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Gidday

We have a young cow/heifer that we are hoping is in claf. She will probably be due, hopefully at the end of May or into June. When she was younger she was running with a younger bull calf who we think was sucking her and as a result her two back quaters have always been a bit bigger than the front ones.

Well now, she just may, hopefully may, be in the very early stages of springing as one of her back quaters has swollen much more than the other.

Is this likely, or is it something to be concerned about?

I would keep an eye on that - it could be what we call summer mastitis - have a look at this link:

http://www.thecattlesite.com/diseaseinf ... r-mastitis

It wouldn't have helped that she was being sucked; that could have opened up the teat canal and therefore made the entry of bacteria easier. I would always try and prevent "unauthorized" cattle from sucking; there are kind of nose rings, or clips rather, with spikes on them that you put on the nose of the offending animal. Whenever it tries to suck, the cow being sucked gets a bit of a poke, and kicks the offender off...

Any updates on your heifer? I hope she is doing okay?

I am just learning all about cows here, my husband has raised them for so many years, but this is only my second season. We have one heifer left to calf here, but she is a ways off yet.