Dairy cow with bleeding stomach ulcer

Sam Kade

Is it worth giving her a blood transfusion?

Mooooo

Any cow we gave a transfusion to survived anyway one got two alright. What way is she

Buford T. Justice XIX

Sam Kade wrote: »

Is it worth giving her a blood transfusion?

Yeah, had one or two over the years and they did well after.

The man in red and black

Sam Kade wrote: »

Is it worth giving her a blood transfusion?

Depends on the case and how far gone the cow is. Your vet will give you a fair idea of whether she's a long shot or a fair candidate to pursue all treatment options with. Transfusion is about the best thing you can do for her if she's to have a good chance. Best of luck with her.

freedominacup

The man in red and black wrote: »

Depends on the case and how far gone the cow is. Your vet will give you a fair idea of whether she's a long shot or a fair candidate to pursue all treatment options with. Transfusion is about the best thing you can do for her if she's to have a good chance. Best of luck with her.

If the vet thinks she's worth trying I'd give her a try. We've had a couple over the years. The transfusions worked most times. Plenty of coffee needed too from memory. If blood is black and clotted I think the ulcer is high up the digestive tract and more likely to respond to treatment. We had one years ago and blood was red. Straight to factory was the cure that time but not so sure if that remedy would be available today.

Sam Kade

She only showed signs of it today the vet gave her kaolin powder and injections no mention of blood transfusion. I only found that out this evening when I googled it. Her blood is red and she was pale so she must be fairly low in blood her heart was also racing.

freedominacup

Sam Kade wrote: »

She only showed signs of it today the vet gave her kaolin powder and injections no mention of blood transfusion. I only found that out this evening when I googled it. Her blood is red and she was pale so she must be fairly low in blood her heart was also racing.

Transfusion is very straightforward. A couple of big solid mature cows as the donors. They'll cope with the blood loss as well as you would a trip to give blood. Into recipient and off you go. Vet seems a bit lackadaisical tbh. Anytime it happened here they pull out all the stops.

Mooooo

Agree with freedom our vet would test the blood before and a day or soafter transfusion to see if another is needed

C0N0R

Kaolin powder and pen-strep is what we do for abomasum ulcers, dung is black and solid? Anything passing pure blood is out the gate as quick as possible before she cops it. Don't do any transfusions here.

whelan2

Factory is probably out now if vet injected her?

Sam Kade

whelan2 wrote: »

Factory is probably out now if vet injected her?

Yeah she is after a course of antibiotics. Her dung is gone back to green today so the bleeding is stopped and she's grazing lightly and chewing the cud. She's still a bit slow, no milk this am and she had 2 litres this evening. Hopefully she's coming round milking 7 gallons/day before the ulcer. If the vet gave her a blood transfusion she'd be right by now :mad:

cute geoge

I had cow this am with bleeding ulcer ,vet said she would do no good said she was pale and dung pure black scour .No mention of transfusion
Tonight she is chewing cud and dung is ticker and greener without any treatment was going to fac tomorrow
Anybody with advice she is a young 1300 gal cow????

The man in red and black

cute geoge wrote: »

I had cow this am with bleeding ulcer ,vet said she would do no good said she was pale and dung pure black scour .No mention of transfusion
Tonight she is chewing cud and dung is ticker and greener without any treatment was going to fac tomorrow
Anybody with advice she is a young 1300 gal cow????

Treating her if she was that bad is rolling the dice. At least if she gets into factory you get something out of it. Depends if you want to take a chance on treating. Wouldn't give a cow like that a 50% chance though unfortunately even with transfusion. Bleeding ulcers are bad cases. Very hard to predict which ones will do well. Best of luck either way.

cute geoge

The man in red and black wrote: »

Treating her if she was that bad is rolling the dice. At least if she gets into factory you get something out of it. Depends if you want to take a chance on treating. Wouldn't give a cow like that a 50% chance though unfortunately even with transfusion. Bleeding ulcers are bad cases. Very hard to predict which ones will do well. Best of luck either way.

Talking to vet now he said, she probably has stopped bleeding but likely less then 40%chance she will make it he said she would be low in blood presure now and this would stop the bleeding .I wouldn't mind but she was probably one of my best cows

The man in red and black

cute geoge wrote: »

Talking to vet now he said, she probably has stopped bleeding but likely less then 40%chance she will make it he said she would be low in blood presure now and this would stop the bleeding .I wouldn't mind but she was probably one of my best cows

The gamble is, giving her more blood increases blood pressure and could restart the bleeding...thereby losing even more blood that she's already short of. Don't envy you making that decision.

Sam Kade

cute geoge wrote: »

Talking to vet now he said, she probably has stopped bleeding but likely less then 40%chance she will make it he said she would be low in blood presure now and this would stop the bleeding .I wouldn't mind but she was probably one of my best cows

My cow is back to normal now, the bleeding stopped the day after, she's still a bit slack in milk but she's getting there.

cute geoge

Sam Kade wrote: »

My cow is back to normal now, the bleeding stopped the day after, she's still a bit slack in milk but she's getting there.

Was your cow's dung pure black scour???

Sam Kade

cute geoge wrote: »

Was your cow's dung pure black scour???

It was black dung not scour, she lost a lot of blood and was very pale. It took her a while to come round after the bleeding stopped.

The man in red and black

cute geoge wrote: »

I had cow this am with bleeding ulcer ,vet said she would do no good said she was pale and dung pure black scour .No mention of transfusion
Tonight she is chewing cud and dung is ticker and greener without any treatment was going to fac tomorrow
Anybody with advice she is a young 1300 gal cow????

How did she fare out over the weekend? Fingers crossed for good news.

cute geoge

My cow remarkably is almost back to normal ,i am only milking her once a day but other then that she is eating well and dung is ok .I gave her no treatment in case i need to shift her .Would it be safe enough to go with pen strip now i wonder

The man in red and black

cute geoge wrote: »

My cow remarkably is almost back to normal ,i am only milking her once a day but other then that she is eating well and dung is ok .I gave her no treatment in case i need to shift her .Would it be safe enough to go with pen strip now i wonder

Great to hear it. Nice to hear the positive outcome with those, they can be unpredictable. Antibiotics shouldn't be necessary if the cow is recovered. If the ulcer perforates into her abdomen antibiotics wouldn't be enough anway. She sounds like she is coming around well. A good weekend for you.