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.  

Tips for Training Your Dexter as a Family Milk Cow

Lately I've been getting lots of questions about milking.  Some of the most frequent questions are about how to train a cow to milk.  So I'll start at the beginning with my tips for training your Dexter as a family milk cow--with a newborn calf.  Don't be discouraged if you've got a heifer about to calve or a brand-new-to-you cow with a new calf.  Just look down the list, start where you are, and go on from there . . .

Start training your heifer calf from birth.  Halter train her.  Handle her all over.  Teach her to let you pick up her feet.  Rub and touch her little teats.  It's never too soon to teach her that you're allowed to touch her anywhere and that it feels good.  Most Dexters love food and treats; use them to your advantage to make friends and reward her for good behavior.

Set up a place to milk.  Get the stanchion before the cow, at least, hopefully before you try to milk her.  I was lucky that Siobhan, as a first-calf heifer, had just enough milk for her calf.  If she had been producing more milk and I had HAD to milk her, it would probably have worked out because she's a very laid-back cow and trusts me.  But it's always easier to milk when you have a place set up.  I know a couple of ladies who walk up to their cows in the pasture and sit down to milk, but those are rare cows.  Getting the stanchion set up means having the equipment and supplies you'll need at hand, which will help you relax.  It means being able to clean the udder properly, which helps avoid mastitis.  And if you're lucky enough to have a heifer calf, you'll be training her as a milk cow while you milk her mother!

Make your training count double.  Train your heifer to the stanchion while she's a calf at her mother's side.  I started milking Siobhan when Macree was two months old, so Macree learned early on that going in the stanchion means yummy things to eat.  By the time I was ready to sell Macree as a bred heifer, she would readily hop up into the stanchion, let me close the head catch on her, and stand like a rock while I handled her teats.

Start gradually. Get the cow used to the stanchion before you need or want to milk.  If she's halter-trained, you can lead her right up to the feed box and let her eat without closing the neck catch.  Do this several times.  Then when she's at ease, close the neck catch, but open it as soon as she finishes eating.  When she starts to leave the stanchion, let her go.  You can gradually lengthen the time you ask her to stand with the neck catch closed, gauging by her behavior how quickly to proceed.  

If your cow is less tame, you may need to "bucket lead" her to the stanchion with a bucket of feed.  You can put a tub of feed where she can reach it without having to get into the stanchion.  Let her eat it.  Try again the next day (or in the evening if you feed twice a day).  Each time, you can make her advance farther into the stanchion to get the feed.  Just remember, if your cow was not already getting grain, you must work her up gradually over a period of weeks; suddenly giving her a lot of grain will upset her rumen and make her sick.

Start with a positive attitude and the right goal:  Make the first few times milking about the cow having a positive experience.  It's not about the milk!  It's about teaching your cow that this place and this time are GOOD.  If you think positively and approach her calmly and kindly, she will sense your "good vibes" and be reassured.

Be flexible.  If you find yourself needing to milk your cow because her udder is too full, but the clanging bucket makes her nervous, "kick" the bucket! Milk onto the ground if you need to, that's okay.  In this case, getting the milk out is the goal.  If your cow gets upset and puts a foot in the bucket, don't get mad; you've got chicken food!  Next time try milking into a smaller cup or bowl and dump the milk into the bucket, safely placed where it can't be kicked.

Keep the calf near her head where she can see it and see that you aren't hurting it.  A calm calf will make for a calm cow.  (You'll probably want to halter and tie it so it doesn't wander around and knock things over.) Talk to your cow or sing to her.  Let her feel that this is a partnership, that you love doing this, and that she can trust you.

Get a routine and stick to it.  Cows like routine, some more than others, so milking at the same time each day and following a predictable routine will put your cow at ease.  Also, following the same routine each day will ensure that you don't leave out any important steps necessary for good udder care.  If you've read this far you are probably new to milking, so the link above is for the more detailed procedure that I follow, along with plenty of explanations.  At the end of that post you'll find a link to the simplified routine.  You'll develop your own routine to fit your situation and your cow, but this will give you an idea of what works for us.  Having said this, don't hesitate to tweak things that need to be changed.  Just do it gradually and not all at once.

These tips are very general and should help to get you started.  Next time I'll try to cover some specific questions and problems that readers have asked about, as well as some that have come up in my own experience.  You know the old adage:  "Experience may not be the kindest of teachers, but she IS the best!"

Calf Watch for Ebony

Every year when a cow is getting close to calving, I go on "Calf Watch."  I observe developing signs of calving and take lots of photos for a visual record of her progress.  Since Ebby calved late this year, this will be a long Calf Watch post!  It will provide a good set of visual notes for me for next year, and hopefully it will help someone else figure out if their own Dexter is close to calving.

Remember, every cow is unique and every calving is different.  It's the combination of signs and their progression that is helpful.  There is no one particular sign that has to happen--not even the famous "her pins are gone."  Last year Ebby calved without me detecting that her pelvic ligaments had loosened.  You will hear that "once the pins are gone, she'll calve within 12 hours (or 24)."  I'm here to tell you that last year Ebby calved overnight after I felt her pelvic ligaments the evening before.  So, there are no guarantees!

Having missed the births of five previous calves, I was determined to see Royal's first calf born.  Based on Ebby's Estrotect patch and the date I sent milk for biotracking, the calf was due April 4.  I started Calf Watch early and took lots of photos.  Now that Ebby has calved and I'm down to milking only once a day, here's what transpired . . .

March 21 - Ebby moved into the Home Pasture for easy observation and feeding.  I started her on Dr. Hubert Karreman's 2-2-2 ACV regime:  Two ounces of apple cider vinegar twice a day for two weeks before calving.  I mixed the ACV with 1 Tbsp. of unsulfured molasses and poured it over a few ounces of non-GMO pellets.

Use apple cider vinegar 2 oz twice daily for two weeks prior to freshening to keep blood calcium levels up.

Be careful of low calcium since the muscles that control the teat sphincters at the very bottom of the teat may be weak and not close tightly between milking times. This is how environmental bugs get in and causes horrible problems (especially coliforms). 

March 24 -  Springing.  The vulva began to get swollen and floppy.

Udder development.  In my experience it is usually uneven, and Ebby's right rear quarter began to fill first.

Udder development from the side.  Please excuse the mud in these photos; we had a very rainy April.  I preferred to take photos while Ebby ate, then brush her after.  She's happy to stand still for brushing; not so much for a photo op!

March 28 - Side view.  In addition to peering closely at vulva and udder and feeling for ligaments, I like to stand back and look at the cow as a whole.

Udder development.  Not much happening.

March 31 - Rear udder development.  The left side is catching up to the right side.

In addition to twice daily checks during feeding, I started going out to check on Ebby before I went to bed.  We were having frequent thunderstorms, so she spent quite a few nights shut up safely in a stall.

April 2 - I began setting my alarm for 3 a.m. to make sure Ebby didn't do a repeat of last year, have her pelvic ligaments suddenly go, and calve overnight.  This was the first of many wee-hours-of-the-morning photos.

When I felt Ebby's pelvic ligaments, she usually backed up to "ask" for a massage, responding with what I called her "Pin Dance."  She would wiggle her entire body, snaking slowly from head to tail in obvious pleasure.  I could often feel contractions tightening her right side or feel the calf move, like here when it shifted and made a huge baby bump.

Here Ebby is later that morning, safe from thunderstorms, with a full rack of hay, two buckets of water, and plenty of bedding just in case she should calve.

Springing.

Udder development.  It's beginning to fill.

April 3 - Rear view showing springing and Ebby's round belly, although she doesn't get as huge as Siobhan does.

Looking at her pelvic ligament area.

Palpating Ebby's pelvic ligaments.  While not as obvious as in a dairy cow, they can be felt like cord about the diameter of a pencil.  This sign of calving is the hardest one to detect without plenty of experience, and I still consider myself new at it.

April 4 - Springing.  There is a definite increase in puffiness from April 2.  Today was Ebby's due date.

Time to get the stanchion ready!  I thoroughly bleached everything, hosed it off, dried the mats by hanging them over the gate, and replaced them.  I filled the teat dip cups that I had previously bleached clean and made sure that all the supplies were ready to go.

April 5 - Mucus.  This was the first time I saw any, and it wasn't much.

April 6 - Mucus.  Another photo from the wee hours of the morning.

Rear view.  This makes it clear that Ebby had not gone slab-sided, which occurs when the calf drops low down to move into the birth canal.  She was also wet with rain.

Udder development.  It's fuller and rounder, swelling farther back than on March 28.

Not that much has changed from the side, although the angle a photo is taken from does make a difference.

April 8 - The udder is more visible than on March 24.  Note the front teat protruding more due to that quarter filling.

Springing.  Observe the folds of skin around the vulva.  By this time it was jiggly when Ebby walked.

Udder development.  The rear quarter is noticeably fuller than two days previously on April 6.  The front quarter is not noticeably fuller, although it was to the touch.  However, strutting of that teat is visible as it swells and points out.

Mucus.

April 9 - Springing.  The vulva is so swollen that Ebby's tail is pushed out to the side, and there are more folds of skin visible around it.

Springing from the side.

(NOTE:  The red block behind Ebby is not a mineral block, it's a bloat block.  She normally gets loose minerals free choice, but they get taken up when she has a bloat block because it contains minerals.)

April 10 - Mucus.  She had another long string, which her tail slapped around on her sides.

This morning Ebby looked slab-sided.  Note the lack of a baby bump on the right side.  I called to cancel a doctor's appointment, thinking she might calve in the hours I would be gone.

By the afternoon, the baby bump was back.

Side view.  There is marked udder development from two days previously on April 8.

April 11 - Ebby says, "Are you taking pictures of me AGAIN?  Let's get this over with!"

Udder development.  Ebby's teats were pulled so tight there were tiny wrinkles.  The reason they look dry is because I don't handle the teats before calving, not even to apply balm.  I don't want to take the risk of dislodging the wax plugs that seal the teats, which would allow bacteria to enter and lead to mastitis.  There will be time to soften that skin up once the calf is born and I'm milking.  And under NO circumstances would I express milk "just to see" if there is any.  Trust me--as swollen as Ebby's udder is, there's milk in there!  I leave the teats alone, doing nothing more than occasionally laying a hand high up on a quarter to check for filling under all that fuzzy winter coat.

Udderly miserable!  That night I found poor Ebby laying on her side with her legs sprawled out to keep the pressure off her swollen udder.  She normally lays tucked up nice and upright, so I knew how miserable she was.  She didn't even get up for a massage.

April 12 - Finally!  Ebby's pelvic ligaments were no longer palpable.

Slab-sided or not?  Maybe, although not dramatically so.

Side view.  Ebby still had an appetite and devoured her grain.

Her udder was full to bursting and very firm to the touch.

From the rear, you can see that her teats were strutting, so full they were sticking out to the side.

Springing and mucus.  Note all of the wrinkles under her tail.

Springing from the side.  She was holding her tail away from her body, off to one side.

When Ebby disappeared down to the bottom of the hill and hid in the woods, I was pretty sure the calf was on its way.

After I went down to check on Ebby and invaded her private hideout, she came back up to her shelter.  Royal seemed suddenly quite interested in Ebby's rear end, another indication that something was different.

Ebby seemed to want company, both Royal's and mine.  She came over to me, asking for a massage, went back to her shelter, and a little while later she headed down the hill again.  Note the hollow look between her hooks and pins, compared to the full side view on April 10.  If you're not also palpating the pelvic ligaments, that "hollow look" is easy to miss.

Clued in by Ebby's restlessness that something was happening, I was checking her every half hour.  She couldn't seem to find a place to settle, and she headed back up the hill again.

She laid down under the tree in a favorite spot, but got up a few minutes later.

By 2:08 p.m., Ebby had decided--the calf was going to be born on a nice bed of hay in her shelter.  I could tell she was miserable.  Just look at that cartoon-cow udder sticking straight out like it was pasted on by a child.  The calf couldn't come soon enough for either of us!

Half an hour later, the calf was clearly on its way and Ebby's Calf Watch was over.  Click here for the rest of the story, the birth of ZH Royal Celebration.