Is my cow pregnant or not?

Hi!!!
I bought my first Jersey cow several month ago. People who sold her said to me that she is pregnant and her due is March 28. I started to dry her up on March 15. I milked her 1 time in 2 days, than 1 time in 3 days and so on. But she got mastitis and I started to milk her again because I know how it is serious. So, today is April 20th and I don't know what to do and I am worry very much. When I checked her it seems to me that I can feel an umbilical cord. And what is interesting, she was nervous for couple days every month. Stoped eat very well, ran around her corral so even my ram chased her and was next to her all that " nervous time". What does it mean? Was she in a hit? Can be a pregnant cow in a hit? But I didn't see any discharges.
So I need your advices very much. Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[JanO]

Well first of all if she is due to calve, she should be dried off at least 2 mos. before. Not a few days... Since you have doubts as to if she really is pregnant I think I would call the vet out to palp her. She may have aborted a calf, or have a still born in there... which would surprise me because their body will usually expell a dead calf. It's quite possible that she is pregnant and the previous owners miscalculated the date. Just to be sure, call the vet and have her checked.

Good luck.

[wr]

A lot of people also misunderstand or misquote breeding information. If a cow is pasture exposed to a bull commencing on a certain date, it doesn't always reflect a date of breeding. Any date given will be an estimated date of calving and just like humans, not that many are born on time. I would have a vet look at her in a few days if she still hasn't produced a calf. I would also wonder if she was pregnancy checked by a vet when you purchased her and confirmed in calf or if you were accepting information as it was presented as being factual. Does she look bred? I would also suggest that I would have started drying her off quite a bit before you did because I just don't feel that would be enough time and a cow does need a break from the milk cycle.

[allenslabs]

I bought a black angus heifer in sept that was supposed to be 5 months along. That would have made her due in january. She just calved sunday if that helps any. She was just in w/ the bull and they were just guessing.

[JeffNY]

When your drying, do two things. Lower the protein intake, reduce grain, what you want to do is take away the essential things that keep her pumping milk. I would suggest milking her once a day, and slacken what I mentioned above, this will help. I don't think skipping days etc will help much, especially if she did get mastitis, she must be producing enough to cause problems. Think of the way a calf works on a cow. Now after a cow first calves (lets say its a hereford), and yes there is a BIG difference between the two, but im comparing something else, intake. What happens with the herefords is they "adjust" to the calf, they produce enough milk to feed 2 at first, as the calf drinks, and as its "needs" are met, the cow does not produce more than what it can drink. Our latest cow "Annie" calved, her udder could feed two calves, if not more. That udder right now is solid on one side, because he can't take enough. If this was a dairy cow, id have a very sick animal leaving those quarters full. After about a week or so, that side will not be as hard, and her udder won't get as full as she meets his needs. Now imagine when your milking, instead of letting the udder go, fill and empty it, your not slacking her off, your simply stopping, then restarting. So what you want to do is milk her, but slowly reduce what you take out, what your doing is "tricking" her body into thinking "I don't need to produce as much". A combination of slacking off grain/protein, give her a higher fiber diet (fills her up, but does not produce tons of milk), ask any nutritionist. Toooo high of fiber fills the animal too fast, most dairy producers want a high intake in feed, and lower fiber feed allows that. But slacken off slowly over a few weeks, it should help with drying her off.


Then again I am no expert (no one is), it is how we dried off our Jersey, she NEVER got mastitis.

Jeff