Post by Deleted on Mar 10, 2008 21:26:48 GMT -5
Mastitis, that is.
We FINALLY weaned Marigold's calf on Saturday, just one week shy of her 8 month birthday. Marigold is doing much better weight-wise after finding a farmer with EXCELLENT hay and starting her on organic dairy grain. She could still use to gain at least 75 pounds, but she's gaining steadily and eating well.
I started TAD milkings Saturday night, and I'm THRILLED to be getting 1/2 gallon per milking (don't laugh too hard, this summer I was excited to get 10 oz a milking when I was sharemilking with the calf). Everything went really well right through last night, milk looked great, tastes great ;D, little if any kicking, and she's even letting DH try his hand at milking.
This morning, however, I noted that the milk took an abnormally long time to go through the filter. No noticable clumps or anything, but some very small, almost unnoticable grainy pieces on the sides of the stainless part of the filter. This evening I got stuck late at work, and poor thing had to wait about 2 and a half hours later than her 12-hour window. She was REALLY full, and somewhat sore (two or three well-intentioned kicks tonight, the first in over a week). Her right rear quarter, which has always been difficult to milk (opening seems smaller, so less comes out at a time, and the feel of the teat is different, hard to explain...it "balloons" out at the top of the teat where it attaches to the udder), was especially difficult tonight, and took FOREVER to empty. Both rear quarters were somewhat warm, but I'm not sure if this could be due to the stress of being milked late?
Anyway, milk tonight strained really slow as well, and the "grainy" residue on the stainless of the filter was a little more noticable. No clumps, no odor, no off color.
Any thoughts? I don't want to see this progress if it truly is mastitis, but I'm wondering if she could just be adjusting (slowly) to not having the calf nursing 24/7 and having to develop a full bag? I have some mastitis test strips, and I'll try them tomorrow morning (even though I'm afraid to). Another thought is that aside from not being used to developing a full bag, she's also not used to being milked TAD (nor am I)...could she have some edema in her teats from being milked more frequently by my novice and cramping hands? Could that be causing the graininess?
Nikki (who is hoping to not have to deal with antibiotics )
We FINALLY weaned Marigold's calf on Saturday, just one week shy of her 8 month birthday. Marigold is doing much better weight-wise after finding a farmer with EXCELLENT hay and starting her on organic dairy grain. She could still use to gain at least 75 pounds, but she's gaining steadily and eating well.
I started TAD milkings Saturday night, and I'm THRILLED to be getting 1/2 gallon per milking (don't laugh too hard, this summer I was excited to get 10 oz a milking when I was sharemilking with the calf). Everything went really well right through last night, milk looked great, tastes great ;D, little if any kicking, and she's even letting DH try his hand at milking.
This morning, however, I noted that the milk took an abnormally long time to go through the filter. No noticable clumps or anything, but some very small, almost unnoticable grainy pieces on the sides of the stainless part of the filter. This evening I got stuck late at work, and poor thing had to wait about 2 and a half hours later than her 12-hour window. She was REALLY full, and somewhat sore (two or three well-intentioned kicks tonight, the first in over a week). Her right rear quarter, which has always been difficult to milk (opening seems smaller, so less comes out at a time, and the feel of the teat is different, hard to explain...it "balloons" out at the top of the teat where it attaches to the udder), was especially difficult tonight, and took FOREVER to empty. Both rear quarters were somewhat warm, but I'm not sure if this could be due to the stress of being milked late?
Anyway, milk tonight strained really slow as well, and the "grainy" residue on the stainless of the filter was a little more noticable. No clumps, no odor, no off color.
Any thoughts? I don't want to see this progress if it truly is mastitis, but I'm wondering if she could just be adjusting (slowly) to not having the calf nursing 24/7 and having to develop a full bag? I have some mastitis test strips, and I'll try them tomorrow morning (even though I'm afraid to). Another thought is that aside from not being used to developing a full bag, she's also not used to being milked TAD (nor am I)...could she have some edema in her teats from being milked more frequently by my novice and cramping hands? Could that be causing the graininess?
Nikki (who is hoping to not have to deal with antibiotics )