Calf not sucking front teats

RobinBanks

Hi all. I have an on going issue with a calf that wont suck the front teats on the cow. I had the exact same issue with this cow last year but eventually the calf sucked.

She is calved 3 weeks now and the calf should be hungry enough now that she would want to suck all 4 teats. The problem is that its almost impossibly to get any milk from these front teats. Its like the hole is to small if that makes sense. Its that bad that you cannot milk her. What i have been doing to prevent mastitis is stick a tube into the teat and massage the udder to release the milk. If the teat is held open she releases the milk. I presume the calf is finding it difficult aswell and has given up on these.

Has anyone ever come across this before? Is there anything i can do? I think this weekend i will lock calf away from her and put tar on back teats or dirty them to try and force calf to suck only the front teats.

welton john

RobinBanks wrote: »

Hi all. I have an on going issue with a calf that wont suck the front teats on the cow. I had the exact same issue with this cow last year but eventually the calf sucked.

She is calved 3 weeks now and the calf should be hungry enough now that she would want to suck all 4 teats. The problem is that its almost impossibly to get any milk from these front teats. Its like the hole is to small if that makes sense. Its that bad that you cannot milk her. What i have been doing to prevent mastitis is stick a tube into the teat and massage the udder to release the milk. If the teat is held open she releases the milk. I presume the calf is finding it difficult aswell and has given up on these.

Has anyone ever come across this before? Is there anything i can do? I think this weekend i will lock calf away from her and put tar on back teats or dirty them to try and force calf to suck only the front teats.

If she is doing a good job on the calf I leave well enough alone, there's less chance of her getting mastitis by letting her soak away, drawing her and putting a tube up her could do more harm than good. Plus you'd be surprised how long they can not be drank and then come back into milk when needed

patsy_mccabe

I'd be inclined to leave her alone too. Better to not break the seal on the teat until the calf does.

Lady Haywire

We used to have the same issue with a cow only her calves wouldn't suck the back teats. BY the time the calf hit 3 or 4 months old they'd try sucking them again and the milk would come back into the quarters again at that stage so we'd normally just leave them alone each year.

RobinBanks

Thanks for all the replies. I will take the advice and leave her be

Who2

id look at getting rid of that cow.

rangler1

Who2 wrote: »

id look at getting rid of that cow.

Only if she doesn't rear a good calf,....... never worried here about a calf not sucking all the teats

RobinBanks

rangler1 wrote: »

Only if she doesn't rear a good calf,....... never worried here about a calf not sucking all the teats

I agree. This is last years calf

rangler1

RobinBanks wrote: »

I agree. This is last years calf

Nice animal, think she deserves to live on

TITANIUM.

RobinBanks wrote: »

I agree. This is last years calf

I agree with who2. Get rid of that cow.😆
Look I'll do you a favour and take her off your hands for you.

That's a flaking calf Btw.

Irish Beef

Hi guys have similar problem here, calf wont suck back teat (she's blind in one), I've milk her a good few times and cleaned up back teat and put milk on it and he sometimes sucks it, only to just ignore back one again, she's an unreal milker, she's a purebred shorthorn with a big bag. He sucks the front two and keeps going from on to the other but wont touch back, similar problem last year but didn't last as long. Didn't put her out to grass yet for this reason, do you think I should just ignore this problem and let cow out. Thinking of getting rid of this cow, she produces decent weaning but their a bit on the plain side. Calf is three weeks old.

Lady Haywire

If he's not touching it at all I'd seal it, leave her in a few days and then fire her out once you're sure it's dried up.

50HX

had this last year with a cow with a big dug and large teats with oodles of milk

keep the calf away for 5- 6 hours to get hungry

cow into the crush, get a bed sheet and and put it under either either side of her( like a strap) and cover the good teats and calf will only have the option of the one teat then - hunger is the best medicine of all and when calf gets stronger he'll get around to all of them

worth a try if you've the patience& time esp if it's a good cow bringing a good calf

rangler1

I always left it to themselves to sort out, Cows would always be going out on good grass here after calving and inevitably the calf would only be sucking one or two of the teats at the start and we'd never have mastitis here.
If you look at it sensibly, I have loads of ewes with only one lamb and big udders and no problems...how are they managing.
Very easy make yourself a busy fool sometimes

Dunedin

rangler1 wrote: »

I always left it to themselves to sort out, Cows would always be going out on good grass here after calving and inevitably the calf would only be sucking one or two of the teats at the start and we'd never have mastitis here.
If you look at it sensibly, I have loads of ewes with only one lamb and big udders and no problems...how are they managing.
Very easy make yourself a busy fool sometimes

+1. Leave well enough alone and nature will take care of itself.