Thursday, February 23, 2017

Good bye, Talitha

So on September 30th, 2016 I weened Bodie. All seemed to be going well...

Sometime in October I noticed that her front right quarter didn't seem to shrink down after I had dried her up. I thought maybe it was just her getting milk for calving but the more I looked at it the more uneasy I was about it.



After she calved on November 28th I milked a little out of each quarter to get the plugs out of each teat's end. Well, when I got to her right front quarter all that came out was thick yellow gunk. I knew right away that she had mastitis.

To make a long story short, I tested each quarter and they came back positive for Staph A. 




Then this nasty abscess showed up, which is common with Staph A. The cow's body walls off the infection, which is good, but bad at the same time because then the antibiotics can't reach the infection. So after treating a cow you can get results back that say she is clear of Staph A, but then a few months later you can test again and it will come back positive with Staph A because one of those walled off places has opened. It has been said, 'Once a Staph cow, forever a Staph cow'.  Most dairies cull cows that keep getting Staph A. They will try to treat it them but if it doesn't help or she later tests positive for Staph A they cull them. It is a huge head ache for diaries. Costing them a lot of money and time.

So again I tested all four quarters to be SURE she had Staph A before I did anything drastic.


Which she did. If she had had it in one quarter I would probably have had the vet 'kill' the bad quarter and then she would have been a three quartered cow. 
But because the tests said she had Staph A in three quarters of her udder I decided to put an ad on Craigslist listing her as a cull cow (beef).  Well a lady started to text with me and it turned out she lived within 15 minutes of us! So she decided to buy her, but she couldn't get a butcher date until February 14th (about a month away, at that point). Which actually worked out good for her and us. Gus was able to nurse a little longer and she didn't have to try and milk, feed, and care for her until the butcher date.

See how her body walled off the infection?

Another infection broke open...

Here is what her udder should look like. 

They never really completely healed.

This one still would leak...

So on February 14th Talitha was taken to the locker. Before she left I fed her some grain and hay, even though you really aren't supposed to... :)



While she was eating I gave her her last grooming and scratched her 'itchy spots'.

Took a couple selfies with her.

Then she left...

Sweet little Gus didn't make a fuss over his mom leaving. He's such a good boy! Takes everything in stride like his momma.

Good bye Talitha! You were an amazing cow. You taught me many lessons. I am so thankful that I was given the privilege to care for you during your short life. God blessed me through you, old girl. Thank you for being to patient with me.
I love and will miss you!
Good night, Tido!

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