I heard a meteoroligist on the radio yesterday saying that we have another 15 days of this cold weather. Well, I thought. I am not sure I can wait THAT long. So yesterday I started spring without her. 
Opened the barn doors wide even though it was only just above freezing.
It was great to feel the air blowing right through.
Then I took the lambies for a walk, which made Mama really mad and she growled at them and rounded them up and took them back into the barn. Blue Murphy is at my elbow as usual and not in the shot.
We brought compost in from the back for the raised beds. And spread more dirty straw in the salad-bar paddock.
And all along I was back and forth visiting Daisy, then was something not right about her, a lethargy. She has still been having the occassional bout of mastitis, and has recently had antibiotics straight into the udder to clear it up but yesterday she would not eat. Did you see her in the back of that shot with the lambs. She lay there like that all day.
Then at her dinner time she would not come in to eat. I took her feed out to her but still she would not eat. I made her stand up by pushing her up with my knees but still nothing. I gave her a carrot and she let it fall out of her mouth. She was burping and raising her back feet up and down, up and down. There must be a pain somewhere I thought.
I put a halter on her (which she let me do .. so unlike her) and with John’s help we were able to cajole her back to the barn and into her corner pen. She just stood there with her head down. There was no outward reason for this. I felt her all over, nothing stood out, her nose was cool her udder full. So, at a loss, I started to brush her. Up and down, up and down, along and along her belly and down around her back, across her flanks and down her neck. Her belly was hard, which is not unusual but I focussed on the roundness. Just like I do when my belly is poorly. She just stood and began to dribble. Her head low.
I brushed her entire body again and again until my arm ached, then I changed hands and brushed some more. I brushed her and talked to her for a very long time, as she stood and rocked back and forth, her head down. Then without warning she stretched her neck right out and coughed and choked and coughed again. She stood still. I held my breath – the brush in the air. She coughed again wheezing out the last of the breath. Slowly her head came up and she turned it all the way around to me on her necks pivot and looked back at the still brush, then she looked across and saw John shaking the good hay in her feeder and slowly like an old lady she walked across to the hay and began to eat. Later she walked herself into the milking parlour and slowly ate all her vegetable treats and beet shreds in there, (but not too much) then slowly walked back to her pen.
I just don’t know enough. To learn by trial and error with such a large and dependent animal is dreadful. It is possible that she picked something up in the field, cows can easily ingest foreign objects. Tomorrow I shall discuss putting a magnet down her throat in case there is something there that needs collecting.
But in all honesty I have no idea what happened. Or whether it will happen again.
So far she is OK. I checked her a couple of times in the night and she was resting normally and had resumed chewing her cud.
I will keep you posted.
Have a lovely day.
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
71 responses to “Daisy was poorly yesterday”
The cows that I remember as having suspected hardware disease often had shallow, rapid breathing, would stand around with their back hunched and became very thin. They didn’t like to lie down as I think the process of going down and back up hurt. Have you tried using sodium bicabonate to sprinkle on her food? Dairy cows can have very sensitive rumens, for some any change in ration can upset the digestive track. Basically she might need a Tums. Another thing to be careful of is plastic, like grocery sacks and trash bags, and hard plastic too. Some cows will try to eat anything. We always tried to keep those and stray metal cleaned up as people seemed to think nothing of dropping their trash off in our pastures and hay fields. I still automatically pick up stay metal pieces and plastic even though it has been 15 years since I last had a cow.
Morning Jeanne, well it is not hardware disease then. She is not thin or hunched. There has been no change in her feed though this is hay i have had to buy from strangers. i am fastidious about rubbish on the fields, and am constantly prowling them .. hundreds of years of rubbish is buried out there and tin and glass and old baling wire gets heaved up in the freeze and thaw, as though from the moment it is buried it begins the process of unearthing itself. I will go back out and do her field again with the magnet, I know what you mean about picking up wire, ancient bolts and plastic as you go, my pockets look like a little boys sometimes.. c
Bloat didn’t occur to me at first as that was always such a visual diagnosis (when you have the puffed up cow in front of you it is easy to tell). Daisy may have been just unlucky enough to get that piece of hay that had the tummy upsetting plant in it. It could also be a product of the drought last summer as forage quality can be affected. If you feed her grain, did you recently get another load as it could also be affected by the drought. We have had luck before in treating mild bloat by having the animal stand with the front end elevated and having another person massage/push on her sides until gas escapes either end. We had a deep ditch bank that we could use. Any thing that gets the front end higher. Sometimes walking them up and down the bank would work. It seems like once the process is started again the cow can often overcome it on her own. We always limited feed until all signs were gone. We had it happen more often in heifers than mature cows. Usually if a heifer was prone to bloating frequently, she was sold for beef. I can remember running a hose down their throat too to relieve the gas when one would get extremely bloated, bad enough that they were having trouble breathing and no vet available for a few hours. That is unforgettable aroma when you are successful and the smell doesn’t wash off your hands well either.
Well hopefully Daisy has a better day, food in – poop out. Do watch and make sure she is pooping normally. Lack of poop can be a sign of other gut problems that could require immediate treatment.
Thank you, that is good stuff. I waited with her last night until she did poop, as she had obviously gone hours without, and she has been fine all day, with only little bits of hay at a time throughout the day but she is not pleased with the limited menu and is noisy and belligerent again which is such a relief. Thank you very much for your help, the bank is a good idea, we do have one too. c
I was thinking colic, too. You did exactly the right thing with the brushing – firmly, almost massaging – we had a pony who was very subject to colic and the walking them round is to stop them rolling and kicking their stomachs. Daisy didn’t seem to be doing that. I hope she’s better today.
Kupa is posted, rolled up round a bit of curtain pole and stuffed into a larger tube. I hope the customs people don’t mess around with him. He’ll probably take a couple of weeks, as I didn’t pay the extra for Colissimo!
I have always remembered your pony story and i said to John whatever we do i am not letting her lie down, she was lifting her back legs up and down though. But she is better today. Like a hundred times better, I should have walked her more though. I will if this happens again. Colic really never came to mind as she was outside all day with nothing but mississippi grass hay. She only has alfalfa in flakeswhen she is milked. I really am thinking now that it may have been a bad plant that was in that bale. No more mississippi hay for Daisy. No-one else seemed bothered though. Thank you for sending Kupa -whenever he arrives it will be just wonderful. I look forward to hanging him.. c
Did you never suffer from trapped wind? Same sort of pain with colic. It doesn’t have to be poison – anything can cause if.
MOH? She has decades of experience with cows. She would surely point you in the right direction? I think I would try her before magnets! http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/vet00/vet00032.htm
She is great. i bother that poor woman all the time. But i think that the general consensus is colic. However i am wondering whether she should not have a magnet anyway. i am always picking stuff up out of the fields! morning carrie .. c
Oh Daisy!!! So glad you were able to get her some relief with your brushing and tending to her. Hopefully this is all in the past and she will be fine!!!!
I know that many people have said this before but I am going to say it again…You are a wonderful person…I love the way that you care about your farmy animals with all your heart.
I did wonder if maybe Daisy caught a chill as it has been so cold where you live. With horses they put blankets on them …could you do the same with Daisy? Tummy ache maybe.
Daisy is so very special so please give her a hug and a kiss from me (((()))) XXXXX
Glad to hear, Celi, that Daisy is doing better today. You must have been quite worried about her yesterday.What a relief, huh? Woke up to a very light dusting of snow this morning and a very heavy scent of skunk. It sprayed somewhere on or around my back porch, maybe even the 2nd floor landing — it’s that strong. Gonna have to keep an eye on Max at night.
Looks like our day is going to be cold and damp, even wet. I hope yours is better with maybe a little sunshine. Hope Daisy continues to improve, too.
As I am reading the posts I kept saying to myself “sounds like colic” and saw quite a few others thought the same. I am a pet sitter in a very rural area, so it’s not just cats and dogs I look after – pigs, cows, horses, goats – oh and I had to walk a pot belly pig once that bit me LOL. But back to daisy, I had a horse I was looking after that displayed exactly the same symptoms and it turned out to be colic. I just walked the hell out of her waiting for the vet, worry myself sick as the owners were in Florida for the week! Can be a worrying job, but my love for all the animals makes up for it! Glad Daisy is feeling better today – might want to get plenty of Tums in store for future LOL
A pot belly pig who bit you! that is so funny! maybe not at the time though. You must have a great job and I bet you have accumulated a pretty awesome collection of knowledge too.. we were very lucky it was only mild though.. c
I am thinking it is bloat…Celi! She seems to have had all the symptoms (from what I remember) The old time treatment was horrible and harsh….stick a knife in the rounded part of her stomach to let the bad gas out. When we had cows we used a tube…worked lots easier on the cow, but not a thing I really like having to do.
She must have eaten something that caused the gas….I have known of too rich of alfalfa hay doing so, (too rich is usually first cutting of a brand new field and has lots and lots of little leaves on the stem….) but there are lots of plants that will do that to a cow, you could probably use the new hay but you will need to gradually mix it in with the other hay, also I would check, check and check some more that the new hay does not have ‘extra’ plants in there. A free ranging cow would naturally avoid the .plants that make them bloat.
Well, I just repeated what everyone else is saying…the massage/brushing probably helped more than anything…your instincts were/are correct!
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
http://deltacountyhistoricalsociety.wordpress.com
Thank you Linda and thank goodness it was only mild, I will keep tearing it apart as i feed it, i usually do as it is a big square bale that falls off in really thin flakes.. something got past me though! c
I hope you all have a better day with Daisy on the mend. After last years’ early spring now winter doesn’t want to leave. More snow and ice in the forecast here for tonight. Stay warm there in Ill.
Daisy’s behavior was so dramatic and so scary. Amazing how your motherly instincts kicked in and you did exactly the right thing by brushing brushing brushing her. Get “IT” moving on out .
You have such wonderful followers, so knowledgeable I love reading every word. I learn so much. I feel like I’m in an ongoing life course in animal husbandry. (I’m a city gal.)
we are all lucky to have this community of knowledge around us, all of us learning and sharing knowledge and what i love the most is that everyone feels confident enough to pop in their two pence worth .. everyone is so good with each other.. there is no fear of being knocked back for me, even if i get something a bit wrong there is someone out there who will gently tug me out of the mire! We are so lucky.. c
I wish my dairy farmer dad was still living. I would ask him.
Blizzard conditions in Minnesota today. Just FYI.
oh poor daisy. it does sound like a temporary upset stomach or something. so glad she is feeling better today. i hate it when i don’t know what is wrong with a pet. we are having an ice storm today and i heard the same thing about this weather lasting another couple weeks.
I don’t think I can wait that long either. Poor Daisy. 🙂
I found I was holding my breath – reading your post, then reading the comments. Surely, I thought, someone will has encountered this before with their animals. What a dreadful helpless feeling for you, Celi. V.
My poor Daisy. Give her a hug for me C!