our family cow [holstein] had her calf last saturday. not one time has she gave any milk out of her rightside. the front udder on the rightside gets a few drops but that is it.leftside no problem. we have done the messaging and put soften cream like udder balm on her and the warm compresses still nothing. if anyone can help us please help. someone told us that we can eat her but we want to keep her if possible. i hope we can just milk the leftside if that does not make her sick or something. she seems to be doing well so far. thanks for anyones help on this matter. larry sld5825@comteck.com

-- larry dunn (sld5825@comteck.com), February 04, 2002

Answers

Larry, can you please answer these questions. 1. Have you owned and milked her in prior years? 2. Is the udder right half filled out, as if it is tight with milk, or fairly soft. 3. Do you have a strip cup; does what little you get from that side appear thick or lumpy or stringy or watery? 4. What is her temperature? If you don't know (didn't own her) what the situation was during her last freshening & milking year, could it be possible that she had a mastitis problem then that damaged the udder so that one side no longer functions? If we can figure out whether this is a new problem, we could surmise that we need to figure out what is wrong and how to deal with it. But if it is just a case of a partially non-functioning udder, and she is not ill, you could use her for years and just milk the one half udder.

-- Dianne Wood - Woodland, WA (woodgoat@pacifier.com), February 05, 2002.

I have milked cows with only half a bag. If you just got her most likely she has had damage from mastitis which made those two quarters not work any longer. Test the other quarters for mastitis, but most likely she was previously damaged. Milk the good quarters and most likely she will give you quite a bit of milk. Good Luck

-- cara lewis (moomaine@hotmail.com), February 06, 2002.

Larry, how long have you owned this cow? If you bought her recently, she could be "blind" on that one side. If the bag is swollen and hard and hot, I would be concerned enough to get the vet out. But if that side is actually slightly smaller than the other, I would suspect she lost function of that side of her udder due to a former bad case of mastitis. One hopeful note: our cow had a quarter that was almost blind when we got her. We allowed her calf to run with her, and he chose to nurse that particular quarter the most, due to it's height being more accessible. The constant nursing so stimulated that quarter that now, almost a year later, that quarter still carries more milk than the other front quarter.

-- daffodyllady (daffodyllady@yahoo.com), February 07, 2002.