasted always very sweet, and kept that sweet taste long.
He nose feels warm time to time.
He udder is never full anymore, but does not appears to be hot or too warm. Also, there are no lumps or swelling on the udder. It just too soft all over, like she is drying...
I do not notice any movements inside the belly ( as she could be pregnant?) but going to put a stethoscope to her belly to check. Her belly did not grow much since April,though.
Can anyone help and advice what could that be? What should i test her for? In the area where we live is hard to find a vet who would do cows. So, your advice would be highly appreciated.
thank you!

[Cowlicked]

how old is your girl and when did she have her last calf?

[parndt]

Do you know when she calved? How long has the milk been yellow? My first inclination would be that she is pregnant, due soon and you need to stop milking her before all her colostrum is gone. The yellow milk is a dead give away. Cows do not grow a pregnant belly like people do so just forget that. Look at her vulva, is it jiggly and loose? Can you post pictures of her from behind that show her vulva and the area next to the top of her tail? There are ligaments there that will relax as she gets closer to birth and can help to gauge how close she is to calving. It's not exact but can give you a ballpark. Also post pics of her from behind that are far enough away to show both sides of her belly.
Also, go to the feed/livestock/whatever store and get some powdered colostrum and a bottle with a nipple to have on hand. just in case she calves in the next day or two. It is vital that the calf get colostrum or it will die and because you have been milking, the colostrum would not be adequate at this stage.

Modified to add: Welcome to KFC and you sure have a purty girl there! She looks like a sweetheart!

[wyomama]

Could she be pregnant? You can't generally see or feel a calf move until at least 7 months, and you would see it only on her right side, between her flank and rib cage.

Can you post some current pictures of her? From the side, from the rear, from the front, posed so that her body fills the frame.

How much of all of those things were/are you feeding her per day?

Colostrum is very yellow, but I've never heard the taste described as "bitter".

[Jenn]

A had a goat with bitter colostrum every year...but VERY sweet milk.

-Jenn

[Deleted]

Thank you so much for the answers and information!

She should be about 4 and a half year old now.
When I looked closely at her vulva, at appeared to be puffier, and the skin around it has some “orange-brownish” color. I remember that being more of a compact sized sometime ago.
She did not change her behavior, just “Moo”s a lot more often.

I ‘ve got some colostrum today in case we will need it, thanks again for the advice.

She eats hay as much as she wants , she also eats grass, veggies & fruits about a pond a day, grain feed for cows – “Producer’s pride” all stock sweet feed, and “producer’s pride” 20% protein cattle cubes( that she rejects lately), also she eats corn and corn husks, she also gets into chicken coop sometimes and get all their’s laying hens feed. For some reason she likes it a lot.

Thank to the website, I saw a lot of such a valuable information. Now I am thinking maybe i should not feed her as much grain food, as i used too.... I am not sure if cow can prosper on just hay and the grass... but it makes a good sense to give her less of GMO grains.

I've got a hold of the previous owner, who said she could get pregnant back then, because she was in the herd. He also said
I took some pictures of her ….

[Deleted]

Please excuse us for rear view

[Deleted]

as i understood (from speaking to the previous owner), she did not have a calf. And now she is 4,5 years old. I thought dairy cows start producing milk only after being breed... but then i was told it may not be a case with dairy cows... Dont know... anybody knows the truth?

[Deleted]

and view from another side

[Deleted]

[parndt]

She's got quite the nice covering of... let's call it insulation. She looks pretty good to me, condition-wise but eyes that are used to seeing dairy cows could better estimate her condition.
Her previous owner has a herd of cattle but doesn't think she's ever had a calf?? Um, ahem, yeah, I don't think so. They do have to have a calf in order to make the volume of milk that she was producing. It's possible for a cow who has already lactated to spontaneously relactate but that's pretty rare. If she was in a herd with a bull(s) then it's almost guaranteed that she is pregnant. Can you find out when she was introduced to the herd? That should give you a time to start expecting a calf.
Looking at the pictures, her vulva does look puffy, but I don't know what it looked like before so, Her ligaments appear to be pretty relaxed, but not completely loose. She doesn't look very big on the right side so I would say (just to be safe) that the calf is in the birthing position already. As a disclaimer: I am assuming she is due soon because, if she isn't, you haven't lost anything but it can turn out very badly if you aren't expecting it and she needs help with calving.
You need to keep her out of the chicken feed because it can really make her very, very sick. Can you weigh out each of the different feeds that you are giving her so you know how much she is getting each day? As for her needing grain, that is very individual. Neither of my cows need grain and they both thrive on hay and alfalfa cubes. Grain is a supplement to compensate for large volumes of milk being produced. It is to give the cow calories that she needs to survive while she is putting all of her hay/grass into milk.

[Jenn]

I would get a preg check ASAP....either a vet or biotracking, which ever is fastest. You don't want to be milking if she is about to calve.

-Jenn

[lew92]

Yes, keep her out of the chicken feed. Your cow looks fat to me - if she calves soon she could have some trouble with it because of fat on her organs, etc.

I'd get a vet out to check her for pregnancy ASAP. Post a picture of her milk, so we can see if it is looking like colostrum. If it is colostrum, you will want to freeze it up and save it for the calf, as the cow can't produce any more than she will initially have.

[lew92]

Nov 27, 2011 10:06:11 GMT -5 wyomama said:

Could she be pregnant? You can't generally see or feel a calf move until at least 7 months, and you would see it only on her right side, between her flank and rib cage.

Most cows carry on the right, most of the time, but my cow carried her last calf on the left side and I didn't feel movement when bumping until the last month - and never did see it move.

[Becky]

I vote for a preg check, too. I will also third, or fourth, keeping her out of the chicken food. That could cause her to become SERIOUSLY ill, and even potentially can be fatal.
Pam is also correct in that she *had* to have had a calf to lactate. They do drop off production after a certain point in their lactation. As your girl has been milking since before April, and here we are 8 months later, the drop in production is pretty normal, especially if she is bred, which is very likely.

Becky

[wyomama]

I would get the pregnancy question answered right away. Either have a vet palpate her, or draw blood for Biotracking.

She is beautiful, but very "fluffy".

[jerseylovinliz]

Dolly (my cow) would go around stealing food until I switched her brand of loose minerals. Don't get me wrong she wouldn't turn down her food for anything but she quit opening gates & bending panels to get to their food. Her food didn't change, their pens didn't change. Only change was the brand of loose minerals I had out. Since then she hasn't done it once. Dd even left the lid off the chicken feed overnight & she didn't eat any. Dh bought the 'wrong' minerals the ONE time I sent him to the feed store! Turns out it was a great mistake I should've made a lot sooner!

Might try putting out free choice loose minerals & baking soda for her. I second/third/fourth getting her checked for pegnancy asap.

She looks like a sweet girl! I haven't seen a chunky cow from Tx in ages.

Welcome to KFC! - Liz

[farmeratheart]

Nov 28, 2011 0:43:11 GMT -5 @la7595 said:

Please excuse us for rear view

Affectionately know on this site as "Cow Porn"

[Deleted]

Thank you so much for your replies!
Yes, right, she is pregnant and vet just confirmed that today. He said about 10 days or so before the delivery... i also was told usually she will be able to handle the birth just by herself, except when baby is born the mucus needs to be taken out of its nostrils.... wow ,very happy, still, have a lot to research for to be ready.
I wonder if calf may need a blanket or warm air barn, because here in TX right now we have cold nights as low as 35F.... and there is no air heating in our barn. Probably i should put extra hay for them to lay on....?
And another thing i wonder if i should empty her some because of 1,5 day - no milking - and she was full.... and i milked her a little, worrying about her getting mastitis. Is it ok to keep to milk her a bit or she should not be milked at all?
I had no idea of abundance of her "insulation" - in fact i thought she is quiet skinny i hope she may loose some of that stuff after the childbirth... and maybe after the birth i should take away that feeder with grain that stays in the barn, available for her 24/7....
thank you again for all your great help!

[dunderi]

grain 24/7, no wonder she's a porker

ideally she should have been dried off weeks ago, so i wouldn't milk her, unless she starts streaming everywhere, or goes mastitic... she needs to keep that colustrum for the calf, to stop it getting sick. that not-so-tasty yellow milk is very important for the new baby. if you do need to milk any of it out - freeze it in case you need it.

i'd put a very generous bedding of hay down for her - but don't blanket the calf when its born - she needs to have free access to it if you want them to bond. she will lick the calf all over, and dry it off - and from that point on "no calf will suit her so well as that one" :-)
{{If you don't already have the KFC book - get it, I'm pretty good at internet research but nothing i found anywhere was as excellent and comprehensive as Joann's masterpiece.}}

for the big event (golly you must be excited! i'm excited for you and i'm a million miles away) make sure you have a good supply of molasses - dilute 1 cup in 2 gallons of lukewarm water, and give her as much as she can drink after calving.

CMPK tubes or fluid packs - seems to be standard proceedure amongst the KFC family to give 2 tubes at calving. others will comment on this (please guys) we give a similar mineral package but its an IV that is given sub-cut if not in a hurry, IV in an emergency.

Rest - get yourself (and your significant other)plenty well rested. don't do what i did and check on her 40 times a night, as all she gets out of that is a tired owner