question for the dairy pros?

[Oakshire_Farm]

Last year my husband brought home a really nice holstein, she was a embryo calf, very well bred, but when she had her first calf last year she only had 3 working quarters. So she was put on the cull list... since my husband had halter broke her and spent all the time getting her ready for the holstein shows, he was attached to her and brought her home.

Well she is due to calf on the 26th of this month. And she she is really bagging up! She is looking fantastic! That "dead" quarter is a solid and bagged up as the other 3. Her last lactation it was obviously smaller, even the teat was half the size of the others. But now it looks totally normal?

Can a "dead" quarter get kick started and start working?

[Lost-Nation]

Was the non-functioning quarter due to mastitis damage? I don't have any experience w/ *cows* in this particular instance, but with goats, all of the mastitis-damaged quarters I've dealt with that bagged up during pregnancy, still didn't function properly & would dry up, shortly after freshening.

[gone-a-milkin]

It is highly unlikely for that quarter to produce again,
perhaps remotely possible.

Good luck with your calving.

[arcticow]

I've learned never to say never around cows... IF the teat is open and the milk looks clean when she freshens, use a strip cup and maybe CMT it before using it. Or milk it out for chickens, pig, or???

[65284]

If anything can kick start it it would be a calf. Make sure her calf nurses that quarter, or at least tries to. If there is anything there he will get it.

[Oakshire_Farm]

She was checked by the vet when she calves the first time. Because they had so much invested in this cow, she was checked repeatedly by the vet. We got her when she was about 2 months fresh. She is a GREAT cow! The kind of cow that most small time farmers could never afford! But because she is not "perfect" she was culled. The dairy my husband works for has some of the best holsteins I have ever seen, they are big into show and strive to have the cleanest herd around.

The vet poked around in her teat when she freshened, said that there was nothing working in there?

I will make sure to get the calf sucking on that quarter! Fingers crossed she will be a 4 1/4 cow! LOL

[Tango]

She sounds very nice. You're about to be swimming in a milk pond Do you have pics? I had a Jersey Holstein that looked just like a Holstein but a little shorter, not much. I was so happy to have a surge milker by then Hope it is a perfect 2nd freshening

[65284]

Oakshire, I re-read your post and noticed you said "That "dead" quarter is a solid and bagged up as the other 3".

Did you mean the quarter is "full" feeling or did you mean it's actually hard (solid), like there was a baseball in there? If it's really hard that's probably scar tissur and it is truly dead.

[Awnry Abe]

Unless you have a spare fridge, you'll wish she had 2! Even still, I hope she clicks on all 4 for you.

[gone-a-milkin]

Oftentimes when a heifer comes fresh in only 3 quarters it is because her udder was sucked on by another calf when they were bottle babies.
I have never seen one of those injuries reverse itself.

However, you are going to be amazed at how much more milk she will give in her second lactation than the first. Wowzers.

I hope you get a nice calf from her too.

[Oakshire_Farm]

65284 - Sorry, all 4 quarters are feeling the same, that bagged up feeling. Even the dead quarter feels like the other 3, not hard and abnormal.

I will get a photo of her tomorrow! She is looking big!

[Jennifer L.]

The quarter will bag up because there is tissue in it that is affected by the hormones that cause lactation. But if she didn't milk last year in that quarter, that means the tissue that actually produces the milk has been destroyed even though other tissue in the quarter is responding to the hormones. So while she looks like she may milk, she probably won't. Now, it's possible a small amount of tissue survives, and you may get a very small amount of milk from the quarter, but it's not really a milking quarter.

My old Shorthorn cow that has no working quarters bags up every year when she freshens. She doesn't milk, but she still bags up before calving.

[Farmer Jayne]

I don't know anything about this, but I want to believe. Like a little kid reading Peter Pan.
Looking forward to pictures and updates. Good Luck!

[sammyd]

Originally Posted by Jennifer L.

The quarter will bag up because there is tissue in it that is affected by the hormones that cause lactation. But if she didn't milk last year in that quarter, that means the tissue that actually produces the milk has been destroyed even though other tissue in the quarter is responding to the hormones. So while she looks like she may milk, she probably won't. Now, it's possible a small amount of tissue survives, and you may get a very small amount of milk from the quarter, but it's not really a milking quarter.

My old Shorthorn cow that has no working quarters bags up every year when she freshens. She doesn't milk, but she still bags up before calving.

I was going to say the same thing. We see it occasionally on cows that have lost a quarter to matitis.

[Oakshire_Farm]

This afternoon Clairabelle calved <3 She had a beautiful Jersey cross heifer.

And it appears that there is nothing in that quarter I tried to strip it out. I got one or two squirts and that was it. Left the calve with her to nurse over night. I will milk her out in the morning.

[springvalley]

I was going to say, I have never seen a cow with a dead quarter ever work again, but I have learned long ago to never say never. Your cow will produce alot of milk with three quarters, some cows will produce as much on three as they would have four. > Marc

[Oakshire_Farm]

It does not seem like that quarter is going to produce any milk

Here are some photos, https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...9621415&type=1