question?

What to do now ?  i have a heifer out of the exposure sale this past Dec. that recently calved 11 days ago.  I had to help her have it or pull it in other words.  Everything came easy and I seen her clean out. She had the biggest udder I have ever seen on a heifer and the calf was doing great.  Yesterday, I noticed that she was by herself with the calf.  Her udder was not as tight and she is not walking the same. She is not extenging her back legs like she was in the past.  So i thought she might have mastitis but caught her and she doesnt feel like she has it or look like it. Then called the Doc. he said give her 50cc of pinacillan a day for 5 days. see what happens.  However calf is fine a this point but I have seen him after the other cows. Tried bottle feeding but he wasn't into it.  Plenty of mineral out and on a good feed ration any ideas. thanks

could it be she has such a big udder she cant walk as well??

no she was walking good until recently and her bag is smaller and walking worse. The doc said she might have an infection.  I don't know.

Sly- did you try to milk her out at all?  What did you get when/if you did this?  I would lock them in and put the calf in a seperate pen where the cow can see/nose the calf but can't get together with it.  Leave them for a few hours and then milk her out and see what you get.  I wouldn't think that she has mastitis if her udder doesn't feel hot and if it's not full and hard.  I would highly recommend taking her temp and seeing if she has something going on.  Even when they seem to have cleaned normally they can still have some left in them and that may be causing an infection.  I have seen where it will make a younger female want to dry up.  I don't know the answer to why, you will have to ask the vet but I suppose it has to do with the effect on the hormones.  Anyway,  I would do those two things and then consult with your vet as to what she might need.  I would wonder if anyone might think that giving her some oxytocin along with the penicillin would help.  Maybe that uterus needs to contract some more and clean itself out better.  Cowboy...are you there?

Get another vet. They are like mechanics. Not all of them can fix something as well as another and your animal is more important to you than it is to some. Try another vet who will find out exactly what's wrong.

I am not a vet but worked a lot of years with the human kind.
THis also could be nuerological. If you say her walk is affected and her back legs are not moving as well could it be related to the delivery or a pinched nerve. There hasn't been any back injuries. The infection would have to be systemic I would think for it to affect her gait.
Definitely get her reevualted. It may be something simple but best not to let it go.

Common Sense is sooooooo diplomatic!!

I read the post on the hfr -- she was most likely fed pretty hard ot make the sale -- and this can cause some problems with hfrs.

#1- - Edema -- you mentioned she had a very lasrge udder -- this is usually casued by swelling, poor l milk let down (Oxytocin will help there as well). Although a hfr normally does not get mastitis, they CAN if they were the victom of another amourous hfr -- every seen a couple hfrs sucking each other before they are ever bred or worse, after wards??? Not good! The udder may not be letting milk flow freely - thus the reason you have seen the calf bothering other cows -- he is hungry!

#2 -- Uterin problems. In servere cases during a hard deleivery, when the calf is pulled, you CAN damamge the vaginal wall (Tear it open) , split the cervix open from getting in too big of a hurry , or -- the calf can punch a pretty substantial hole in the uterus itself when she is working so hard to get it out.  Any one of these three problems will cause a pretty bad infection, if not a full blown case of paritinitis (Systemic infection - which can kill her)

Every one knows I am not a vet -- but also, I have seen and done about all you can with cattle. Thereis something deffinately wrong with this hfr, so my advice would be to first off go ahead with the penn treatments -- but if the vet you talked to doesn't want to make a trip to give a full exam, get another one who will ! She does need your help now -- and so does the calf. He is chasing other cows for a reason if they paired up good -- it is NOT because she has bad breath !!! hehehe

Bovine language 101 -- they talk by doing and showing -- we need to listen!

Get after her -- she needs it!

Good luck -- clock is ticking --

Terry

thanks