Siobhan a Year Later

This is a follow-up to Siobhan's story from last year.  That story told how Siobhan got Pseudomonas mastitis in her right rear quarter and nearly died.

I was a day away from putting Siobhan down to end her intense suffering when my son and our three grandchildren joined me in the milking parlor.  They prayed over and sang to Siobhan while I stripped her swollen, painful quarter.  They also fed her treats and for the first time since she got sick, she didn't kick in pain.  Shortly after they left, a vet from the University of TN called me--on a Sunday afternoon--and begged me not to put Siobhan down.  He said if I gave her a chance, he believed she could get well--even though Psuedomonas is considered untreatable and incurable.  That vet ended up being a lot like the biblical angel that told Abraham not to sacrifice Isaac--he played his part and disappeared from the story, never to be heard of again!  He never answered my emails or calls, and I was on my own with a cow I hoped and believed God might spare, but not quite sure what I was supposed to do.

Before I learned it was Pseudomonas, a local vet had already given me a shot of Excede and a prescription for Pirsue (assuming it was Staph A again).  So I carried through with the Pirsue in all four quarters for 8 days; gave Siobhan large doses of oil of oregano essential oil in her feed twice a day, along with Vitamin E and probiotics; and massaged and stripped the RR quarter twice a day until the calf could keep her udder milked out.  At that point I quit milking her to avoid spreading anything.  Siobhan and Remy lived in the barnyard while I hauled all the manure and bedding away to a separate compost heap where it would not be spread on the pastures.  

An update from late August recounts some further challenges Siobhan faced, including an annoying fungal infection of her udder, another residual of my grave mistake in using the Tamm Udder Support.  Essential oils, colloidal silver and Lotrimin finally resolved that problem after months of treatment.  However, there was some hopeful news in her further milk tests--especially that throughout her illness, the Staph A she had in Feb. 2014 never reappeared.  That was the best news I had during a horrible year!

In October 2015, Siobhan and Remy got out of the barnyard for the first time since he was a few days old, the end of May.  They had two months out in a pasture until I weaned Remy in early December, and Siobhan came back to the barnyard so I could supervise her anti-self-sucking harness.  Our vet came for a consultation about Siobhan's future, and we made a plan.  The plan changed a few times for various reasons, but here's what we finally did.  Remy was weaned, Siobhan tested negative for Pseudomonas again, and I dried her off.

Once Siobhan was dried off, she was ready for surgery.  I consulted with vets at UT and the University of GA, as well as two other helpful vets with experience in mastitis.  There was a general consensus that, due to scar tissue from the Pseudomonas and probable damage to her lymph system which drains the udder of infection, if Siobhan ever calved and lactated again, she would almost certainly get mastitis.  That much the vets agreed on.  As far as how to prevent that, the vets had various solutions to offer.

1)  A complete mastectomy, a very serious surgery under general anesthesia, with a risk of death, infection, seroma, etc.  This would obviously completely eliminate any chance of her getting mastitis.  It could be followed a couple weeks later by an ovariectomy (spaying her) to keep her from getting pregnant.  That could be done through a flank incision (more risky) or laparoscopically (much less risky, but more expensive).

2)  An ovariectomy (spaying) through a flank incision, at the same time tying off the main artery that supplies the udder.  This would result in atrophy of the udder.  There was a slight chance that collateral circulation might develop, but as long as Siobhan would not be calving and lactating, this should greatly reduce her chance of getting mastitis.

The anxious part of me wanted Siobhan's udder to be gone so she could never have mastitis again.  A friend who had it done for her cow was very supportive and helpful--without making me feel guilty if I decided against it.  The cow mama part of me did not want my cow to suffer the pain and months-long recovery of a total mastectomy, and after the months of stress I endured last year, I wasn't sure *I* could deal with the pain and suffering and potential complications.  Our vet highly recommended against it.  Herb supported whatever I decided, and in the end I had to make the decision for Siobhan; no one else could do it for me.  After spending time in meditation and prayer for wisdom, I felt convinced that the Lord had brought Siobhan this far to spare her--and the ovariectomy at UT kept coming to mind.

On March 21, we took Siobhan up to the University of Tennessee, 2 hours away.  She led off the trailer like the sweetheart she is and got the attention of a crowd of vet tech students, who thought she was so cute!

It was SO hard to leave my girl there, but I knew she was in good hands.   Siobhan had her surgery on March 24, with the assistance of three different vets.  They used a left flank incision.  The ovariectomy (spaying) was as easy as expected, although they had some difficulty reaching the right pudendal artery due to her smaller size, and the surgery took several hours.  As a precaution, they gave Siobhan IV fluids and antibiotics and decided to keep her over the weekend to observe her.

We picked Siobhan up on March 28.  They didn't even bother leading her through the chute, but just led her out the door.  We had a chance to talk with all three vets who worked on her and get their input for her follow-up care.

Here's Siobhan back at home four days post-op, showing off her incision.  The stuff around the edges of the shaved portion is sterile drapes that they glued to her hide to keep them from falling off if she moved.

A close-up of the incision, which would need the stitches removed 10-14 days post-op.  Meanwhile, I was instructed to take Siobhan's temperature every morning for the next 10 days and to closely observe the incision for any redness or drainage.  By God's grace, her recovery was textbook-perfect with nothing to cause me any worry.

On April 8, two weeks after Siobhan's surgery, came the moment I'd been dreaming of for more than a year.  It was a moment I had hoped for, even while I dreaded that it might only come figuratively for Siobhan's spirit when her body found relief from suffering.
(Even a year later, it makes me cry to write that!)

The moment Siobhan didn't know to hope for, but that she sure knew how to enjoy to the fullest . . .

Psalm 29
(verses 2, 4 & 6)

Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name;
worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness.
The voice of the Lord is powerful;
the voice of the Lord is majestic.
He makes Lebanon leap like a calf,
Sirion like a young wild ox. . . .

Every time I see these photos of Siobhan leaping like a calf, I smile all over again.  Her joy was and still is infectious!

About two weeks after Siobhan's surgery, our vet took out her stitches and pronounced that she looked excellent.  It was time to let her really go free, so that Ebby and her calf Buddy could enjoy the Home Pasture.

Despite Siobhan's stellar behavior on the lead rope at UT, I thought it would be wise to tie her behind the Doodad while I drove it slowly and have Herb walk nearby, in case she got excited and pulled too hard for one of us to lead her.  It's a good thing I know my girl so well!  I took this photo from the driver's seat, and Siobhan was definitely leading!

Siobhan was happily reunited with Royal, and after determining that he was Head Bull and she was Head Cow, they set off to enjoy the large Back Pasture together.

That evening I was filled with joy at the sight of Siobhan grazing beside Royal, being a cow again . . . for the first day of the rest of her life.  The last verse of Psalm 29 expresses my feelings perfectly: "The Lord gives strength to His people; the Lord blesses His people with peace."  It was a long and difficult year for both Siobhan and me, but at the end of it, we both have peace, and I thank the Lord from both of us!

Storm Clouds and Rainbows: An Update About Holding On

This is an update on my June 15 post, The Cow, the Calf, the Crisis, the Kids and the Creator.

June and July have difficult months for me, often resembling a sunset through storm clouds.  Shortly after I wrote the June 15 post, I got the results of the milk culture back.  There was no growth reported in any of Siobhan's quarters, but she had a horrendous SCC (somatic cell count) of over 4 million in the Right Rear (Pseudomonas) quarter.  I didn't know whether to feel happy over the "no growth" or worried about the SCC; I was just confused!  I knew that an SCC could remain elevated even after the mastitis was gone, but surely not that much.  Dr. A had been out sick, so none of my questions got answered; in fact, I never have gotten to talk with him again.  I've finally concluded that he was rather like the angel God sent to stop Abraham from sacrificing Isaac--he saved Siobhan and disappeared offstage.

Wondering if I had tested too soon after the antibiotics, I decided to send off a test to AntelBio, a lab that tests for the DNA of mastitis-causing organisms.  That means that even if an antibiotic treatment was preventing growth in a culture, any organism present would still show up through its DNA.  Those results confused me even more!  They showed that both Right quarters had no detectable organisms, but one or both of the left ones (I had combined them in the last tube I had) had 1+ Prototheca spp., contagious algae carried in water.  On top of that, it turns out that AntelBio doesn't even test for Pseudomonas, so the negative result wasn't reassuring at all.

That meant I needed to send off one more test to TQML since they test for both Pseudomonas and Prototheca.  This time the test came back showing NO Prototheca, but with 60 CFU/ml of Pseudomonas and the SCC down to 2.7 million.  (For comparison purposes, when Siobhan originally had Staph A in February 2014, the count was 659,000 CFU/ml.  When I got a report of 60 CFU/ml of an environmental bacteria at dry-off, Susan told me that small amount was probably a contaminated sample.)  So I was left with lots of questions . . . Was this a contaminated sample? . . . Had the PA never gone? . . . Or was it back?  Susan did tell me that with Pseudomonas, it's not unusual to have a negative test followed by a positive one.

Meanwhile, another problem had appeared.  About the 12th of June I noticed that Siobhan seemed to be in pain when I was milking or Remy was nursing, although her quarters seemed normal in size and the milk was flowing well and without clumps.  In fact, for the first time in her life she was regularly lifting a foot in protest, and I resorted to using hobbles on her.  As I investigated what could be causing her pain, I discovered long sores high up in the "cleavage" where her front quarters joined her body.  The sores were hidden in her thick coat and only became obvious when I tried to shave the area.  Her reaction made it clear that this was VERY painful.

I prepared hot water with eucalyptus, lavender and tea tree oils and used it to apply hot, moist compresses to the area.  Then, a bit at a time over a period of days, I shaved and pulled away the nasty clumps of dried exudate and hair.  What was left was raw, red, oozing sores.  I realized that they were right in the area where the thick edge of the Tamm udder net had touched Siobhan, and I was sick at heart to realize that I had caused this, too.  I tried a variety of things to help soothe the area until my friend Kirby Allen suggested that it sounded like a fungal infection.

So I switched to using Colloidal Silver ointment, which seemed to ease the pain as soon as I smeared it on, followed by Lotrimin Anti-fungal spray.  Every morning I dragged Siobhan into the stanchion to eat her grain while I did her soaks and treatment.

By that time it was the end of June.  I was down to once a day milking, and Remy was pretty much handling everything on his own.  My sisters were due to arrive July 1 to celebrate my 60th birthday, so I milked Siobhan for the last time on June 28.  After agonizing over what to do and when and how, I finally came to the conclusion that I didn't know enough to do anything at that time.  Siobhan had been in the barnyard with her Pseudomonas, and keeping her there longer wasn't going to change that.

Except for the sores, Siobhan was looking healthier and actually getting a shine on her coat.  So I decided to just hold on and let her raise Remy as long as possible.  There was no rush to make a decision, and I would try to enjoy the month of July with my family, ignore the undercurrent of sorrow that lurked just below the surface, and cross the next bridge when I came to it.

By the end of July, the right-hand sore was mostly healed, with new hair growing back.  I stopped the soaks on that side, but continued to monitor it and apply Lotrimin every few days.

The left-hand sore was much better, with most of the rawness gone and no further clumps of exudate appearing.  I was thankful for small blessings like Siobhan not being in pain any more.

I continued daily treatment on the left-hand sore, and now at the end of August, most of the hair has grown back.  I continue the daily treatments, however, unwilling to take the chance of a relapse.

The final piece of news is that this past Monday, Aug. 24, I sent off milk samples to TQML for a mastitis re-test.  I got the results Thursday, and to my complete surprise, there was no growth after 72 hours.  Nothing.  Nada.  Zip.  The SCC results are confusing (to both Susan and me), and I think I might have mixed up the two right-hand tubes.  At any rate, I'll test again in a month.

This entire saga has been like a roller coaster ride.  While I'm trying not to hope too much, I'm very thankful for this unexpected blessing, and I'll continue to leave Siobhan's future in God's hands.  Meanwhile, Remy is a funny, lively little guy and Siobhan is her usual sweet self.

What a relief that I don't have to drag her into the stanchion any more!  She comes over to the gate, waits until I open it, and walks right in.  I don't even have to shut the neck catch.  She eats her grain, I do her treatment, I give her some apple treats, and when I open the gate she backs out.  It's obvious that she wants to be out of the barnyard, and every three weeks she moos for Royal, but I think we can both hold on a little while longer.

A special "Thank you" to all of my family and friends who have prayed so faithfully for Siobhan!  Some of you like Herb, Kara and Barbara have been right beside me when it was hard to make myself go out to the barnyard.  Others of you I only know through the internet, but your caring messages have encouraged me more than you can know.  So thank you!  And please keep praying!

The Cow, the Calf, the Crisis, the Kids and the Creator

The Cow

This story begins earlier this year when I weaned Siobhan's calf Wellie and dried her off.  The anti-self sucking harness that I used for her was not holding up because of the inferior quality of the surcingles, so I decided to try something called a Tamm Udder Support that I thought would be more efficient and more comfortable for Siobhan.  (Note:  Do not go buy this product!  Please read the rest of the story.)

I kept it on Siobhan for about 6 weeks until her largest quarter, the right rear, had dried off.  At that point I took the udder support off because I wasn't worried about her self-sucking.  When I noticed Siobhan starting to bag up early in May, I put her anti-self sucking harness back on and figured out a way to make it work despite the fact that the rings kept pulling out due to poor stitching.  I couldn't leave the udder support on in case she calved unexpectedly because it would prevent the calf from nursing.  I was surprised and a bit concerned by how huge her RR (right rear) quarter had gotten compared to the others, although it has always been bigger and produced more.

The Calf

On the morning of May 23 Siobhan calved unassisted and I found her just as Remy, her bull calf, got up to nurse.

I gave Remy the day to get as much colostrum as possible, but that evening I milked Siobhan out.  I got 3 quarts from the RR quarter alone.  After that it stayed more its usual size, and Remy seemed to especially favor nursing that quarter.  I kept Remy on Siobhan 24 hours a day, milking her out morning and evening to remove whatever Remy didn't take.

The Crisis

Then on the morning of May 28, the RR quarter was huge again.  It was hard and obviously painful to Siobhan.  I was horrified to get off-colored watery "milk" that was full of slimy, snotty clumps, and I was sure the dreaded Staph A mastitis was back.  After milking I called our regular vet, but he was out of town.  So I called the back-up vet.  He said they had a shipment going to the University of GA lab at 4:00 that afternoon if I could get milk samples ready to send off.  I had a whole box of Pirsue left, but I asked if he would give me Excede (the systemic antibiotic we had used for her last time), and he agreed.  I took the samples and picked up the Excede.  I started the RR quarter on the first of eight Pirsue infusions that evening and gave Siobhan the injection of Excede.   In addition,  twice a day Siobhan gets oil of oregano in her feed along with Vitamin E and a big dose of probiotics.

The next day, May 29, Siobhan's right side looked very strange without the usual separation between quarters.  It seemed to be a reflection of the degree of inflammation that was present.

Since Siobhan was getting Pirsue infusions, I put Remy in a stall overnight to allow the medication to work for 12 hours.  Siobhan was therefore very full in the mornings, even after Remy nursed.  So every morning I made a bucket of very hot water with essential oils (EOs) in it: tea tree, eucalyptus, lavender and peppermint.  I soaked dish towels in the hot water, wrung them out thoroughly, and held them against the two affected right quarters, as well as the left ones, which also seemed painful; I did NOT re-dip towels.  I used separate dip cups for the affected quarters.  Once Siobhan's teats were dipped, wiped off with a paper towel, and wiped again with disinfectant teat wipes, I massaged each quarter with mint balm.  I wore gloves, and I sanitized carefully between quarters and again after massaging.  Then I wiped each teat again, stripped and milked, massaged some more, sanitized again, and milked out everything I could.

In the evenings, since Remy had been nursing during the day, I omitted the hot compresses and went straight to the massage and milking.

I don't know what I would have done without our daughter, Kara.  From the time I discovered the mastitis, she came out and helped with Siobhan and encouraged me.  Early on she had to "tail" Siobhan to keep her from constantly kicking a foot in pain.  Kara was my faithful "poop patrol" that first week because Siobhan would poop and pee several times each milking, especially in the mornings.  Since I was spending hours each day working on Siobhan, Kara took over cooking and fed us incredible meals--a far cry from the TV dinners we would have eaten had it been up to me.

This was Siobhan's right side on May 30 before I milked.  Our milking sessions had a lot of prayer and tears on my part along with signs of pain on Siobhan's.  For the first time in her life she lifted a hind foot--frequently, although she never aimed a kick at me.  On one occasion she was groaning in pain as I massaged her udder, and I tearfully apologized for hurting her, knowing she couldn't possibly understand that I was trying to help her.  I knew there was something in that RR quarter keeping me from getting everything out.  Finally, after two days with hours of massage and stripping, a huge firm clump came out.

The RR quarter would look much better after massaging, stripping and milking, but the RF was worrying me, too.  Remy tended to ignore it more than the other quarters, perhaps because the orifice is smaller, making it harder to nurse.  But that quarter was staying full and firm, which was worrying, although the milk filtered clear.

And even when the RR quarter was milked out, there was a thickened area above the teat that seemed due to inflammation in the tissues.






























Finally, by June 1, the RR quarter was looking almost normal after milking.

The milk was white with only a couple of small clumps in it, and the left side was nice and flaccid after milking.

I wish I could have used the Tennessee Quality Milk Lab as I usually do, but I wanted a test to go out as soon as I was dealing with mastitis.  TQML sends test results directly to me. Unfortunately, I did not get any results from the mastitis test until a week later on June 4, and then only via the vet.  He emailed the results as an attachment, which proved impossible to open.

Finally I emailed him asking what the result was, and he emailed back that the RR quarter "grew a pretty bad bacteria" that was uncommon and "a pure culture."  He said that I should contact an expert and suggested killing that quarter.  I emailed back to ask what the bacteria was.  He replied that the RR had "puedomonas (sic), resistant to every thing," that the RF "had a staph but it was treatable," and that the left side was clear.  Again, he suggested I talk to an expert.

At that point I began asking some Family Cow board and Dexter friends for help and advice.  The research I found on Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) said that it is untreatable and incurable.  I have since come to understand that, in my misguided effort to keep Siobhan from self-sucking, I almost certainly caused the Pseudomonas by putting the Tamm udder support on her, since it touched her teat and could rub on it.  Combined with the wet weather this spring, despite the aerated net, the dampness and the irritation of the teat end are enough to explain where this rare infection came from.  It's been an additional source of grief to me that I brought this on.  If I can warn anyone else from using an udder support, at least one small good thing will have come out of our fiery trial.  I did warn another cow owner who was dealing with a self-sucking cow, and she told me that her vet told her that to use the udder support would be "asking for mastitis."  How I wish I had known that!  But now you know it, so please don't use an udder support on your cow!

On June 4 there were no clumps in the PA quarter.  But hit with the double whammy of PA along with the Staph A apparently having returned, by Friday June 5, I concluded that Siobhan's situation was hopeless and that her time was up.  She was not looking good and obviously not feeling well, although she wasn't running a fever and she was still eating. With the antibiotics in her system, it would be impossible to butcher her, and I knew I couldn't possibly eat her anyway.  I realized I would have to find someone with a backhoe to dig a grave and find a vet to put her down.  However, there was nothing to be arranged over the weekend, and I needed to keep her from getting a possibly fatal overgrowth of the PA, so I continued to do everything I'd been doing to keep her alive and healthy enough to feed her baby.

After the result came back that Siobhan had staph in the RF quarter, I started Pirsue infusions in that one.  I was suspicious of the two left quarters and why they seemed painful, so I decided to start Pirsue in those.  I called the vet and he authorized two more boxes of Pirsue from Valley Vet.  I had them shipped overnight to be sure I would have enough Pirsue to get through the weekend.  Kara made a trip to Tractor Supply to get milk replacer and a bottle, and we came up with a plan for feeding Remy when the time would come.

The Kids

Saturday nights we usually babysit our grandkids, who are 6, 4 and 2, while Jim and Monique have date night.  Then Jim and Monique come back here to sleep, and we have Sunday morning together.  Jim asked what I wanted to do the night of June 7.  I said I'd love to see the kids, but that I kept bursting into tears throughout the day and I didn't want to upset them.  He replied that they're tough, and if it would encourage me they would come.  So I told them to come.  It did help to see the kids.  They are so delightful that they broke through my fog of grief over Kona and Siobhan, and I truly enjoyed having them there.

On Sunday morning Jim got up early with the kids, and when Kara and I went out to the barn to milk, they came along.  I told them they could stand up by Siobhan's head--out of the way of splashing pee--and give Siobhan some apple treats I had found.  It took at least an hour while I worked on Siobhan, and the kids stood there petting her and feeding her treats.  After quite a while, Kara observed that Siobhan hadn't pooped or peed for the first time on a morning since she had gotten sick, and I could see that she was looking at the kids, listening to their sweet voices, and eating up the affection along with the treats.

Jim asked me questions about Siobhan and explained to the kids how sick she was.  After a while he asked the kids if they wanted to pray for her, and they said yes.  One by one they prayed to Jesus to make Siobhan well, and tears streamed down my face as I listened to their sweet little voices.  Even the two year old prayed, and when Jim prayed, she repeated his words in a tiny echo.  Then Jim began singing:

"Soon and very soon we are going to see the King
No more crying there, we are going to see the King
No more dying there, we are going to see the King
Hallelujah, hallelujah, we are going to see the King."

By the time I finished milking (and crying) it was too late to make it to church, but I told Jim and the kids that I felt like I had been in church that morning.  Not only had they ministered to Siobhan, they had ministered to my hurting heart.  We went back to the house and they all packed up and went home.

The Creator

A couple of hours later my phone rang.  It was Dr. A, the vet who is the head of TQML, apologizing for not calling me sooner.  He had gotten the email I sent to Susan, who does the milk tests, and he wanted to know how Siobhan was doing.  Then he asked me about the results from the mastitis culture.  Our vet had finally managed to send me a copy of the results that I could see, so I opened it and read it to him.  And that was when we discovered a mistake I had made:  Siobhan had "Staph species" or "Staph sp." in her RF quarter, not the dreaded Staph aureus.  After all the time I've spent on Keeping a Family Cow, I should have realized the difference, but my brain had stuck on our vet's report of "a staph," which I took to be his version of "Staph A."  Dr. A told me that since Siobhan's PA quarter was soft and giving clump-free white milk, that if she is strong, he thinks she can heal herself from the Pseudomonas.  The Staph sp. was sensitive to Pirsue and Excede, and he said it's environmental, not contagious like Staph A.  At least three times, he said to me, "Please don't kill your cow needlessly."

When we finally hung up, I thought of the Bible story of Abraham being tested and told by God to sacrifice his son Isaac.  You may remember that Abraham had his son all trussed up on the altar and was holding the knife poised to kill Isaac when God stopped Abraham, showed him a ram in a thicket, and told him to free Isaac and sacrifice the ram instead.  I think I must have felt like Abraham right then--dizzy, confused, hopeful, amazed and not quite sure I could believe what I was hearing.  I believe that God had heard the prayers of my sweet little grandchildren because this was too much to put down to mere coincidence.

Instead of finding a backhoe and a vet, I was heartened to continue my efforts with Siobhan.  I still have questions and uncertainties about what will happen and what her future will be.  I hope Dr. A can answer some of my questions, while others just have to wait.  I don't know what God plans to do.  I know and believe that He can heal Siobhan, even from an infection that is medically considered untreatable and incurable.  Whether that is His plan or whether it is merely to give Siobhan a chance to raise her calf a bit longer and to comfort me that I gave her every possible chance, I don't know.  For now I'm taking things one day at a time.

By June 8, Siobhan's udder was looking much more normal.  The last of the Pirsue infusions was finished on June 12.  After allowing five days for withdrawal, I plan to collect milk samples on the 17th and send them to TQML.  Normally I have to send cultures on a Monday or Tuesday, but Susan has to be in the lab for the next two weekends, so I can send them whenever I want, allowing for a bit longer withdrawal.  Then I'll have to wait a week to know the results.

Meanwhile, God has reminded me that He holds Siobhan in His hands, that He answers prayer, and that I can trust Him with the outcome and the future, whatever it is.  

Siobhan's News!

Once again, Siobhan is proud and happy to announce that her second post-freshening milk culture is CLEAN!  Thanks be to God!

WONDERFUL NEWS!!!

Siobhan is proud and grateful to announce . . .

THAT SHE IS OFFICIALLY MASTITIS-FREE!!!

NO MORE STAPH A!  No more self-sucking, either!

The dear sweet lady at the TQML, Susan, emailed me specially to let me know, in advance of the official results, because she knew how anxious I've been!

Thanks be to God for His grace to Siobhan and thanks to Dr. Patrick Tyree for being the best cow vet around!

The Saga of My Self-Sucking Cow and How I Got Her to Stop, Part II

In my previous post I detailed my efforts to stop Siobhan from self-sucking, ending with a jubilant victory after two tests.  However, since I had thought so many times previously that I had succeeded in stopping her, I decided to perform a third test--the third time being the charm, as they say.

So after milking on March 10, I performed a third food color test.  To make the test more thorough, I put red gel on the front teats and green on the back.  That made it easier to double-check any color transfer.

Siobhan went out and lay down on the brow of the hill to chew her cud.

She has always loved this spot, ever since she was a baby two years ago in April. We have a lot of history together, Siobhan and I.

The next morning stormy weather moved in, perhaps a harbinger of things to come.

A cursory glance was all it took to see that Siobhan had failed the test.  She was still self-sucking!

Or was she?  Could she just have managed to smear the food color in the dewy grass?

I wiped around the front teat with a damp, folded paper towel, being careful not to touch the tip of the teat.  There was red all over it!

When I wiped the rear (green) teat, my heart sank to find red all over it, too.  I despaired of ever finding a solution.

I decided that I'd given Siobhan too much rope, well, rein--and she had hung herself!  So although the reins were as short as they were meant to be, I found a way to shorten them by using a split ring (the kind that holds keys) to loop several of the rings closer together.

And by the way, this is not a mother-daughter reunion here, but a sassy teenager challenging mom . . .

And mom is not going to take any guff!  While Siobhan and Macree settled the issue of who was boss, I realized that the way the reins separate could cause a serious problem for a smaller calf, possibly even allowing it to hang itself.  Something needed to be done.

The answer was a piece of PVC pipe from Ace Hardware.  I had just one 28" long piece of 3" pipe so I put it on the side she usually turns to self-suck.  That smile of Siobhan's?  She's probably already figuring out how to beat this!

First I ran the rein through the pipe, pushing it up as far as it would go toward Siobhan's head.

Next I pulled the rein through the side ring on her surcingle.

Then I fed the rein back through the pipe and pulled it out the front end.  I was able to squeeze the rubber ring and shove it into the pipe so the pipe would come all the way forward on the rein.

I used the sliding clip on the rein to help secure the rein to the surcingle.

And finally I clipped both front ends of the rein to the halter, clipping one a little farther forward to shorten the rein even more.

As always with a new contraption, I did a taste test:  Can she eat?  Yes!

Next I added a new test, the turning radius:  Does it look like the pipe will stop her from turning to suck herself?  Well, I didn't see how she could do it, but only time would tell.

The day ended in a cloudy sky, which I hoped was not symbolic of the future of my Anti-Self-Sucking Campaign!  It rained hard that night, so there was no chance to do another food color test.

It wasn't until two days later on March 13 that I was able to do another test.  The next morning when Siobhan came in for milking, this is what I found . . .

. . . and this.  That food coloring is clearly untouched and un-smeared!

And these are the paper towels I used to wipe the sides of her teats.  SHE PASSED HER TEST!  NO SELF-SUCKING!  Even more good news that day:  Siobhan's cultures came back with NO GROWTH from any quarter.  Her SCC was still high, though, in both left quarters, and the vet wanted me to continue milking for two more weeks to try to clear it before I dry her off.

After all my previous failures, though, I still wasn't resting easy, and I wasn't taking any chances on the mastitis coming back.  I still wanted to try some more of the ideas I gleaned from my internet search.   I didn't have enough of the right kind of straps, so I played around with what I had.  I like the idea of PVC pipe better than the old-timers' wooden stake, but it's clear that what might work on a big tall Holstein . . . won't work on a short little Dexter!  There's no way Siobhan could walk with something under her chest, not without tripping on it.  Scratch that idea!

I've been warned by the cow gurus on Keeping a Family Cow that even if I can stop Siobhan from self-sucking, she might turn to sucking other cows.  So I decided to make a spiked halter, like the old timers did,  but a little more modern.  I'll do another post soon on how I made the halter and some changes I decided on after seeing it in the vicinity of my other cows' faces!

I realized I needed more supplies.  My creativity was ebbing, so I took a trip to Tractor Supply and wandered the aisles looking for inspiration.  I came home with a pile of horse trailer tie downs, dog collars and leads with clips.  In addition I found a leather crupper from my little French horse.  I piled all my treasures in the Doodad and headed out to play with Siobhan.

It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that she actually tried to run away--well, walk away--when she saw me coming with more torture equipment!  I told her it was because I love her, but I don't think she believed it any more than I used to believe my mom when she said that before she spanked me.

Pretty much everything I bought at Tractor Supply ended up getting returned except this wonderful Weaver nylon tie-down strap for horses.  Once it was clear that it would work I headed back to TSC to get another one and return everything else.

On the way home I stopped at Ace Hardware to get a smaller PVC pipe that would still fit the tie-down inside.  All three of the regular "helpful hardware men" at Ace now know the saga of my self-sucking cow.  Whenever they see me there they ask how it's going, and they're ready with helpful ideas.  It's wonderful that they'll cut my PVC to the exact length I want, no charge.   I told them that with my collection of hardware and PVC pipe, I'm going into competition with them.  This is 2 feet of 1-1/2 inch PVC pipe, exactly the right length for the tie-down and just big enough for the smaller clip to go through.

Siobhan executed the turning radius test herself without any encouragement from me.  It's like she was testing the limits of her newest contraption!

I ran another test to my specifications, though, just to be sure it would work.

The taste test was fine, too.

Unfortunately, the rain test was a failure.  I hadn't thought of that one!  It started pouring rain that night, and the next morning Siobhan's halter was hanging around her neck, which of course rendered the PVC contraption useless.  The one problem with these nylon halters is that they stretch when they get wet.  So now I know that every time it's going to rain, I need to tighten up the halter; when it dries out, I need to loosen the halter again.

I put the halter back on, but the next night she somehow managed to rub against the clip on her halter and get it open, and I found the tie-down and PVC pipe dangling from her surcingle.  I hadn't thought of the genie-rub test, either!  So now I turn the clip in against her face and her side so she can't catch it on something to open it.

Finally, by March 18 I was ready for another test.  I had thought of an improvement this time.  One of my readers mentioned that they couldn't really see the food coloring on Siobhan's black teats, so I picked up some paper tape at Rite Aid.  (The local economy owes Siobhan a big thank you!)

The morning of the 19th was one of my lowest points, when I found both pieces of tape smeared with red food coloring.  I didn't see HOW she could physically be self-sucking, but apparently she was! That whole day I vacillated between being furious at my cow, desperate, despondent, and exhaustedly trying to come up with a plan, all of this going through my head as I made another trip to Ace Hardware and back.

I decided I finally had to use the expensive over-sized dog collars from TSC to make my absolute, last-ditch idea.  Two of them buckled together fit the biggest part of Siobhan's neck.  Some bolts and 1/2 inch PVC pipe replaced the old timers' broom sticks, but what could I use for the top of her neck?  I had two more collars, but they were way too large together, and one alone was too small.

So I raided my closet and found a nice silver-buckled belt that shrank and doesn't fit me any longer.  ;)  I was tired of walking back and forth to the house for fittings, so I carried everything out to the pasture and sat down on the ground to put the Anti-Self-Sucking Collar together.

I looked up at Siobhan, standing there so patiently where she'd been tied for the past two hours, gazing at me with her sweet, trusting face after all the torture devices I've put on her . . . and I burst into tears.  I bawled and bawled and begged her to stop sucking.  I was crying so hard I'm sure she didn't understand a word, but she kept gazing at me with that sweet expression.  (And drooling a bit because it was getting close to supper time.)

After a few minutes I dried my tears, picked up my pliers and screwdriver, and went back to work.

The first trial of the collar showed me a problem . . .

. . . Because the dog collars were buckled together, one went up and one went down--and they pulled the PVC pipes off-kilter.

So out came the trusty tie-downs, and I looped them through the collar buckles and around one piece of PVC pipe on each side.

That seemed to solve the problem, but it didn't look very comfortable at all!

However, it passed the taste test . . .

. . . and the turning radius test.

All that remained was the food color test.  The next morning Siobhan came in like this.

And like this.  I didn't despair this time, though.  The night before, Herb got home unusually early, while it was still light.  I dragged him out to the pasture to look at Siobhan and tell me how on earth she could be self-sucking with all that stuff on her!  I showed him the first pieces of tape I had saved and made her do a turning radius test for him.  It was the first time Herb had been able to see Siobhan in the daylight, and he said it was impossible for her to reach her udder.  What if, he asked, when she lies down her teats rub against the dewy grass and each other, transferring the food color to the tape?

Bingo!  That was an eye-opening revelation!  So I sat there yesterday morning and tried it out.  Yes, her teats would rub against each other, and yes, the color could transfer off the tip of one onto the side of the one next to it.

In fact, when I looked closer, the color on the tip of her teat was intact.  It was barely "dry-brushed" onto the tape, easily explained exactly as Herb had suggested.  I realized it was the same for the first tape test and that my PVC surcingle contraption had worked just fine.  I had become so focused on Siobhan and her problem that I was seeing a problem when there wasn't one anymore!  As I told Herb, "I need to get out more!"

In my defense, I will say that I kept expecting that once I stopped Siobhan from self-sucking, the left front quarter would be fuller in the morning.

The other side is fuller, although none of the teats look full, and her production has dropped by about half.  So it looks like she's simply drying off faster in the quarter that had mastitis and got most of the self-sucking.  It remains to be seen what will happen when she freshens, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

That morning's milking did uncover one problem with the collar:  I couldn't close the neck-catch of the stanchion over it.

I tied Siobhan, but it was easy for her to back up when she thought we should be done milking.

Since I thought all those straps on her neck looked terribly uncomfortable, anyway, I decided to switch her back into the PVC/tie-down/surcingle.  It's easy to unclip both tie-downs from the halter and let the PVC pipes dangle so I can close the stanchion, and it's just as easy to clip them back on when milking is done.

Siobhan looked so much happier and more relaxed when I turned her out!  I think she agrees that we've found a solution we can both live with!  We're halfway through the extra two weeks of milking the vet wants me to do in order to clear her SCCs, and then I can dry her off so she can grow her calf.

And if that calf turns out to be a heifer, I have her name already picked out: "ZH Cash's Pretty Penny," but I'll call her "Polly"--short for Poly Vinyl Chloride, of course.  What else?!