Cows, calves and veterinary

A happy cow has a straight back

I don't know why 'tis so, only know that it is.

Perhaps that is why Giant Panda doesn't photograph well - maybe she's trying to look the same size as her herd-mates (that is an adult Jersey cow next to her, btw, not one of the smaller ones - and there's about a metre of space between them).

142 looks like a sick cow. She was dried off early for poor condition and yield, and in spite of the fact that she's in a small group of very light cows, free-grazing, the whole group has so far failed to put any weight on. Two of them I know have eczema - perhaps 142 is subclinical?


edit 27 April 142 does have Facial Eczema - her teats have turned purple. A further four cows have shown up with skin damage this last week, including 142 and 118 (who was affected at the beginning of Feb and apart from the sore on her back had fully healed).
This is in spite of daily drenching, and 142's group getting zinc added to their water trough daily (known to be less effective over-all than drenching, especially for dry cows). It's also the third time this year a group of cows have broken out with skin damage - early February around the time I started drenching, late March and now, late April.
Of the other two cows with eczema in 142's group, 59 was affected with the first lot and was dried off in February, has lost weight and failed to gain any since. 81 dried herself off in March and showed up with eczema a few days later, she lost condition but looks reasonably healthy now.
The other eczema cows seem to be managing to hold their weight. 151 was drafted into the free-grazing group when her condition started dropping fast - she has no skin damage, but I'm suspicious that just about every cow dried off early and failing to gain weight has liver damage.
Spore counts for this area? Through the roof (or off the top of the RD1 graph at least, but suposedly on the way down.)

posted by nellta holdings @ 10:24 AM