Post by Nonesuch Melissa on Jun 26, 2015 9:52:08 GMT -5
Poppy's situation in a nutshell. She is a seven nearly eight year old Jersey 6 months fresh, before Monday was producing 3 1/2 gallons/day on OAD.
Last weekend she had some snot in her milk.
Monday she looked puny at milking, did not finish her grain.
Tuesday she would not eat or drink- almost no milk and front quarters scant yellow watery with snot. 105 fever. Vet diagnosed pneumonia. She got Exceed, LA200, pain meds, b-vits., and Today infusions in all four quarters.
Wednesday she had detectable gas in two front quarters (spongy gas filled mammary tissue) fluid from affected quarters turned brown and watery and gas escapes during milking- no smell. Resumed eating and drinking, looks only mildly/moderately uncomfortable on Banamine every 12 hours. Got immunoboost (yesterday). Pneumonia resolving with normal breath sounds.
Thursday more of Wednesday- grazes some, eats a little grain, making manure, scant watery brown liquid from affected quarters, scant milk from others. Does not look uncomfortable (much), maintaining weight.
I need some careful opinions here please, mostly because I feel my vision on this may not be completely clear (and I'm not used to that in myself). After many years of following this board I've said that were two things I'd never tackle 1. A true downer cow. 2. Gangrene mastitis. Obviously I am afraid this is the latter and probably due to all our recent flood waters and the nastiness that comes with them.
I'm telling myself that my choice to not immediately kill Poppy is because: A. She seems to be getting better? B. If I can get her through the withdrawl times we REALLY need meat. I am stacking this up against what it has already or will cost me to get back to where I was before this started (cow $1,800-$2,500, meds and vet approx. $400 so far) being a total loss vs the horror of possibly dealing with her sloughing half her udder during July and August in a semi-tropical climate in the rainiest year on record. For almost $3K I can do a lot... but not make her suffer so if this is only going down hill I'd like to end it sooner rather than later but I don't want to bury an animal with even salvage value if possible.
I hope this makes sense.