If You Don't Like the Weather, Wait a Minute!

These photos taken between Jan. 31 and yesterday, Feb. 4, remind me of the old saying about Texas, "If you don't like the weather, wait a minute!"  It could be our motto here in NW Georgia, too!

Dec. 31 - We had a strangely warm December--warm enough for the grass to grow!  Visitors Ayano and my nephew Adam enjoyed a visit with the Dexters, making friends with Seb.

Jan. 19 - Sunny and cold.  The Little Boys "help" move our homemade covered hay feeder into the Home Pasture, which is temporarily the Weaning Pasture.  Wellie scratches where it itches, Seb supervises and Remy exits stage right.

Jan. 20 -  Freezing rain encrusts a dogwood branch.

Jan. 23 - The snow storm that wasn't.  This was the sum total of our snow from the storm that was supposed to shut down the Southeast.

Jan. 28 - A hard frost looked more like snow than the snow did!

Feb. 3 - Torrential rain.  We got 3" in a few hours overnight.

The rain ended before morning, but the runoff increased, culminating in some flooded roads near us.

Feb. 4 - Sunshine and cold again.  The Little Boys watch something exciting down below . . . stay tuned to find out what!

Between one thing and another, especially the weather, there's never a dull moment!

Just When We Think We're in Charge . . .

Dexters are pretty smart.  Siobhan's dam Sara weaned Siobhan all by herself without any human intervention.  After we sold her back to Kim, she witnessed exactly how Sara went about weaning her calf.  One day Sara kicked her calf off and wouldn't let it nurse.  The next day, she let it nurse.  The next day, she kicked it off again.  That smart old cow took her calf to every other day nursing to wean it and dry herself off!

Siobhan is just as smart as Sara, although maybe a little less determined.  Last February I noticed Siobhan kick Macree off when Macree was 9 months old.  Macree would not be dissuaded, though, so I intervened with a weaning tab.  The same thing happened this February; Siobhan gave Wellie a good kick to let him know the milk bar was closed.

Then Wellie got castrated, and Siobhan seemed to sense that he needed comfort, so she let him start nursing again.  Shortly after that I threw my back out, and the family told me to take a break from chores.   After three days of rest, I went out to the barnyard to check on the animals.  To my surprise, Siobhan had apparently decided that Wellie was sufficiently comforted, and she had kicked him off.  Her udder was bursting with milk, so I decided to start once a day milking.

Just to be sure Wellie had gotten the message, I put a weaning tab in his nose.  Poor little guy, he had just about forgiven us for the castration, and then this!

After a few days, I noticed that some mornings I was getting almost no milk at all.  At best, one side would have milk and the other would be empty.  I knew Siobhan wasn't self-sucking because I had put her harness on as soon as she weaned Wellie.  I figured that naughty Wellie must be nursing through the weaning tab, so I booted him out of the barnyard to join the other cattle.

The next morning the barnyard gate was pushed out as far as it would go, and one side of Siobhan's udder was empty.  I figured Wellie must be nursing through the wires of the gate despite his weaning tab, so Herb and I covered the bottom of the gate with chicken wire.  The next morning, as expected, we got all of Siobhan's milk.  It looked like we had solved the problem!  Sir Loin was hanging around the barnyard visiting Siobhan (as he had visited his buddy Wellie) and talking to her in little "baby" moos.  I thought it was odd, but kind of cute.

And then a couple days later I glanced out the back door.  To my horror, Sir Loin was nursing on Ebony who is due to calve in early April!  I ran out to check, and sure enough, all four of her teats were wet!  Sir Loin was banished immediately to a different pasture, and I post-dipped all of Ebony's teats before I turned her loose.

Suddenly Sir Loin hanging around the barnyard, the soft little moos, the gate pushed out, and Siobhan's empty quarters all made sense.  It wasn't poor Wellie nursing around the weaning tab; it was Sir Loin nursing through the gate!  And when we foiled him by adding chicken wire, he managed to convince Ebby to let him nurse on her.  I told Herb that Sir Loin looks tastier every day!

With the sneaky nurser banished, the only remaining problem was that Siobhan's harness was not holding up very well.  So I decided to try a product designed to support heavy dairy cow udders--Tamm Udder Support.  Two days after I ordered it, Siobhan was decked out in her new lingerie.  The sunlight shows her udder through the netting.  This is good for air circulation, but in order to be sure she wouldn't try self-sucking, I secured a clean cloth inside the net on her left side.

NOTE:  I now very strongly advise against using the Tamm Udder Support for any cow.  It ended up being disastrous for Siobhan (story here).  Another family cow milker told me in June 2015 that her vet advised her that using it would be asking for mastitis.  I wish I had known that piece of information in March.

You can see from the loops that even the small size support is a little large for a Dexter, but it is easily adjustable.  This is much more comfortable than Siobhan's old harness, and she seems happy to be able to turn her head freely.

You can see that there are numerous ways to customize the fit.

For milking, it was pretty easy to undo the two back buckles and one side buckle above the udder support without removing the entire harness.

We've had a fair amount of rain, and the cotton canvas dries out easily.  Of course, with all the rain, Siobhan's new lingerie is now a nice muddy beige.

Siobhan will remain in the barnyard wearing her harness until she's completely dried off.  Once I'm sure she won't be tempted to self-suck again, she can ditch the harness and join the boys until it's time for her to calve.

Her pre-drying off mastitis test came back with no Staph A, but I'll continue to keep her separate from Ebby as a precaution.  The episode with Sir Loin nursing first Siobhan and then Ebby is a reminder that even when we think we're in charge, we might not be.  We have to stay on our toes to keep ahead of our Dexters!

At least for now, everyone is where they should be.  Siobhan is drying off in the barnyard.  Ebby is about to move into the Home Pasture for calving.  Once she does, Sir Loin's banishment will be lifted and he can rejoin the bachelors.  It looks like we're back in charge again, for now . . .

NOTE:  Just in case you missed the warning above, I'll repeat it here:  I now very strongly advise against using the Tamm Udder Support for any cow.  It ended up being disastrous for Siobhan (story here).  Another family cow milker told me in June 2015 that her vet advised her that using it would be asking for mastitis.  I wish I had known that piece of information in March.

Bad Day: Mastitis Rears Its Ugly Head

WARNING:  Graphic photos.  No gore, but definite ick factor.

Following an online milking forum and hearing about all the high-producing Jerseys with serious mastitis problems, I've been thinking, "Lucky I Dexters because they almost never get mastitis."  I'm afraid I jinxed ourselves!  Today as always, I squirted milk out of each quarter to visually check it for mastitis before milking, and I got a very nasty shock:

Those clumps are one of the first signs of mastitis.  To be sure, I tasted milk from that quarter, and it tasted salty, the telltale sign.

I knew to try to squish a clump and see if it was thickened cream that would smear away.

Not only did it not smear away, it strung out mucus-ly, to coin a word.  This is not good!  There wasn't a lot of milk in that quarter (more in a minute), so I squirted it out onto the floor.  The other three quarters looked fine visually, and I squirted some milk into the palm of my hand to taste--no salty taste.  So I milked the other three quarters as usual and brought the milk into the house.

Still a bit leery, I observed the milk carefully as I strained it.  It was definitely slower than usual going through the filter.  So I examined the filter closely when I was finished and saw several little clumps.  This is for the birds--literally!  This milk is going to the chickens.

I got on the phone to my vet, but to my shock, he doesn't believe Siobhan has mastitis.  So I called two milking friends and asked their advice.  They were both clear:  If there are lumps, she has clinical mastitis.  That means it isn't questionable or possibly developing--she HAS mastitis!  Without the vet in my camp, what to do?

First of all, I want to know why--and why in the quarter where it is?  Remember this photo from the other day?  See how much smaller the left front quarter is (on the left in this photo)?  See how the teat is wrinkly and not full like the other one?  Although I had observed the reddish tint to the rear quarter in this photo, I think it's a photographic effect because Siobhan's quarters don't feel any warmer than usual and she evinces no sign whatsoever of tenderness to milking or even massage.

Here are the two right quarters for further comparison.  Even the lower-producing front quarter (on the right in the photo) still shows the teat full compared to the floppy one above.

After discussing with my friends, we agree that Siobhan is almost certainly self-sucking and that she has likely caused this problem herself by sucking on the drying off quarter.  It wouldn't be the first time that an animal that sucked on a dry heifer or cow actually gave her mastitis by irritating and damaging the teat and quarter.  Quite some time ago I suspected that Siobhan was self-sucking this one quarter, and that's why I bought weaning rings.  Herb and I had quite a rodeo trying, unsuccessfully, to get one in her and finally gave up.  I figured she already had the habit and it didn't seem to be hurting anything.  How wrong I was!

Too late--but better late than never--I learned the boiling water trick for softening up a weaning ring, and Siobhan is now sporting what I refer to as "The Big Guns."  It went in amazingly easy, all by myself!  How I wish I had known that trick a couple months ago!  I just tied her head pointing up as close as I could to a fence post, got the ring out of the hot water with the tongs (having previously loosened the screw to make it as large as possible), slipped one side in one nostril and before I could even twist the ring to open it wider, it slipped into the other nostril!  THAT was an answer to prayer!  In between her head tosses, I gently tightened the screw until I thought the ring would stay in her nose and not come out as easily as it went in.

You can pretty well see that Siobhan is not going to try more than once to get to her teat when she pokes that thing into herself!

Siobhan and Macree are now commiserating with each other:  "I'll show you mine if you'll show me yours."  (Sorry, if I don't laugh at something, I'm going to cry!)

Since the vet isn't on board with treating Siobhan, here's the advice I'm acting on.

1. I contacted the Tennessee Quality Milk Laboratory at UT Knoxville.  These wonderful people are all about mastitis, and they are amazing!  I spoke with a doctor there who passed my message on to a lovely lady named Susan.  :)  She is going to expedite a kit to test all four quarters for mastitis along with instructions and everything needed.  The bad news is that the lab will be closed next Thursday and Friday, so she made an incredible offer . . . if I will drive the collected samples up there on Saturday, she will meet me at the lab (since she has to work anyway) and get the tests started.  That should give me the results early next week.  Did I say "amazing?"  Hopefully, armed with the results of the tests, I can enlist my vet's aid.
2. I had already stopped Siobhan's alfalfa supplement as soon as I put the weaning ring in Macree, and I'll stick with that.  We need to avoid giving her anything that would increase milk production.
3. I will be milking out the affected quarter up to four times a day.  I have to be very careful not to touch the other teats at the same time to avoid infecting any unaffected quarters.  I'll continue to monitor the other quarters and milk them out every other day.
4. I have ordered a CMT (California Mastitis Test) kit from Jeffers because they are located nearby in Alabama and can get it to me quickly.  This checks for somatic cell count, giving a range than indicates mastitis, unlike the TQML tests which will tell me the exact organisms I'm dealing with.  Hopefully I can get these results quicker than the TQML ones and maybe get the vet's help once I have proof of mastitis.
5. I have also ordered some Dynamint, a minty udder balm from Hamby Dairy Supply.  This balm has a great following among dairymen who swear by it for treating udder edema, preventing mastitis, helping let-down, and even treating mastitis caught in its early stages.  I hope and pray that's where we are!
6. In case the vet does not get on board with me, or in the event of a delay in results from TQML to give him, I also ordered a treatment called Tomorrow from Hamby's.  This is an oil-based antibiotic teat infusion that is very effective in treating a broad spectrum of organisms that cause mastitis.  For now I just ordered two tubes for the quarter I know is affected, trusting that the problem will stay where it is, isolated in one quarter.
7. One last piece of advice that I got from the man on the phone at Hamby's I will not be following.  He was very helpful and extremely knowledgeable, and I could tell from the way he asked his question that he probably knew I wouldn't be following his advice.  "Did you raise this cow?" he asked.  "Yes," I told him, "and I bet you're going to tell me to cull her."  "Yes," he said.  That is a true dairyman's advice, and it makes sense.  But Siobhan is my baby.  I handpicked her sire, braved her dam's horns, and raised her from a baby.  She was my first calf ever.  I halter-broke her.  I trained her to milk, and learned on her!  She raised a healthy, hefty heifer all the while giving us plenty of milk for our household.     

So, what if Siobhan was taking some milk for herself?  What if she has given herself mastitis?  That's my fault for not being more pro-active in dealing with her self-sucking!  I will now do my dead-level best to break her of this habit.  She'll wear the weaning ring until she's completely dried up.  She'll wear it again when she starts to bag up this spring and as long as she needs to until I'm sure she's stopped her bad habit.  I believe she developed it out of boredom while shut apart from Macree at night.  I don't plan to use her as a milk cow this coming year, so hopefully she'll never do it again.

I'm going to hope and pray that I never, ever see her after another cow.  It's a GOOD thing she and Ebony aren't friends!  Go Ebony!  Just keep chasing Siobhan away every time you see her!  If I ever see her after another cow, then I'll cross that bridge, if and when I come to it.

Right now, I have some mastitis to deal with.

My Baby Is Weaned!

"Hooray!" says Siobhan, "My baby is weaned!  Now I can give all my milk to Mommy!"

Here was Siobhan's udder Monday morning after we put the weaning ring on Macree Saturday, almost two days of no nursing or milking.

Here's the other side.

Here's her udder after milking.

And the other side.  The drips on the tips of her teats are Fight-Bac, a chlorhexadine spray to prevent mastitis, especially important now that Macree isn't nursing.

Macree is still trying, but Siobhan is having none of it . . .

This is not affectionate nose-rubbing!  This is Siobhan pushing Macree away every time Macree tries to get near her, until Macree gives up and goes away.

And this is what Siobhan gave me!  Over half a gallon, 2.25 quarts.  No more keeping some back for Macree--Mommy gets it all!

The great thing about using a weaning ring is that while I get all the milk, Macree gets the rest of her mother.  Instead of them being separated across a fence, bellowing for each other and wearing a path along the fence, they can peacefully enjoy each other's company.  Macree grows up, Siobhan grows her new baby, and I can still milk.  I call that a win-win-win situation!

Grandma Means Business: A Weaning Ring Tutorial

Since I saw Siobhan trying to kick Macree off and keep her from nursing, while apparently lacking the determination, I decided to intervene.  Out came the two weaning rings I had already ordered online.

Let's call them "Big Guns" and "Little Guns."  We tried "Little Guns" first; if it doesn't work, we'll get out the "Big Guns."

The handiest tip I've ever learned for putting a weaning ring in is to put it in hot water.  Since it's cold out, I used boiling water.

A tongs is very handy for fishing the weaning ring out.

Poor little Macree has no idea what's about to happen.

It was that easy!  Well, for us, anyway!  We tied her with her chin up and Herb helped hold her head.  I slipped the right side in first since it was against the fence and harder to maneuver, then twisted the softened plastic and slipped the left side over her moist nose into the other nostril.

Be sure the points face outward.  The hardest part is not getting poked while putting the weaning ring in.

Macree was not amused.  The idea is that Siobhan, also, will not be amused if Macree tries to nurse and pokes her udder with those spikes, and Siobhan will kick her off more determinedly.  That's the theory, anyway.

Mama Siobhan came over to see what her baby was wearing.

What a sweet and loving mama, which is probably why she needs some help in the enforcement department.

Macree tried to lick it off.

She tried to run away from it.

Finally she stood at the fence and looked pathetic for the boys across the way.  Poor Macree!  It's time to grow up.