She didn't make it....
 

She was up last night at 1:30. Kept wanting to get out last night and so I led her out to the trough and she was up last night. Her breath was terrible and the vet is supposed to come out here in a bit. I'm not sure what happened. My poor daughter stayed with her hours yesterday....hours. She will be devastated.

Thank you all for your care, concern and help.....thank you.

So SORRY

Oh, crap. I am so sorry to hear that. :(

You have the sincere condolences of my family here.
Hugs.

RIP Elenore, a good cow.

Sorry to hear this news...be strong.

So sorry for your loss. Hugs to you.

Hate losing her....but hate the telling of the kids just as much. She was family.

Awww, so sorry.

I'm sorry.

Dang. Just... dang.
I've been following the story since you were suspecting her to calve soon. Wish it didn't end this way. :(

Very, very sorry she didn't make it. Long haul for you, I know.

I am so very very sorry!

So sorry. I don't know of anyone that did more for their cow that you did for yours.

Thanks guys. My daughter is a good kid. I was so worried about telling her as she was the one who spent the most time in the barn of all my kids. She cried a little bit but said, "Well, at least we did everything we could and she knew we loved her when she died cause I brushed her and loved on her a lot." I asked if she thought she would want to get another one someday and she, "Yeah, maybe we could go back to the nestle farm we got her from and see if they have another one they would sell us that's just like her."
I think I did alright with this one. My son is a tender heart (he's 8) but has been at his dads through all of this and so will fortunately miss out on the suffering she endured and come home to at least a healthy calf.

I'm so sorry.

Sounds like you have a loving, caring, yet level headed daughter to be very proud of.

Awe, I am SO sorry. :-( I've been checking on your threads almost constantly to see any more news. Such a sad ending. :-(

So sorry allenslabs. Losing a milk cow is like losing a family member. You did all you could.

Very sorry to hear. We lost an Ayrshire to milk fever years ago, it's so sad. She was our first cow too. I hope you are able to find another wonderful cow to add to your family, and know that you did everything you could for your cow.

The first milk cow I ever owned got a severe case of Milk Fever and it cost me $100's of dollars and lots of missed night's sleep to get her through it. I felt I was a pro at it. She ended up getting it again and again with each calf until it got the best of her. (She calved while I was gone.)

Of all the money I spent on her she never once threw me a heife calf. (6 bulls and 100's in vet meds.)

So sorry to hear you lost her. There will be another cow, rest assured!

This is exactly what I was going to say.

Fortunately I only had about $250 in vet bills and 3 nights of messed up sleep. I hate that I lost her but it would have sucked to do this every calf. The little calf is doing good. Kinda has the goopy poo right now cause I left him loose with Elenore yesterday as him being in the pen with her made her seem to want to get better. So, he got to nurse and got those goopy poos today. I went ahead and fed electrolytes in place of the bottle just in case.
Well, I called the "Nestle" farm guy and let him know how it had went with Elenore as I had called him that morning it all started to see what was going on. He is such a nice guy. He said he was sorry for the loss as he knew I liked her. He said that sometimes, with that cal-mag gel being so caustic, if they start to choke on it or something, they can get it into their lungs and cause a lot of damage. I asked him if he ever had another one he wanted to sell to please keep me in mind as we really did love Elenore and my mom and dad love the cow they got from him too. He raises nice cows. He said that he would look around and see what he could come up with which is what he said when I first called looking for a cow in the first place and also what he said to my mom and dad when they called wanting one. Guess that means he'll look at the cows as they come through the milking line and see if there is a lower producer. To him though, Elenore and Marie (my mom and dads cow) were both low producers but both gave plenty for us. I guess Marie, who just freshened 2 weeks ago, is up to 6 gal a day!!
So, I will just take care of little bummer and if I get a call within a day or two, I will see how we all are and if we are ready for another one. If not, mom and dad said to bring Bummer to their house cause they have plenty of milk from their girl and it would keep their little heifer, which they had already decided on the day she was born to name her Elenore cause dad liked the name so well. Maybe that's why the name stuck so hard with him...there was something else at hand sending the name his way. Anyway, if I don't have a cow Bummer will go to their house to keep their calf company.

And thanks. I am sure I'm not the only that does this but, I look back and think, if I had only thought ahead to treat for any infection, if I had known her excitement wasn't just from the baby, it was from the milk fever. But, honestly, I did what I could and my daughter hit the nail on the head, she died knowing we loved her and we did everything we could do. Plain and simple. It was a hard, expensive lesson to be learned, but now I am far better prepared for the future. Sucky way to get there....but at least I have learned something.

It's no consolation, I'm sure, but even with the best treatment inhalation pneumonia is often fatal. There's no way to get the inhaled substance out of the lungs, and it just sits there growing bacteria and poisoning the lungs. You did everything humanly possible for her.

Is it possible that is what that horrible smell was when she breathed? My boyfriend removed her from the barn and he said that when he did there was what looked to be blood coming from her nose. I was thinking that was probably from the infection or something that was probably what led to her demise. Thank you Mary for the explanation on that form of pneumonia. Sucky way to go that is for sure.

The odor can definitely come with inhalation pneumonia. With cows, it's usually rumen fluid that is regurgitated while they're down, and then inhaled. All those rumen bacteria cause an abscess in the lung, and eventually blood poisoning. A shot of PennG would have no effect against it.

So sorry for the passing of Elenore, if you love that cow like I do mine, I know how you feel. Life is a learning process, some are good, some not so good, but non the less we learn from all of them. I give you a GOLD star for everything you did for that cow, she knew she was loved I`m sure. Your daughter like mine have come to know that we can`t save them all, death is something farm kids seem to learn about at a much younger age. Keep your chin up, it will get better, but right now it hurts very badly. > Marc

You did all you could do. So very sorry!

Thank you everyone. You sure make me feel like I did everything I could. I thought I did but still one can second guess themselves often.
That makes sense on the inhaled rumen fluid as her head was downhill from her body and there was fluid coming from her nose. I would guess when I sat her back up, it trailed into her lungs.

I am so sorry. I've been following your threads and thinking of you every day. I didn't post because there are so many with more experience than me on here. Maybe she was just prone to it, like one poster said on here. I do hope they find a good cow for you.

All our cow got was wheat bread, 8 loaves a day, and grass hay, and dairy minerals in the 2 months of dry leading up to calving. No grain at all. Her bag only got very large the same day she had the baby. She had the baby at 2am and we milked her completely out at 6am, and then twice daily, taking all the milk, with the auto milker.

Now that she is milking again, she gets the same feed plus a little bit of plain All Stock, tiny pellets, no sweet feed. We usually don't even feed All Stock, but since the baby, we wanted to be sure she had the vitamins. Once the green grass is back, we will stop feeding the All Stock pellets.

So sorry you lost Eleanor. Not the news we'd hoped for. I remember the stress of going through this myself and couldn't stop worrying for you. I'm sorry it ended this way. I hope you find another cow just as nice as Eleanor.

sorry about Ms. Elenore, what a heart breaking loss, will put a flower at the base of my St. Francis statue in her honor

Oh thank you farmgirl6. Blackwillowfarm....Me too. I liked her weird personality. LOL!!

So sorry to hear this ... you have my condolences. :(

Sorry about your loss. Besides not needing alot of milk, milk fever is a reason I avoid full Jersey cows. On small acreage, I'll never own enough cows to get good at treatment.

I currently milk a beef heifer, and have a Hereford/Jersey cross calf for the future.

I once bought a low producing Jersey from a dairy that turned out to have chronic mastitis they couldn't cure. I also have to wonder if dairymen sell cows who are prone to milk fever.

That's why I prefer to start with a calf - seems less likely it is being sold because of problems, assuming it's not a freemartin.

Sorry you lost your girl. :(

I'm so very sorry for your loss.How sad.
Chris