# Jersey has a plugged quarter!



## Lajaw (Jan 26, 2012)

Jersey cow gave birth 7 days ago. All teats were giving milk. 3-4 days ago, right front quarter, in the a.m., there was no milk. It had been giving milk all along. Then nothing. I'm assuming it's plugged and I've infused with peppermint/tea tree/coconut oil. Then when I try to milk it out, I get out just what I put in. I tired a milking needle, three inches in and nothing. Massage, sweet talking and begging gets me nowhere. What do I need to do to clear this up? There is no heat on the quarter and it's not sore. I'll entertain all ideas!


----------



## gone-a-milkin (Mar 4, 2007)

It sounds to me like she has a blank quarter.

If it was mastitis in a productive quarter you would have heat or hardness or something.
You may just be out of luck and have a 3 teated cow.

PS, I have never once used a teat dialator that was 3 inches long.
Surely that could cause inflamation and scarring in the teat canal.

Are you milking by hand or with a claw (machine)?


----------



## Lajaw (Jan 26, 2012)

I've always milked that quarter. It was milking up until the other day. I had milked it out and it was giving just as much as the other front quarter. It is a productive quarter or it was until a few days ago. I milk by hand. The milking tube/needle was never in the teat till I could get nothing out.


----------



## gone-a-milkin (Mar 4, 2007)

Does she have a calf on her?
Or another animal who could be sucking her?

How long have you had her?
Is this her first lactation?


----------



## Lajaw (Jan 26, 2012)

I let the calf suck after I milk. No others around. Have had her 3 years and she is 5-6 years old. This is at least her second calf for me, and she came from a small dairy.


----------



## gone-a-milkin (Mar 4, 2007)

Well then, I am stumped.

If you are sure that no other animal that she shares a fenceline with is robbing milk, I am out of ideas.

It is a new one on me: spontaneous drying of one quarter on a newly fresh cow.
Weird.


----------



## Lajaw (Jan 26, 2012)

I'm pretty sure it's not dry. It's plugged up. Her milk was pretty trashy to begin with, lots of clumps and on one quarter, some blood. I think its is just plugged up, stopped up or what have you. That is why I'm massaging, hoping to break it up some before the quarter dries up.


----------



## gone-a-milkin (Mar 4, 2007)

You said you used a homemade infusion. 
I am not dissing that, but if you are dead set on saving a quarter then the thing to do is get a sample of milk to the lab and treat w/ antibiotics.

It may be too late now. Those bacteria cause scarring in the affected quarter.
By the time you get to where no milk comes out, it is too late. 
Putting that dialator in there surely opened the canal to bacteria too.

I am sorry.
You should have mentioned the trashiness of her milk in your OP. 
Saved me some BRAIN-WRACKING. :teehee:


----------



## gone-a-milkin (Mar 4, 2007)

When you hear people speak of "losing a quarter to mastitis" this is exactly what they mean.
The cows body attempts to 'wall off' the contaminated area w/ scar tissue,
thus making it impossible to treat the infection. 

If a cow comes fresh w/ trashy clumpy stringy milk? That wont just go away on its own.
Bloody milk can clear up...or it can turn to an ugly infection. 
At the first sight of goobers in the milk you need to act.

Not said to ridicule you in any way. Just how it can go and there are others reading who might learn from your situation.

I wish you the best w/ your cow. She sounds very sweet to tolerate your minstrations. :cow: :angel:


----------



## Lajaw (Jan 26, 2012)

I'm sorry, but I've never seen a just freshened cow not have trashy milk. And I did nothing until there was no milk in that quarter. All but one quarter was clean, and the one not clean, was left for the calf. And it is no the same quarter. 
I use the infusion not to save money, but to stay away from the antibiotics until they are really needed. Most minor cases of infection are cleared up with one dose of the infusion and massage. And as said, the milk stopped before I tried the milk needle.


----------



## gone-a-milkin (Mar 4, 2007)

I am not dogging on you, I promise. 

Fresh cow colostrum is often very thick and yellow, but it should not be trashy. 
Perhaps your cow has had a systemic case of mastitis for a long time?

Do you ever use the CMT <California mastits test> to check for infection?


----------



## willow_girl (Dec 7, 2002)

Yup, I have seen some cases of mastitis behave like that. Usually the overall production falls off, and the affected quarter drops to little or nothing. 

Antibiotics, STAT! It may not be too late to save the teat.

In the case of a family cow, I ALWAYS recommend treating mastitis aggressively (with antibiotics, not home remedies) at the first sign of a problem. If you're milking 100 cows and one loses a teat to mastitis, you still have 399 teats left to milk, so NBD. But if you're milking only a single cow, and she loses a teat, you've just lost 1/4 of your milk supply!


----------



## Cliff (Jun 30, 2007)

I have only seen cows with mastitis freshen with trashy milk. I don't consider a transient small amount of blood trashy though as high producers often rupture capillaries. But clumps = mastitis, sorry.


----------



## myersfarm (Dec 24, 2004)

Cliff said:


> I have only seen cows with mastitis freshen with trashy milk. I don't consider a transient small amount of blood trashy though as high producers often rupture capillaries. But clumps = mastitis, sorry.




a little blood in the milk in the olden days was called strawberry milk....IT WAS A GOOD SIGN OF A GOOD PRODUCING COW....a solid stream of blood is a really bad thing.....and the only trashy milk I have seen always has lumps in it


----------

