Hard udder?

[lmp570]

a local farmer was telling me that his last 2 calves have not been able to nurse bc the entire udder is hard. solid. he applied udder cream to the teats and that seemed to soften them up but it does not work on the sac itself and it is still solid, therefore no milk will come out.

one cow has a little milk coming out but the other cows sac is totally solid with no milk discharge.

is this a contagious disease or just a coencidence?

are suggestions on how to fix this problem?

 

[Beefy]

ive seen 4 cases like that over the years. all in heifers. two black limousinxangus and one red one and a black limousinxbrangus. ive never been able to do anything with them when the whole udder is hard as a rock like that. some kind of weird mastitis (said the vet, he thinks) and as far as i can tell it must not be contagious b/c ive seen these cases over several years. ;

Are your cows related?
what is their breeding?
how is the fly situation?
any similarities you see between these cows?
are they first calvers (i assume it didnt happen b/w lactations)
if they are 1stcalf heifers, have you noticed other heifers or calves nursing them in the past?
what kind of body condition are they in? do they get fed out of a sack?

.

 

[LimousinGirl]

a local farmer was telling me that his last 2 calves have not been able to nurse bc the entire udder is hard. solid. he applied udder cream to the teats and that seemed to soften them up but it does not work on the sac itself and it is still solid, therefore no milk will come out.

one cow has a little milk coming out but the other cows sac is totally solid with no milk discharge.

is this a contagious disease or just a coencidence?

are suggestions on how to fix this problem?

Don't know if this will help--???--but we had a goat that had a real hard udder for a while after having kids- we would hold hot rags on the udder for a few minutes before milking it and it seemed to help some. It finally cleared up after a while. It was a pain though...not much milk would come out.

 

[TheBullLady]

Mastitis.. but unusual that the entire udder is hard. Usually it only effects a "quarter" of the udder.

I would strongly suggest he get a vet.

 

[dun]

When I've seen entire udders hard as a rock it's almost alwasy been edema and not mastitis. Hot compresses, massaging the udder ehlp, but the quickest and easiest method of helping it is a shot of Lasix (I think that's how it's spelled).

 

[farmerjohn]

I have never saw an entire bag hard either. Is it hot to the touch? If so then it probably is mastitis

 

[Santas and Duhram Reds]

We had 1 heifer do this several years back. Vet told us that she was nursed by another calf when she was a calf herself. Ruined her bag. She only had 1 functional quarter. We sold her after she raised that calf.