The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Cattle => Topic started by: trish.farm on April 19, 2014, 12:38:45 pm
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Everything going great with Daisy and her calves, both feeding well, adoptee managing to sneak a feed without me holding her, still putting him on 4 times a day to ensure he has fed well.
Daisy unfortunately has mastitis in one quarter. I am milking it out 4 times a day, she had anti b cream through the teat yesterday and this morning. Gave her a shot of pen and strep this morning but only managed to get 6ml in before she had had enough of all the faffing. Quarter is milking well, just yellow milk with a few lumps in, udder is not overly hot and she is very well in herself. Anything else i should be doing?
Adoptee calf arrived yesterday from a clean herd, very well and normal poo. Today he has very, very runny yellow poo! I am assuming he has gone from his mum, to powdered milk for 10 days and now onto very rich jersey milk, and this has all been a bit much for his tummy. He is very alert, bouncing around, sleeping well, feeding when necessary and also drinking some water. Anything I should be doing?
Many thanks.
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Dang, just lost a long post. >:(
In brief -
- are you sure it's mastitis? not just newly-calved udder full of colostrum?
- I'm sure you know it's important not to underdose with a/bs. Please try to get the rest of the P&S into her. ASAP. (Even if you now don't think it's mastitis.)
- I thought I'd written up my 'introducing a second calf' tips but I couldn't find them. So I'm sorry if I haven't shared these before
- On arrival, double dose of Pen&Strep.
- Don't let it overfeed, especially for the first few days. I set it on just twice a day, and pull it off when its belly is starting to look plump - like I would if I were bottle-feeding a lamb
- Thin yellow runny poo will be change of diet yes. Try to limit his intake to a reasonable amount! Now he's learned to pinch when you're not there, you may need to physically segregate to achieve this.
- If he starts to look miserable, run a temperature, really scour, if his coat gets dull or greasy, then take action. (And note, drinking water when he has milk on tap could be an early sign - very young calves usually don't drink water ;).) If he does seem to be worsening, stop the milk completely, give him LifeAid / PSF or similar for 48 hours. Then back to milk - but gently!
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Thanks sally, rest of p and s is done! caught her unawares!! It does look like colostrum milk but has the obvious signs of mastitis lumps in it. Orphan calf in did have p and s on arrival. he was only drinking a bit of water when he was due a feed so probly was hungry! Only put him on daisy when he looks like his tummy needs it now! Will milk her quarter right out tonight, had anti b cream in this morning so have left it for the day. The other 3 quarters were all running lovely clean milk yesterday, totally different to the fourth quarter so i think it is mastitis. Just want to get it right!! EEEEkkkk
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I know, it's stressful as well as joyful, isn't it? We want to get it right for them... Sad to hear that it is definitely mastitis - but well done you for catching it so quickly. She'll still have plenty in 3 quarters while that on is out of production!
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If you can get some udder mint and use that a couple of times a day would help, don't worry about having it sat round, it works wonders on a bad back too.....
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I would watch him to see if he drinks enough water and make sure he doesn't get dehydrated, but otherwise his stomach should get used to the milk in time.
Hope this helps