One of our home-raised cows just had her second calf about 12 days ago,did just fine on all counts. We recently observed her calf wan't as vigorous as the rest, then watched closer as it went down hill quick. We rescued baby this last Sat and it was nearly starved. After catching them both up and bottle feeding the calf,I checked mama's bag, tried stripping her out and she has Very little milk, not completely dry, but really close. She's mothering the calf , and I'm keeping them together as much as possible. Baby is stronger now,really likes the bottle, still nurses mama, only jumps from teat to teat searching. so, have any of you brought one back from drying up? I've been told it was probably mastitis,(and too late to turn her around) but quite honestly, her bag feels just fine, no lumps or fever, and she's not at all touchy . I could put a pail under her and milk her, if there was anything there! We gave her a good dose of Oxy Tet in case there is an infection anywhere...Sure don't want to ship her if we don't have to. Durn! Young cow and easy going! Got any idee's? Or tricks? Been a great calving season besides this little set back-hope you all are having the same.
Mama cow drying up
- Thread starter Brookman
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Thanks Dun, I'd say her body condition is good, all our cows tend to be on the fat side, we sowed clover & lespedeza last Feb, and it teally took off. They're not even looking at the hay yet. But it would make sense, if she got special treatment for a while, do you suppose it could bring her back into milk? The calf is doing great with a morning and evening feeding, still sucking. Kind of a pain to have a bottle baby, but I Could do it, for a while.
I know how you feel about that bottle feeding. But it all depends on how much that baby calf is worth to you. To me, it is worth the time to bottle feed because I hate to lose 400-600 bucks! I creep feed a momma cow that is lacking in milk production. I give them a 14% or 16% creep along with plenty of water and good hay, and sometimes that gives them the boost they need to produce a better volume of milk.
