Post by marlans on Oct 18, 2020 17:27:30 GMT -5
Our calf is a month old now. Since day one he has not liked to nurse on Layla's back left quarter. Both of her back teats are much shorter than the front and he prefers to go empty those quarters first and then the back right. I've have trouble with that quarter all month, trying to keep it milked out and having trouble with salty tasting milk from it. No clumps or any other issues with the milk, no lumps, hardness, heat or redness in that problem quarter. I have seen him nurse on it occasionally and then next time I milk her that quarter is fine and her milk tastes normal. I have done a CMT test a few times and right after she freshened it was noticeably thick and now it's occasionally a little off for a second and then returns to liquid form. I also got a new bucket milker and am having getting that quarter milked out completely sometimes. The other quarters completely empty but that quarter sometimes doesn't look completely empty. I'll massage it and move the claw hose slightly and more milk will start to flow, but eventually there is just nothing coming out and she still doesn't look empty. I'll strip her out after afterwards and same thing. Nothing coming out, but it doesn't look empty. I'' afraid I'll never be able to go to OAD milking with her if I have to keep going out to milk her to make sure that quarter gets emptied since the calf isn't doing it for me. We also got home from work Friday and found that she had bloated. I had to call the vet out because we couldn't get it to subside. She recommended we give her baking soda in her feed, but didn't say how much. I read that some people offer it free choice, but she seems to hate it in her feed so I'm not sure she'd touch it free choice. I feed her oats with a little bit of cracked corn and sweet feed mixed in when she's being milked. Right now she has alfalfa hay. The vet thought she got a sweet spot of leafy alfalfa and pigged out on it. She wasn't concerned about my grain mixture. Any advice on getting that quarter milked out so I can switch to OAD at some point and on bloat prevention? The rest of the hay we have is grass hay so we will be moving that in for her.