Good Morning,
Been reading your forum for a while and have learned so much for everyone........SO THANKS SO MUCH.
Christmas Eve gave me something to contribute to the forum. TWINS. I went out that morning to check the heard and saw Mama licking a new calve, and in my excitement of watching and walking to get closer I almost stepped on another calf. Being confused of what I saw and not thinking Twins, I started checking all the other cows to see whom this calf belonged to. What threw me was one calf was clean and dry with no after birth around anywhere and laying about two hundred feet away from the new born.
After getting help from a neighbor, I decided they were twins and got them with the mama cow. After a few hours went buy I hadnt seen anybody nursing or even trying, I decided to step in with some culosterum (spelling??). I started with the weakest one and had to make him suck, which took a lot of time.
To make a long story short, the mamas bag was hard and her milk was not dropping down. My wife and I tried to milk her, with little success. Didnt know what a good bag or healthy teats looked like. We were able to keep the calves alive until I could get the mama to the vet after Christmas to get her cleaned out. The vet gave me some advice about milking and 4 of us milked this cow out for 30 min. There was milk everywhere.
As of today everyone is doing fine. One calf is a aggressive nurser and the other is not, but they are running and jumping and acting like the other calfes.
I learned many things over that three day period:
1) Have plenty of culosterum available.
2) Twins could be born at different times and PLACES.
3) Warm water is a MUST when trying to hand milk a cow (at least in the beginning)
4) Cherish your neighbors that have cattle....they are your best cheerleaders.
5) Milking makes your hands tired.
6) Clean out after twins needs to be by a VET.
7) Farm stores close at noon on Christmas Eve.
Been reading your forum for a while and have learned so much for everyone........SO THANKS SO MUCH.
Christmas Eve gave me something to contribute to the forum. TWINS. I went out that morning to check the heard and saw Mama licking a new calve, and in my excitement of watching and walking to get closer I almost stepped on another calf. Being confused of what I saw and not thinking Twins, I started checking all the other cows to see whom this calf belonged to. What threw me was one calf was clean and dry with no after birth around anywhere and laying about two hundred feet away from the new born.
After getting help from a neighbor, I decided they were twins and got them with the mama cow. After a few hours went buy I hadnt seen anybody nursing or even trying, I decided to step in with some culosterum (spelling??). I started with the weakest one and had to make him suck, which took a lot of time.
To make a long story short, the mamas bag was hard and her milk was not dropping down. My wife and I tried to milk her, with little success. Didnt know what a good bag or healthy teats looked like. We were able to keep the calves alive until I could get the mama to the vet after Christmas to get her cleaned out. The vet gave me some advice about milking and 4 of us milked this cow out for 30 min. There was milk everywhere.
As of today everyone is doing fine. One calf is a aggressive nurser and the other is not, but they are running and jumping and acting like the other calfes.
I learned many things over that three day period:
1) Have plenty of culosterum available.
2) Twins could be born at different times and PLACES.
3) Warm water is a MUST when trying to hand milk a cow (at least in the beginning)
4) Cherish your neighbors that have cattle....they are your best cheerleaders.
5) Milking makes your hands tired.
6) Clean out after twins needs to be by a VET.
7) Farm stores close at noon on Christmas Eve.
