I never thought I'd consider a milking machine.....

[canesisters]

.. and so I've learned NOTHING about them

But, my cow freshened this past Tuesday. She had A LOT of edema and that's making her small teats even harder to manage. On top of that, my arthritis is kicking-up BAD.

I was ordering some basic supplies this morning and stumbled across this:

Is this too good to be true???
Is it even a complete system???
Could this be useful to get us past the few first couple of weeks until her swelling is down and my hands are better?

 

[Mini Horses]

Could be good. Check reviews. I have similar for goats. Other than light noise, works fine. Better hurry...the cow produces fast!! Until then look at a breast pump....many cannot handle the volume!! But look anyway. The pump you order will take a few days to arrive.

Warm compresses at milking time may help swelling.

 

[canesisters]

Doing hot compresses, Dynamint massages, starting today I'm adding a 3rd milking to try and get her empty.
Her calf is petite and is nowhere near keeping up yet.

 

[Baymule]

@farmerjan got an opinion on this?

Hi @canesisters !!! Don’t hear much from you these days. Congratulations on another calf!

 

[canesisters]

Hey there Baymule!!!
I've not had much time for visiting - or much to contribute to the gardening page. Mostly just maintaining. I do peek in and catchup now and then, drop a 'like' here and there.....

 

[farmerjan]

I honestly do not know anything about this system. I also can not believe that it could be as good as advertised but without trying it I just don't know. I went on Amazon and looked at some of the available ones... For about 1/2 of what they cost 2 years ago, you can buy the one on the small cart, with all the components for under 500... they used to be 1000 to 1500. Again, they are made in China, and I cannot offer an opinion on something I have never seen or tried.
@canesisters ... you might want to PM @Mini Horses since you are in the same general area and go see the system she has since she says it is similar....
I would hesitate to use only a 2 inflation system on the cow, but it might be better than nothing too. If your arthritis kicks up much, you might think about the bigger more complete 4 teat inflation system as an investment. Small teats are a PITA and I understand why they tried to breed animals to have a smaller teat, but it has gone way too far in the opposite direction to where it is hard to get conventional milking machines to stay on some cows teats.
Have you tried just draining the udder using canulas in the teats? Sometimes just getting the teats completely emptied once will help to just make it all easier....
Lasix will help with the edema but will affect the milk for a bit, decreasing it...Dex the same but it will help with the edema.

 

[canesisters]

I honestly do not know anything about this system. I also can not believe that it could be as good as advertised but without trying it I just don't know. I went on Amazon and looked at some of the available ones... For about 1/2 of what they cost 2 years ago, you can buy the one on the small cart, with all the components for under 500... they used to be 1000 to 1500. Again, they are made in China, and I cannot offer an opinion on something I have never seen or tried.
@canesisters ... you might want to PM @Mini Horses since you are in the same general area and go see the system she has since she says it is similar....
I would hesitate to use only a 2 inflation system on the cow, but it might be better than nothing too. If your arthritis kicks up much, you might think about the bigger more complete 4 teat inflation system as an investment. Small teats are a PITA and I understand why they tried to breed animals to have a smaller teat, but it has gone way too far in the opposite direction to where it is hard to get conventional milking machines to stay on some cows teats.
Have you tried just draining the udder using canulas in the teats? Sometimes just getting the teats completely emptied once will help to just make it all easier....
Lasix will help with the edema but will affect the milk for a bit, decreasing it...Dex the same but it will help with the edema.

Having it only on 2 teats was kind of what got my attention. Her front 2 are pretty easy to manage. The back 2 are the ones I'm struggling with. I was thinking that I could have the machine work on those 2 tiny teats while I hand milked the 'normal sized' font ones. ??

 

[canesisters]

Do you know how you can stare at a problem for days & then out of the blue an obvious solution... or at least an option appears?

The real deep down issue is that her udder is strutted - is that the right word?? So full that her teats point to the 4 corners instead of down.
My stanchion is in the barn isle against a stall wall, so I milk on her left side. And right now I can barely reach the left side - let alone work for so long on that far, tiny rear teat.
Tonight while preparing to kneel on the floor of the stall & reach through to milk her right side it 'dawned' on me..... DUH! There are A LOT of folks who just tie their cow up to milk!!!!
So I let her out of the stanchion & tied her in the middle of the stall wall - milked the left side - then went around & milked the right.
She gave me the stink-eye - NOT a fan of change! - but behaved like the angel she almost always is.
MUCH more out of that right back quarter!
Gonna give it the weekend & watch to see how the swelling goes down.

 

[Mini Horses]

Woohoo!! That may be the solution.

 

[farmerjan]

In old style stanchion barns, where cows were brought in, sides of 5-10-20... a single machine was used for 2 cows so they could be milked from one side or the other... saved time when there were numbers of cows to be milked. Some cows prefer one side or the other... even today, in milking parlors 90% of the cows will come in either side to be milked so they are milked from either side.
I had a cow that I did the very same thing, milked one side then went around and milked th other side because she had lost all center ligament support and the teats stuck out almost sideways... GREAT for a calf to suck... NOT GREAT for me to milk.

Sounds like you may have figured out the best way to get her milked down....