Dairy Heifer Questions

[whodunit]

Our beloved milk cow just had a calf today. The birth appeared to go fine, but afterward she developed milk fever and a prolapsed uterus. The vet treated her and the mother and calf are resting comfortably although I guess they sometimes die within 48 hours after being treated.

The calf is a caramel-colored heifer; just beautiful! Her mother is half Ayershire (sp?) and half Jersey. The bull is full-blooded (I think) Charlet (sp?).

How do we know if she would make a good milker?

What would a milker like this roughly sell for? If she is anything like her mother, we would get up to 5-6 gallons in her prime milking time and that was without one quadrant being milked due to a mastitis issue.

[sammyd]

with half of the genes coming from a charolais which is beef breed she probably won't be an outstanding milker.

Never had one that prolapsed but fully expect a cow treated for milk fever to recover and live.

[Ronney]

I too have never had a calved cow with a prolapse after calving but given that the calf was possibly half Charolais I'm not overly surprised. Milk fever is cureable and overall I don't see why your cow shouldn't survive. However, after the prolapse, you might want to talk to your vet about further breeding from her.

As to the milking ability of the calf, you really will have to wait and see. I milk several dairy/beef cross breds most of which return a reasonable amount of milk. A couple might not last in a dairy herd but produce as much as a small Jersey and certainly more than enough to keep a household supplied.

At the end of the day she is a dairy/beef cross bred and probably not worth a great deal other than to yourself. You could handle her, get her trained and in calf and then try to sell her off as a housecow - and she will probably make a perfectly respectable housecow.

Cheers,
Ronnie

[springvalley]

Your cow will hopefully pull threw, but you may want to rethink keeping her to rebreed. I would just keep her and milk her till she won`t milk anymore. Which could be a year and a half to two years. By then your heifer calf could replace her, your calf won`t milk like a full blood dairy cow but being 1/2 she should still do ok. I use to milk a hereford/holstein cross and still gave three gallons a day. Your heifer should be fine for a family cow, wouldn`t cut it in the big dairy farm situation. >Thanks MARC

[whodunit]

What is a house cow?

The mother is our only cow. She provides enough milk for about 6-7 families. We paid about $600 for her.

She seems to be doing well, other than not a big appetite. She did wolf down some watermelon rinds which she loves. We hope that gets her motivated to eat since the vet wanted her to eat as much alfalfa as she could.

We are going to do some research but have come across some signs on the udder that indicate the cow's potential as a milk cow. Not sure how young you can tell.

[Vickie44]

I have dealt with a prolapsed uterus twice, for one the cow did not make the day , for the other she managed to milk for a few months and then started to go down hill. I dont think you should plan on breeding her

[whodunit]

According to the vet, milk fever kind of causes prolapsed uterus.

The way it was explained to me is that prior to calving, the cow begins producing copious amounts of milk which plummets her calcium blood level.

Calcium is required by every cell in your body especially the smooth muscles, so the cow is unable to stand and the heart can also be affected.

The cow wants to get on her feet and in the process of repeatedly straining puts tremendous pressure on her abdominal muscles which causes contractions in the uterus.

Anyway, it made sense to me, since she was fine just after calving. She was alert and licking the calf and had nothing but a small "rope" of placenta dangling. Maybe two hours later she was down on her side and less than hour after that she had prolapsed.

So, supposedly if we breed her again, we can limit calcium rich foods 45 days prior to calving. This supposedly gives the cow's system time to adjust to he calcium draw down, which will begin pulling calcium from the bones. I guess we can also give her a calcium IV immediately after calving or maybe even just prior to.

She milked three years before freshening, so there is time to decide whether to breed her or not.

The previous owner mentioned she had collapsed after calving, but did not apparently prolapse.

[Madsaw]

Your vet done a excellant job of explain it to you. Seems like a very knowledgable vet.
We just had a cow a few weeks ago have milk fever after calving. We should have knowen better to keep a closer eye on her. This is the 3rd time in a row for it to occur. Some thing you can do to help prevent it is. Calcium tubes just prior to calving and if she is showing signs just after calving. Us some caution here. If a cow is really bad shape from MF they sometimes can not swallow very easy or fast. Usally they can cough it out if the choke a bit on it. Ways to check them is feel for cool to cold ears. Look at teh dialation reaction of the eyes. If slow and slugish milk fever is sitting in.
As to the prolaspe, we seen a few over the yrs. Most of the time the vet puts them back in and never have a issue with them again. Over the yrs I know of 3 times we lost the cows. Mind you this is over 30 yrs that I remeber. 2 was winter time and got to cold and died the next day from complacations of the prolaspe and hypothemia. The 3 rd was real strange. We assited a large swiss cross to have her calf. Mainly just make sure it was out of the gutter and in front of her in the barn. 1 1/2 later I returned to teh barn to find the cow dead. She washed the calf up and was eating hay. She prolasped so hard and fast it snapped the main artery that feeds the uterus. She still had the hay in her mouth and never kicked it was so fast. Never had any problems with ehr before calving ever.
So, you just never know. Also as a precaution if the cow has very little diffulcty is caling we give them a calcium tube right after calfing. Sometimes if the cow does come down with milk fever this gives you that extra time to get teh vet there and treat them
Bob

[Shades of Gray]

What is a calcium tube? How do you give it?

[whodunit]

It was definitely a learning experience- never imagined I would ever see the inside of a cow's uterus. They have what are sometimes referred to as "mushrooms" inside which are where the placenta attaches. This is true of all ruminants. I thought they were horrible cysts before the vet enlightened me.

The vet is very down to earth. She just used dish soap and clean water to clean the uterus and even used some dish soap to lubricate it while getting it back in. Once it was back in she used a garden hose to clean it out and kind of re-shape it. Then she stitched it up with a Boomer needle and what seriously looked like shoestring (a flat woven cotton thread).

She also recommended we give the cow as much alfalfa as she wants and some grain laced with Tide detergent of all things. It acts as an anti-bloating agent in that it makes the small bubbles into big bubbles the cow can burp up.

The biggest concern right now is appetite, but she is such a fat cow, we hope she has some reserves to draw on. She's eaten some grain, half a watermelon and was happily grazing in an alfalfa field last we saw her.

We are milking the cow to supplement the calf's nursing since she doesn't seem to have the hang of it. The mother's bag is very low to the ground and the calf has a difficult time getting a good angle.

[springvalley]

You sound like your on the right track getting her up and going. Your vet sounds great, not all of us have such fine vets. I have never had a cow prolapse with milk fever. And Madsaw is right with the tell tale signs of milk fever, cold ears, dry nose, sluggish. The calcium tubes are just that, you can get them at farm stores, the vet, supply catalogs, looks like a caulking tube with the calcium inside. Down the throat and gently squeeze. Best way to ward off milk fever is grass hay only during dry period(No alfalfa or timothy grass) I rarely have a problem (knock on wood) with milk fever, and I have all jerseys. The calcium tubes usually do it for me, but I have only had one in the last two years. I guess you could try to rebreed her but you may not get her bred and you may loose her next time she calves. But that is your choice, and if you can get some more time out of her go for it, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Good luck.>Thanks Marc
P.S. an old timer told me once if your cow gets milk fever, you can give her milk to drink also, builds it back up in her. But I have never tried it.

[Vickie44]

I never knew there was a connection between the milk fever and prolapse. We always kept a couple bottles of calcium on hand to do an IV if signs of milk fever showed after calving and that worked quick ( sometimes had to do twice ) The one I had that didnt make it just kept pushing, we cleaned everything up and started to refold it back in and she would start contracting and all would come back out again. That was some hard, messy work Best of luck , I hope she makes it

[Madsaw]

We actually had one cow have a prolapse and MF one night. The vet took care of her. We keep her around for a good number of yrs after that. We got like another 6 to 7 claves out of her before we sold her due to mastitis.
I would use caution on letting the cow graze on alalfa alot right now. This could cause bloat. Also I would treat with penicillin to ward off any uterus infections that may occur. Keeping a infection down will help her to rebreed and give you many more yrs down the road.
Bob

[whodunit]

Well, it looks like the mother will pull through even though the vet said that it could take 10 days for her to fully recover.

Not sure what I posted already, but the mother was up and around after the first couple calcium and dextrose IVs, but then went down again for a whole day.

We had the vet come out again and we repeated the previous process.

We pretty much bgean discussing what to do if she did not get up again, since we could not afford the vet to come out every day, but she got up later that evening like nothing had happened. Some of her issue might have been the heat since it was in the high 90s that day.

DW later gave her another calcium bottle under the skin and a tube of calcium gel. She has done fine since and calls to her calf to nurse.

We are finished with the penicillin doses and DW removed the stitches tonight.

Now we are trying to figure out why the vet said we have to wait 30 days before consuming the milk due to the medication. The bottle says 48 hours for milk and 10 days for meat.

Any ideas?

BTW, she is a really smart cow. She will not eat grain that has been laced with aspirin powder and will barely eat grain that has been laced with the Tide for bloat.

Calf is doing well. We were bottle feeding her with her mother's milk to make sure she got enough since the mother was down so much, although the calf did figure out how to nurse anyway.

[Vickie44]

I am glad she seems to be doing well !
Vickie