Teat obstruction

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gberry

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We've had three heifers now that won't milk. One last year and 2 this year. All three calved and mothered up. Calves would nurse, but after about 48 hours seemed to be really going downhill. Brought cows into the chute and couldn't get milk from any of them. Actually the cow last year could be milked but the milk came out at the junction between the teat and udder and the calf wasn't getting any. The two this year had no milk. Udders were very firm, not hot and teats are soft and empty. Vet came out and said it was teat cistern obstruction. He threaded a needle into the teat and actually got milk from one quarter on the first cow this year, but it occluded again. Other three quarters were unsuccessful.

Has anyone had similar problems? I assumed the etiology is genetic as all three have the same sire, but a local dairyman told me it was related to trauma, possibly from weaned calves/yearlings nursing one another. Anyone have any experience with this?

Thanks for any insight.
 
WE used to put a cannula in the teat that had a little valve on the end. But these were milkers and not being nursed. I have seen a number of pecular things with udders in Holsteins that can be traced to a specific sire.
 
Could be genetic - or - if they were raised in wet, mucky conditions (ie crowded pens without clean bedding) prior to calving they could have developed mastitis and it killed some or all quarters. Same thing can happen if heifers nurse on each other prior to calving.
 
The local dairyman had mentioned something along those lines. We are just going to cull and have a couple of bottle calves. I figured it was likely genetic and related to one sire, but was just curious as I had never seen this before. Thought it was just bad luck last year, but seems more likely to be related to this one bull. Too bad as the other heifer from him seem to have real nice udders.
 
milkmaid":2d5e8mke said:
Could be genetic - or - if they were raised in wet, mucky conditions (ie crowded pens without clean bedding) prior to calving they could have developed mastitis and it killed some or all quarters. Same thing can happen if heifers nurse on each other prior to calving.

They all ran on pasture together. We never noticed them nursing each other. Guess we'll be looking for a new herd sire.
 
gberry":1rfe8lef said:
We've had three heifers now that won't milk. One last year and 2 this year. All three calved and mothered up. Calves would nurse, but after about 48 hours seemed to be really going downhill. Brought cows into the chute and couldn't get milk from any of them. Actually the cow last year could be milked but the milk came out at the junction between the teat and udder and the calf wasn't getting any. The two this year had no milk. Udders were very firm, not hot and teats are soft and empty. Vet came out and said it was teat cistern obstruction. He threaded a needle into the teat and actually got milk from one quarter on the first cow this year, but it occluded again. Other three quarters were unsuccessful.

Has anyone had similar problems? I assumed the etiology is genetic as all three have the same sire, but a local dairyman told me it was related to trauma, possibly from weaned calves/yearlings nursing one another. Anyone have any experience with this?

Thanks for any insight.

What breed of cattle are they?
 
Boy, that's a real bummer. There are so many things that can go wrong raising heifers. But, to go all the way thru weaning, raising, breeding, calving - get a live calf - than to have this. Major bummer!!!
 
Jovid":2h98j0vp said:
gberry":2h98j0vp said:
We've had three heifers now that won't milk. One last year and 2 this year. All three calved and mothered up. Calves would nurse, but after about 48 hours seemed to be really going downhill. Brought cows into the chute and couldn't get milk from any of them. Actually the cow last year could be milked but the milk came out at the junction between the teat and udder and the calf wasn't getting any. The two this year had no milk. Udders were very firm, not hot and teats are soft and empty. Vet came out and said it was teat cistern obstruction. He threaded a needle into the teat and actually got milk from one quarter on the first cow this year, but it occluded again. Other three quarters were unsuccessful.

Has anyone had similar problems? I assumed the etiology is genetic as all three have the same sire, but a local dairyman told me it was related to trauma, possibly from weaned calves/yearlings nursing one another. Anyone have any experience with this?

Thanks for any insight.

What breed of cattle are they?

The bull is a Murray Grey. One of the heifers is purebred. The other two are Murray Grey X Black Angus.
 
Jeanne - Simme Valley":1dvlhfpb said:
Boy, that's a real bummer. There are so many things that can go wrong raising heifers. But, to go all the way thru weaning, raising, breeding, calving - get a live calf - than to have this. Major bummer!!!

That's what I say. Not to mention we have a crop of yearlings and some calves on the ground out of this bull. Luckily, we have been using AI for the last two years so we should be able to get replacements from those cows. I was pretty proud of that purebred heifer. Sure is disappointing.
 
as said you have the vet out an have him reem their teats out.weve had todo that to few milk cows to get a teat to milking.they can raise their calves.an theres no reason to caull them.the teats usually stay open an rarely close back up.
 
bigbull338":37guzpct said:
as said you have the vet out an have him reem their teats out.weve had todo that to few milk cows to get a teat to milking.they can raise their calves.an theres no reason to caull them.the teats usually stay open an rarely close back up.

We had the vet out and he was unsuccessful.
 

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