caked udder

[Anonymous]

I recently purchased a 3 yr old cow in her 3rd period of gestation. Since that time she has calved but never had any milk. I got her in and tried to milk her out when I noted that the calf did not appear to be getting stronger (on the second day after birth). Her udder was all caked up and no milk in the tits (several attempts were made to get milk to no avail). I lost the calf. Does any one have any experience with this type of thing and what is the prognosis for the cow, that is, will she have milk with the next calf or not.

 

[dun]

Two possibilites come to mind, severe edema but you should be able to express some milk, or severe mastitis. With the mastitis you should still be able to get something out but it would be cheesy.
Ship her or eat her

dun

 

[myersfarm]

even my good cows only get to lose one calf if its there fault and ...I SHIP........i agree with dun

 

[sidney411]

It is more then likely a recurring problem, that is probably why her origional owner sold the cow origionally.

 

[Farmhand]

I agree - ship her. Once a problem with the udder, always a problem with the udder. Learned that the hard way.

 

[jerry27150]

ship her

 

[Bernard]

David -

I'm not sure I understand when you say her udder was "caked up". Are you refering to the inside - meaning 'something' was in there, but it was not liquid milk? Did the bag ever change size or shape, feel warm to the touch when you tried to milk her out, etc.?

 

[CattleAnnie]

Sorry to hear about your calf, David.
Dirt caked on teats usually indicates that the calf has not been sucking recently, but I've got a few questions for you about the cow.

When you tried to draw milk out of the cow, did you check the ends of the teats? Maybe it's just the cold weather we have up here, but a lot of times the teats end up with a tough callous like scab on the end. We've had to run the odd cow into the maternity pen or squeeze to peel them off - otherwise the calf can't get any milk when it sucks.

Also have noticed that some cows get a "pea" like blockage in the teat, and requires a bit of work to get them out. Once milk is started doesn't seem to re-occur, just weird phenomenon.

Was her bag hot to the touch? If so she may have had mastitis.

Anyway, sorry to hear about your troubles. Better luck next time around.

Take care.

 

[Farmhand]

Great tip CattleAnnie! I had plum forgot about that. My husband will open teats up by scraping them with his fingernail. It's kind of like picking your nose (sorry for the image). They sometimes get a plug that is difficult for the calf to remove. That plug keeps dirt and germs out when not being used by the calf so it does serve a purpose. There is no damage from this and cow and calf will do fine once they're open. I think my husband has to keep doing the same cows each year with each new calf.

 

[Beefy]

sounds like severe mastitis to me. did it look like she had milk but the udder was hard when you tried to milk? my advice-sell the cow or butcher her before she rebreeds.