Help with a bad udder...

So I usually let nature take care of itself, but.....I have a 10 year old cow with a HUGH udder in the back quarters. The calf can nurse the fronts but for the last 2 years they have not found the backs without me helping. Last year I got it done but this year the bag in bigger and lower and the calf cannot get to them. I have dug the side of the chute down where the calf stands and put dirt under the cows back legs to get the teats up higher but the just cant get it done. If I milk the bag out it will just fill up again. Not sure whats the best help here. The bags is spliting open this morning. Feel real bad for the cow, but she is eating and acting normal. No mastitis and wasnt last year either, even though I suspected it but when I checked she was fine.  Yes its her last year.

Frostback, how old is the calf?  Have you milked the cow out to this point?

If the calf is only a couple three days old it probably wont be able to keep up with the production just yet on a heavy milker then they of course go for the easiest access and it leaves the back two quarters to swell and become painfull for the cow.  Then if the calf does try and suck the cow swats her off.  I would drain the cow down so that the teats and udder are more comfortable and manageable in size.  True if you drain her down she will fillback up, but maybe by that time the calf will start using them and problem solved.  We struggle with this exact scenario every year.  We actually had a cow in the chute last night for the same reason.  I have never had one turn into a huge problem.  Usually once the calf is a few days old and gets hungry enough everything handles itsself.    

I wouldn't keep heifers out of her.  Seedstock should be the best animals and bad feet and udders are a bad foundation to build any herd on.

Well I went and got the needle looking things and drained her back quarters all I could. Put a bit of salve on it to soften it up. I put the milk in a bottle and tried to let the calf drink it but he wouldnt at this point. He hadnt been away from the cow for long. I will keep getting her in and draining it or trying to teach the calf to nurse. No we have no daughters from her and this is a ET calf, she would have been gone last fall but the embryo took so one more year of this then gone this fall. 

frostback said:

Well I went and got the needle looking things and drained her back quarters all I could. Put a bit of salve on it to soften it up. I put the milk in a bottle and tried to let the calf drink it but he wouldnt at this point. He hadnt been away from the cow for long. I will keep getting her in and draining it or trying to teach the calf to nurse. No we have no daughters from her and this is a ET calf, she would have been gone last fall but the embryo took so one more year of this then gone this fall. 

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If it were me I wouldn't feed the calf the milk that you drained from the cow (I think that is what you were meaning).  You want the calf as hungry as possible so it can keep up with the cows milk production.  I feel like I am telling you things I am sure you already know, so sorry if it seems elementary.  I swear I don't know how many times I have uttered those same words "she is gone this year" and then they take to some exciting pregnancy and we wind up keeping them one more blessed year.  We just have two that we have a little trouble with and the one we had in the chute last night it was the first time we had laid a hand on her and she is eight years old.  The other is her mother and she is ten and every year we have to train those calves to eat off those low and large back quarters.  The cow stands as we wrestle her calf and after about three days they seem to figure it out.  If we had a whole herd of them I would have to shoot myself, but one, easy to deal with cow seems doable for now, but I swear next year is her last year.  Good luck Frostback and I am sure it will work itself out.   

Have one we are dealing with....  Always seem to have one or two udders a year.....  We kept the calf away from the cow......milked out the FRONT, got the back started so they were not as tender and then let the Hungary calf into the cow with nothing in the front.  Gave him some motivation to find the back with some help.

And to make sure some of these cows on their last year really are their last year.  They are gonna be in a pasture without a bull!

Limiman12 said:

Have one we are dealing with....  Always seem to have one or two udders a year.....   We kept the calf away from the cow......milked out the FRONT, got the back started so they were not as tender and then let the Hungary calf into the cow with nothing in the front.   Gave him some motivation to find the back with some help.

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This is the exact course of action I would take and have taken in the past.  As long as the calf is getting adequate milk from the front quarters there is no motivation to suck the rear where more effort is required.