Terrified of the drying out process...

[cjb]

Some of you may remember what a disaster this was for me last year. I dried our Jersey out 2 months before delivering and she got a terrible case of mastitis and lost a quarter.

Violet has been milking for 12 months now and is due in 12 weeks with a calf. Her production was really cutting so we are drying her up. I followed the vet's instructions exactly but I am concerned.

We switched to milking her only once per day, starting Monday (5 days ago). Her production slowed way down to about 1/2 gallon a day by Thursday. We skipped Friday, then on Saturday (today) I milked her out and put a spectramast tube (10ml) up each teat.

My worry is that when I milked her out today, the milk was very clotty and thick. Also, I thought the quarter seemed a bit stiff. Is this normal after the above process or do we have a problem again this time? If the latter, will the spectramax resolve it?

If she comes down with mastitis again this time I may just be done with the milk cow thing.

Also, the vet mailed me the spectramax and I was surprised that it was just a couple of tubes. I thought that there was some kind of wax plugs that your'e supposed to shove up there too.

[Ronney]

I'm getting a bit confused here. What is Spectramax? I'm assuming it is dry cow therapy and if that is the case it shouldn't be used until the last milking when it is inserted into the udder and the cow isn't milked again until she calves. There is absolutely no point in injecting anything into the udder of a cow that is being dried off and then continueing to milk it out. Dry cow therapy is a long lasting anitbiotic that, once injected, should remain in the quarters to prevent the cow coming back in with mastitis.

Cows will sometimes get mastitis as they dry off which preferably should be cleared up before dry cow therapy is administered. I would suggest that you go back to you vet and get things straightened out.

And no, you don't shove any wax plugs up the teat - the cow manufactures that herself. Once a cow has been dried off the teat will seal and shouldn't be touched again until she calves and the calf "un-plugs" it.

Cheers,
Ronnie

[G. Seddon]

I think he means Spectramast LC (lactating cow):

http://www.spectramast.com/spectrama...ies=OO&sec=800

[matt_man]

Since she is producing so little milk, I would infuse with a dry cow treatment like Tommorow and quite milking. It does no good to continue to milk after you use a dry cow infusion.

Rachel

[Lannie]

He never said he milked her after the antibiotic treatment. He said he milked her one last time and used the Spectramast. No further milking. Re-read his original post.

CJB, I wish I knew the answer to your question, but I don't because I haven't reached the point of drying my cow off yet. And I haven't had to deal with mastitis at all.

Maybe now that the confusion has been cleared up, someone will have an answer for you.

~Lannie

[Ronney]

Lannie, your quite right - and I read the post several times too. It doesn't help that your Saturday is my Sunday so "today" takes on a whole new meaning.

To reiterate my previous post though, it is preferable to clean up any mastitis first. I don't use DCT except on one cow and if it helps, she got mastitis in one quarter on her last milking. I gave her the DCT anyway and she calved again 6 weeks ago with no mastitis and no sign of it. I think if your in doubt you should still go back to your vet and see what he advises.

Cheers,
Ronnie

[cjb]

I'm sorry - I posted this quite late last night and was very unclear.

I put the dry cow treatment in (Spectramast LC 10ml) and quit milking.

I just wondered if it is normal, when you start drying them out and skip a day, if the milk would be thick and yogurt-ish.

If she is beginning to have mastitis, will this medication resolve it? It is supposed to be an antibiotic that remains in her for 15 days.

Thanks for all the help and I'm sorry for my confusing post.

Cliff

[JeffNY]

Here is what you do. I have dried off a cow who was only 6-7 months into lactation.. But on average 10 months is the norm, that one case was due to her having high SCC..


Either way.. Use Orbenin, it has 0hr withhold off beyond a couple months. So say she is due in April, dry her off now, you only discard the colosturum, but you dont have to worry about antibiotics. Also use Orbaseal, it is a sealant so she doesn't leak out the dry cow treatment.. Clean the udder off well, use individual alchohol wipes on each teat, for each syringe of dry cow treatment for each quarter. Then do the same for the orbaseal.


Its what we do.


Jeff

[JKB07]

After you injected the Spectramast LC, you should be done with her. It only does harm when you dry her off then milk her again. Since you have already done the treatment, you should be able to sit back and wait for your calf...

Justin

[cjb]

Ok, ok.... I must still be miscommunicating.

What I did was this:


I cut her milking to once per day on Sunday.
Milked her once per day Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
Skipped milking her on Friday
Milked her out on Sunday and was worried because the milk was clump however, it didn't smell at all.
Used the dry cow treatment once she was milked out on Saturday.
HAVE NOT MILKED HER SINCE.


My concern was that, after slowing her down to once per day then skipping a day, her milk was yogurtish. I called the vet today and he was that it was normal. Also, the dry treatment that I used has a long acting antibiotic in it anyway.

Thanks all. Wanted to post the conclusion in case this is useful to someone else in the future.

Please pray for a heifer!!

[francismilker]

She should be fine. Even if she tends to get a slight case of mastitis, the long-acting antibiotic in the dry cow treatment should have her back in line before she calves again.

[cjb]

Thanks Francis. I tool alot of solace having you weigh in!

Cliff

[furholler]

What happened to the days when people dried off cows with out any "insertions"? Carla Emery's book, "The Encyclopedia Of Country Living" has a lot of good advice on this subject.

[cjb]

Good suggestion. I have that book and will take a look. Obviously, too late is time.

[DJ in WA]

Originally Posted by furholler

What happened to the days when people dried off cows with out any "insertions"? Carla Emery's book, "The Encyclopedia Of Country Living" has a lot of good advice on this subject.

I expect it has something to do with breeding the type of dairy cows that exist today, and perhaps the environment in which they live. I know ranchers don't have to give beef cows mastitis insertions.

I've read that dairy cows now produce twice what they did in 1960.

[furholler]

That my be true. My goal is to try to do things like the old ways, in case new methods would not be available, for whatever reason. Sometimes I get the feeling modern farming has spent too much time thinking. Kind of reinventing the wheel. In the effort for bigger and better animals, have we shot ourselves in the foot?

[Ronney]

Originally Posted by furholler

In the effort for bigger and better animals, have we shot ourselves in the foot?

Furholler, that is exactly what happened and people have belatedly woken up to it and are now trying, in some cases, to breed back to the smaller, lower producing animals. It is all very well getting gallons of milk but there is a price to be paid for it - larger cows requiring more feed, udder and mastitis problems, bone and foot problems (which are rampant), lowered fertility, more calving problems and so the list goes on.

I started milking a commercial dairy herd in 1972. They were mainly Friesian (British) with some Jerseys to bring up the cream content. There were few foot problems, no calving problems at all and in the two years I was there, only 2 cows each year returned at MT and they were carried over until the following year. This was out of a herd of 150 cows. Mastitis was rare and DCT hadn't been invented. Now it's the norm. DJ, you are almost right. The modern dairy cow probably produces over 1/3rd more than it did when I first milking.

I now milk for my own pleasure a small herd of Jersey and some cross-breds (beef). I am one of the very few in my area that has no calving problems, no fertility problems, little mastitis other than in one Hereford/Friesian already mentioned, and the two cows that now have foot problems are probably caused by advancing years rather than breeding. People are waking up to the fact that they have bred themselves into a hole but in the same way as it took 30 years to dig the hole, it's going to take another 30 to fill it in and there are some that will never be convinced.

So, carry on with your breeding back to the older standards. You will get just as much milk in the long run, have less mastitis, higher fertility and a vet bill you can handle because it should be almost zilch.

Cheers,
Ronnie