Coffee anyone ?

[farmerjan]

My new friend's Jersey Dairy cow died the day Charlie Kirk was assassinated. . Just up and died overnight. She was a marvel at milking. Almost 5 gal a day! She was not old at all. Her second heifer was 6 months old. My friend tearfully called her friend, a mobile butcher. He came over and they cut Rosie up. They couldn't find anything wrong.

She did have two babies in her, which made it even sadder. She's trying sell her Dexter and the 2 month old heifer, but its a tough time for finances for people. She can't buy another milker until the Dexter is sold. She's also going to sell one of her milk sheep. East Friesian?

Outside guess, Low potassium milk fever... no apparent reason, carrying twins.. 5-6-7 months fresh??? Had a guernsey of mine years ago.. go down... she was not even bred back... but had been producing a fairly good amount of milk... about 8-9 months into her lactation... she was an older cow.... had come off a dairy... and I was going to breed her to calve in the late spring....by the time the vet got there, about an hour and a half... she was pretty bad... he treated her with both calcium and potassium... to balance and not shock her system... but said that he would bet it was low potassium and it would be a miracle if he could save her... she died while he was there... He said that sometimes it just hits them for no apparent reason... usually when bred back ....or when older aged... There would be nothing show up.... once we ruled out hardware so heart problems... not "normal " type milk fever which is almost always right around freshening...
Of course, that is a guess on my part...
I feel bad for your friend... that's a real loss to "bury" that kind of money for no good reason...

Is the dexter a female or a steer??? Bred?? I am not a fan of Dexters..... but it might be worth more in her freezer than to sell... I realize that does not equal any "cash money".... been there before.... but if hard to find a buyer, at least in her freezer she would be saving on groc for a while...

 

[fuzzi]

Outside guess, Low potassium milk fever... no apparent reason, carrying twins.. 5-6-7 months fresh??? Had a guernsey of mine years ago.. go down... she was not even bred back... but had been producing a fairly good amount of milk... about 8-9 months into her lactation... she was an older cow.... had come off a dairy... and I was going to breed her to calve in the late spring....by the time the vet got there, about an hour and a half... she was pretty bad... he treated her with both calcium and potassium... to balance and not shock her system... but said that he would bet it was low potassium and it would be a miracle if he could save her... she died while he was there... He said that sometimes it just hits them for no apparent reason... usually when bred back ....or when older aged... There would be nothing show up.... once we ruled out hardware so heart problems... not "normal " type milk fever which is almost always right around freshening...
Of course, that is a guess on my part...
I feel bad for your friend... that's a real loss to "bury" that kind of money for no good reason...

Is the dexter a female or a steer??? Bred?? I am not a fan of Dexters..... but it might be worth more in her freezer than to sell... I realize that does not equal any "cash money".... been there before.... but if hard to find a buyer, at least in her freezer she would be saving on groc for a while...

I remember reading about "milk fever" in the James Herriot books. The vet injected the cow with calcium as I recall, and it usually worked quickly.

 

[farmerjan]

Normal milk fever responds to calcium, usually in the vein IV....but sometimes if it is not bad, then you can give them a CMPK tube (paste) down their throat...it helps to balance the minerals in the blood stream... but if the milk fever has them down, more calcium is needed... low potassium milk fever is different and too much calcium gets their blood off balance...
It is caused by their body drawing too much calcium close to, or during , or right after calving...
Also can be caused by "grass tetany" which is an imbalance of magnesium from too rich green grass all at once.. These CMPK tubes are highly absorbable and get into the blood stream fairly quickly, but if the animal is down, IV is the way to go...

 

[fuzzi]

Rain is skirting us, again. Last week it downpoured 5 miles from us, we didn't get one drop!


The ground is hard, rock hard. The sweet potato vines grew around the raised beds, grew tubers, but the ground is too hard to dig them out.

 

[drstratton]

At the orthopedic Dr today. Having trouble with my right heal. See if he can figure out what's going on. Need to be able to keep doing the important things in life, like pick up my grandchildren and carry them.

Had my tea on the road this morning.

Have a beautiful day!

 

[Weldman]

 

[Alaskan]

Crazy modern times... some advances I like... but others...

In our teeny tiny town with zero TSA and one gate... they took out the water fountain and put in a "fill your water bottle" thing.. but no way to drink if you do not have a bottle.


In Anchorage, they have waterfountains where I had no idea how to make the water turn on!!! Invisible button? No button? Invisible eye? I waved my hand all over. .. couldn't get the water to shoot out.

Crazy town.

 

[Mini Horses]

I'd suggest you carry extra full bottles in the car

Was tough going back to work today. But made a feed pick up & unload first. Thanks for setting my own time!

 

[fuzzi]

Crazy modern times... some advances I like... but others...

In our teeny tiny town with zero TSA and one gate... they took out the water fountain and put in a "fill your water bottle" thing.. but no way to drink if you do not have a bottle.


In Anchorage, they have waterfountains where I had no idea how to make the water turn on!!! Invisible button? No button? Invisible eye? I waved my hand all over. .. couldn't get the water to shoot out.

Crazy town.

I've carried an empty water bottle on flights.

 

[Weldman]

Fun fact:
Humans are deuterostomes, which means that when they develop in the womb the anus forms before any other opening. Which basically means at one point you were nothing but an arsehole.

Some people never developed past this stage.