Question on my dairy cow and blood in milk

[deblcrh]

I have a 4 year old dairy cow who calved a week ago today.
She has lost a lot of attachment in her udder and does hang extremely low. She will milk approximately 3-4 gallons each milking right now with colostrum. I keep her calf on her and milk, but could not keep the swelling down in the back quarter. Very very red and swollen, hot quarter but milk comes easy but has tinge of blood. She is extremely hard in that quarter and I did give 30 cc combi-pen. I am wondering if the quarter could be more edema than mastitis. Milk has no lumps but is is very pink. Regular Milk should be coming in this week, and see a little less swelling. Vet tells me to cut my losses, but she is family cow and will stay regardless if she is rebred or not. My question is if blood indicates mastitis or if severe edema with the ligament support gone could be the problem.
I am milking, milking, milking and just took two of my older bottle calves down to her and let them strip her out. She is eating well and shows no sign of unwell. She is very sore, but a very good girl to clean and massage. I have been using my fists to massage and try to soften the knots and she still refrains from kicking. ...why the stay on the place attitude will work for me....
I am worried every calving will be hard on her and would like to also know if milking could lessen as she ages. Would help with the bag issue.

Thanks for any help or answers on other ideas to make her comfortable.

 

[turnerstar31]

Well without seeing her this is what I can tell you. If she just calved they can have bloody milk for a while but if you are saying that it is just one quarter than I say that it could be the start of mastitis. You need to make sure that her quarter is milked out extremely well if you want her to get better if it is mastitis. There is also a treatment called today that you can put inside her quarter and that sometimes helps. You can find it at usually and farm store. It does come in a box but around ehre you can sometimes buy just one or two tubes. You actually stick the pointed end right in her teat and put the medicine inside her. I suggest that you do not drink the milk as it is medicine. I know that there are also salve treatments and some organic methods but I have no experience with them what so ever. However like I said because she just calved a week ago she may just have some blood in her quarter ours sometimes have that too and it does take a little bit for it to go away. Also her bag is still probably hard from all the cake from baggin up and will go down in time. I would not rush on the idea of mastitis but if it gets worse than i would say that it could be.

 

[kstaven]

If she has a bad or low attachment of that quarter then it could be strain of bagging up like suggested. Keep it milked out well and be extra careful about cleaning the teats before milking. If it is mastitis you don't want it to spread to other teats.

 

[steffpeck]

I know they make test strips that you can squirt the milk on to test for mastitis, you may want to find some of them and test her. I know the lady we are getting our Dexters from, tests each time she milks.

 

[Chatychick]

With the edema it will cause the pink or blood in the milk as shen she walks it hits her legs and causes this. If you are cow-sharing with the calf milk the front and let the calf milk out the back quarters. Or you can massage the back quarters really well and milk them out. I would milk her at least 3 times a day till this cleared up. Tape the front teats so the calf has to nurse the back as they can bump them harder than we can hit them. The calf dont care about the blood in the milk either and can clear this up really fast. I would pen the calf up at night and then when you go to milk onlye let it have the back 2 teats or the teats with the problems. Check and make sure its nursed them out and if not milk them out in a different container. This should clear up really soon when the edema goes down. It took about a week with my cow as she dont have very good attachments either. Also try not to let her run as this causes the blood in the milk also. Also as long as you have given the pennicillian you cant really or shouldnt drink the milk for a few days any way. Good luck

 

[CindyS]

The extreme edema has caused broken blood vessels, it will get better each time you milk her. Many times our fresh cows had so much blood in the milk it does not look like colostrum at all! A cow is still actually not old at 4 and should be able to have many more calves, however, her udder sounds like it is already lost its support and it will be more and more difficult to manage at every calving.

 

[deblcrh]

My My,,did I find a bunch of nice people. Really calmed me down hearing such easy to understand folks on just really helpful ideas.
I was comforted just knowing I was doing things ok, and that they had knowledge that sounded like good common sense. Great Forum!! I am sure I will use this again,,when I am panicking and someone on my place has a symptom. Just amazing that people are the kindest in regards to helping others with their animals.
Thanks All...PS...Cow is better,,udder is calming down and did look to be a bad case of Edema...Milk Milk Milk,,my bucket runneth over..

Deb

 

[wynedot55]

the blood in her milk comes from a broken blood vessel in her bagg.if you have a hard teat.it could have mastitis in it.if your milking 4 gal from her twice a day.that means she is giving 68.8lbs a day.itll take a week or so to get the milk to turn white with the blood in it.