Udder Question.. That is

[NATIVO]

Even after I milk my cow all the way out, her bag still feels hard..
This is the one that just had a calf on the 27th.
Is that normal?

Thank You

 

[Farmer Kitty]

Yes, it is normal. When they freshen they have alot of swelling in their udders. After a while it will go down and you will have the calapsed and soft udder you are used to.

 

[amysflock]

What a timely post! I just checked Bridgit's udder (freshened 5 days ago) and her two front quarters seem very hard and full, and the teats are so much bigger than her back quarters. I did see the calf nurse on a front quarter yesterday for a couple minutes. At what point do I need to be concerned, and what should I be looking for as far as mastitis or something else? (I've never milked a cow...DH told me to try to milk it and demonstrated with his hand, and I tried but nothing came out.)

 

[Farmer Kitty]

I'm assuming you tried with the gently squeezing with whole hand method. Try using just your thumb and a couple finger tips and gently pull down and let back up. I hope that makes sense.

For mastitis your looking for hot quarters and/or particles/chunks of stuff in the milk. Or if the milk is watery in color. The quarters can be hard too but, where she just freshened it's going to be hard to judge by that.

 

[Farmer Kitty]

Okay, I'm going to try to post a video explaining how to hand milk-hopefully, better than I can by words.

http://s212.photobucket.com/albums/...s/keep page/?action=view&current=100_2800.flv]

hand milking video[/url]

I hope this link works for you--let me know if it doesn't.

 

[NATIVO]

Mine does have mastitis ontop of the just freshened and swollen udder. My husband noticed it when he was trying to milk her out.... ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I can't keep up....

The good news for the day is the Jersey that was acting sick is back to her normal self again!!.. Do you pro's. think the 96 hour milk withdraw is long enough?... Can we keep her milk now?

I really appreciate all the help I get from everyone on this forum... I'm a city girl gone farm girl and I have so much to learn!!

 

[Farmer Kitty]

If the antibiotics say 96 hours and you treated according to directions it should be fine after 96 hours. Usually they label them longer than necessary as a precaution. If you treat heavier or longer than the directions say then you need to hold longer.

If her mastitis is slight you may be able to handle it by stripping her out good after milking her. But, if it is strong case you will need to treat her. I would recommend Today mastitis treatment.

 

[amysflock]

Thanks for the video, Kitty. I guess I was doing it right...just not sure of myself. I'll try again using both techniques you showed.

 

[Farmer Kitty]

Glad it helped. Sometimes it takes practice but, now that you know what to do for sure it should help.

 

[Farmer Kitty]

Here is Lightning at 9 days after freshening. After being milked.

Every cow varies but, it's not unusuall for them to have a full or partial full looking bag after milking.