Engorged cow-what to do?

[box6rranch]

Our cow had a calf last Sunday. I think she's engorged. I've never seen it before but her bags are huge and hard. Her teat's are much smaller than normal. We tried to bring up the orphan calf last night that steals milk from everyone but couldn't get her to come up. Any suggestions. Her baby is nursing like crazy but she's pretty small and I think there is just too much milk.
Thanks for your help!

 

[herefordfootball]

Not exactly sure what to do about the cow, you could try handmilking if there is too much milk and also watch out for scours on the calf it its getting to much milk. If it gets scours buy a small balling gun and give the the calf some terramycin tablets (you can find these at almost all farm stores). Good Luck!!!

 

[dori36]

Our cow had a calf last Sunday. I think she's engorged. I've never seen it before but her bags are huge and hard. Her teat's are much smaller than normal. We tried to bring up the orphan calf last night that steals milk from everyone but couldn't get her to come up. Any suggestions. Her baby is nursing like crazy but she's pretty small and I think there is just too much milk.
Thanks for your help!

Is the calf actually getting milk?  I'd bring the cow in, put her in the chute and be sure milk is freely 'able' to flow from each treat.  Also, take a day or so to carefully watch the calf to see if it's "pooping" normally - as in no scours.  I had BueLingo cows that I bred to my Lowline bull and one in particular had an udder the size of a Holstein's.  It got huge and red and a little hot after calving but I left it alone as long as the calves were nursing vigorously and the cow showed no signs of fever or loss of appetite.  For those big producing cows, I also cut off all grain for a couple of weeks at least.  Personally, my cows didn't get grain anyway as they were on lush pasture.  If milk can flow out of the teats, I'd probably wait it out.  There's lots of edema right after calving and the udder will adapt to demand in a couple of weeks and get back down to a more normal size.

 

[box6rranch]

Thank you, that sounds like good advice. It's pretty chilly here today but suppose to be warmer tomorrow. I think we'll let them out to pasture and see if the orphan calf will nurse on her too. There is milk coming out each teat, checked that. She just has a huge bag and the calf can only drink so much. The calf was born pretty small but she's growing in leaps and bounds.
We have been giving her a little grain, she had a pretty hard time with the delivery. I'm going to cut that out. My husband gave the calf something for scours when she was born so she's been o.k. in that department. Thanks for the help.

 

[dori36]

Thank you, that sounds like good advice. It's pretty chilly here today but suppose to be warmer tomorrow. I think we'll let them out to pasture and see if the orphan calf will nurse on her too. There is milk coming out each teat, checked that. She just has a huge bag and the calf can only drink so much. The calf was born pretty small but she's growing in leaps and bounds.
We have been giving her a little grain, she had a pretty hard time with the delivery. I'm going to cut that out. My husband gave the calf something for scours when she was born so she's been o.k. in that department. Thanks for the help.

Sounds good.  Let us know how they do!  Any pictures of them?

 

[box6rranch]

Thank you, that sounds like good advice. It's pretty chilly here today but suppose to be warmer tomorrow. I think we'll let them out to pasture and see if the orphan calf will nurse on her too. There is milk coming out each teat, checked that. She just has a huge bag and the calf can only drink so much. The calf was born pretty small but she's growing in leaps and bounds.
We have been giving her a little grain, she had a pretty hard time with the delivery. I'm going to cut that out. My husband gave the calf something for scours when she was born so she's been o.k. in that department. Thanks for the help.

Sounds good.  Let us know how they do!  Any pictures of them?

I think we won the jackpot this year. An all white bull and an all white heifer, a beautiful thick red roan heifer, a blue roan heifer and our newest arrival our cute little red and white paint heifer with a perfect white heart on her forehead. All of them are nice and have potential for my daughter to show next year. I will try and take some pics of them tomorrow before the go out to pasture.
Oh yea, momma cow is doing much better today. Hasn't had grain for a couple of days and her bags aren't so tight. She got huge udders though!