Bad Weekend

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Sarah317

Sarah317

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I know weekends aren't normally all that great (28 hours in 2 days is very tiresome) but this weekend was terrible for sick cows anyway.

We had a cow start to bloat on Saturday and today she died. Plus, we had 2 that needed to be treated for mastitis. One of those got her foot stuck between some bars and may have broken it. (She's eating but maybe she also had nerve damage and can't feel it.) Another cow - one of my favourites of course :roll: - calved Friday and hasn't gotten up since Saturday. She's breathing short, hard breaths, is shifting often and has little circulation. We don't think she's going to pull through. Oh, also, we have 3 or 4 that probably have DA's. The vet should be coming out tomorrow.

I can't say I've had a worse weekend in a while.
 
its a full moon.

the whole year has been pretty crappy for me. hope your pal gets up. why so many DAs at one time?
 
Herd I work with has had up to 4 DA's at one shot too, came from the boss putting cows into the main herd from the sick pen w/o the herd manager's permission. :roll: 2 out of a herd of 300 being treated...could be worse. I've treated 3 in one night, and that's out of 400. Maybe none of my business, but what does your boss' SCC run at? Hope it all works out for ya over there. Last winter was tougher on my boss' herd than I've ever seen...summer has brought a real lull.
 
I was just talking to my wife about milking cows again. We need the income. Then I read this and remembered why I got out. It gave me cold chills just reading it. I remember going thru weekends like that. A dairyman can go have a bad week and never recover. Not only the financial loss, but the stress. When a farmer fails people are quick to criticize, say he was a poor manager, but sometimes its just bad luck.
 
born2run":31grhexu said:
Herd I work with has had up to 4 DA's at one shot too, came from the boss putting cows into the main herd from the sick pen w/o the herd manager's permission. :roll:
Click to expand...
I'm a little confused here. Isn't DA short for Displaced Abomasum better know as twisted stomach? Your comment above makes that sound like it is contagious. Maybe from those sick pen cows getting a hotter ration with less stems (if it was the sick pen cows that were the ones with the DA) but surely not contagious in a viral sense just from mingleing.
 
No, it isn't viral. You're dead-on as to why they had the DA's, although it was the opposite way around. Cows in the main herd get the higher protein ration. These animals that were already sick with other things couldn't handle the ration change. The boss has no clue what goes on out there, but got irritated that the herd manager had the sick pen over-crowded. I don't know he didn't call him and ask WHY the cows were in there.

rkm...I wouldn't own a dairy herd if milk price was guaranteed a constant $17. The stress is unbearable at times. I've often told people I'll gladly manage a dairy herd, but never in a million years own one. I was born and raised on a dairy...and am all too aware of everything it involves.
 
D. A.'s are caused by many things that are feed related, such as a change in the ration or the ration being too wet. If the cow is stressed or goes off feed for any reason they are a good canidate for a DA. I found DAs went in cycles you may not any for few months then have a half of dozen in a week. Most cows recover if they operated on properly and soon after they go off feed. But some never recover even after the expensive operation. Those you lose double.
 
I know what a DA is. I grew up on a dairy and majored in dairy science in college. I was questioning run's wording in that post. It all sounded fishy and none made much sense the way it was written.
 
Update: The cow that was down died early this morning. Also, I think the vet was out today but I'm not sure how many were operated on. It seems like lately DA's are happening all the time. One thing that I've heard is that at this farm they aren't great at sealing the silage. You can often find mold in the mix :S.

As for the SCC...somatic cell count right?...I'm not sure what it's at. I usually have about a hundred questions for them when I see them as it is but it would be interesting to know.
 
SCC-Somatic Cell Count...Creamery cards list it as White Cell Count also. Our herd manager puts these cards on the parlor cart for the employees to see.
 
Sarah and born2run. do the farms you work for pay employees a bonus for low bact. and scc counts. Some dairies pay the producer for low bact. and low scc counts, some farmers pass that or a portion of it on to the employees.

Beefy cows on pasture are not prone to have a DA. It is possible. We used to turn recovering cows out on grass. Grass and long stem hay help to get the rumen working again then slowly increase the original ration.
 
rkm...yep, $100/month bonus if SCC falls below 200,000, f/t employees only. Not sure how much (if any) the p/t people get. Adds some much needed incentive to do a good job.
 
That does sounds like quite the weekend! :shock: I've been on that end of it before...but today I was on the other end. My vet said it'd be fine if I tagged along when he went to the dairies, and I got see things from the vet's perspective. DAs, premature colts, embryo transfers, bulls, preg checks, surgeries, joint injections, ultrasounds, etc, etc. And you know, it was fun. :)

Hope your week gets better Sarah.
 
rkm - Nope, we don't get any bonuses :(. But, they do pay us pretty well and the incentive for doing a good job I guess is just to occasionally hear through other people that you do a good job. It would be nice to hear it from them sometimes though :).

milkmaid - Thanks for your kind words. Well, this week isn't so bad because I only work Thurs. & Friday. Hopefully it'll go better but I can't imagine it going worse really. I went with a vet for my "take your kids to work" thing in grade nine...it was very interesting! The neatest part was seeing a necropsy on a horse. (It had died because of an intestinal problem apparently.)

Here's a picture of the lady who died - I really liked her spots and her one curly horn.

00071.JPG
 
Sarah...do you have weekly meetings with the boss, herd manager and all the employees? I know very well how it is to feel like you're working hard and the boss and/or supervisor could care less. I had an all out blow-up late last fall that brought them around to this, and although I never see them, I do get the occasional "thumbs up" along with my paychecks.

Nice looking cow...too bad she was lost. Hopefully it all starts looking up over there for you.
 
born2run - We very rarely have meetings with the bosses. We had one in the fall last year before going to 3x but that was pretty well it. Usually we only have them if something is going to change or if there is a problem. It would be nice to know what's going on sometimes though!

Thank you for your condolences. I haven't heard any more bad news yet (knock on wood!).
 
Haha, I thought my boss was the only one who behaved like that. Nice to know...misery loves company. :lol: I see the boss maybe once every 6 weeks, the herd manager about that too although he tends to be a bit more accessible than the boss. It would be very nice to have structured meetings where for instance, the rising SCC was addressed, and any other questions. We used to have meetings more frequently...but haven't now for well over 1 year.
 

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