Post by pricefarm on Jan 12, 2012 10:42:48 GMT -5
Maybe I am just a glutton for punishment, but at least I feel like I'm doing the right thing
I bought a 7 year old Jersey cow who had been mistreated/neglected. The people were too busy to properly take care of her. She calved with twins right before Christmas and lost them both. She apparently calved early and they were not around. They milked her a little after that but not regularly from what I can tell. She got a cut on one teat and that combined with the irregular milking, of course, developed into mastitis. They let the mastitis get pretty bad before they tried to do anything. They gave her some penicillin and tried to milk out the clumps a couple times. The quarter was basically all hard inside when I got her. I am rubbing her quarter with tea tree oil and Vitamin E, plus adding Vit E and garlic to her feed. I massage that quarter 3 times a day and milk out what I can get. Because she calved so long ago and they weren't milking regularly, she is almost dry in her other 3 quarters. I don't really want to let her go dry and I figured the best way to help the mastitis and bring her back to milk would be to put a couple calves on her. I got a couple day-old calves and she "adopted" them right away. She is quite mothering and protective toward them! I have been bottle feeding the calves (with milk from my other cow) 3 times a day since I know she doesn't have hardly any milk. The calves are regularly sucking on her and the mastitis is already looking better. I can tell she has a little more milk than she did a couple days ago and the calves keep going back for more so they are definitely getting some milk. My question is - how do I know when the calves are getting enough from her and I can decrease the bottle feeding? Has anyone ever milked an almost dry cow back into milk? If so, about how long did it take to bring her back into full milk or did she ever come back fully?
Thanks!
Sarah
I bought a 7 year old Jersey cow who had been mistreated/neglected. The people were too busy to properly take care of her. She calved with twins right before Christmas and lost them both. She apparently calved early and they were not around. They milked her a little after that but not regularly from what I can tell. She got a cut on one teat and that combined with the irregular milking, of course, developed into mastitis. They let the mastitis get pretty bad before they tried to do anything. They gave her some penicillin and tried to milk out the clumps a couple times. The quarter was basically all hard inside when I got her. I am rubbing her quarter with tea tree oil and Vitamin E, plus adding Vit E and garlic to her feed. I massage that quarter 3 times a day and milk out what I can get. Because she calved so long ago and they weren't milking regularly, she is almost dry in her other 3 quarters. I don't really want to let her go dry and I figured the best way to help the mastitis and bring her back to milk would be to put a couple calves on her. I got a couple day-old calves and she "adopted" them right away. She is quite mothering and protective toward them! I have been bottle feeding the calves (with milk from my other cow) 3 times a day since I know she doesn't have hardly any milk. The calves are regularly sucking on her and the mastitis is already looking better. I can tell she has a little more milk than she did a couple days ago and the calves keep going back for more so they are definitely getting some milk. My question is - how do I know when the calves are getting enough from her and I can decrease the bottle feeding? Has anyone ever milked an almost dry cow back into milk? If so, about how long did it take to bring her back into full milk or did she ever come back fully?
Thanks!
Sarah