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an unwelcome suprise last night

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rowel

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well yesterday while doing evening chores and checking cows i noticed one 1st calf heiffer acting funny like she was gonna start calving , well i left and went and fed horses, came back a hour later and she was down walked out and looked at her , sure enough she was calving , a few minutes later out pops the calf, i stick around for her to lick the calf clean and let it suck , plus i wanted to move it further away from where she had it at , just a few feet away from a pond . i was there maybe 30 to 45 minutes before i picked up the calf and left , i came back about a hour later, and what a suprise i had , she had prolapsed , im guessing she did that when she was in the process of cleaning herself out , called the vet he came over , got her in the pens easy enough, , 2 epiderals later and one hell of a wrestling match by chocking her down and keeping her down and a 1/12 went by she had everything back in and sewed up, , i came on home got cleaned up and went back over about 11pm to check on her and make my nightly rounds , everything was ok , got up two more times to go make my rounds through the cows and see if anything new had came about . momma and calf are doing ok, shes gonna raise her clalf then be sold. a freind of mine asked me why i check on my cows so much , well this is a good example why i check on em so much while im calving
 
Don't ya just hate it when that happens??? You know, she might not ever prolapse again, why not give her another go? Unless she has more strikes than that against her?
 
When my little bunch is calving I ck them about ever 2 hrs at nite time.

But, but some stroke of excellent luck this time they all calved in the day time!!!
 
IMO, that's a big negatory on keeping her Shelly! There are enough problems in the cattle business without taking a calculated risk on a prolapse case. JMHO, the damage has been done and a repeat performance is more likely than not. Another prolapse incident might prove fatal next time.

I agree with the present plan. Let mama raise the baby and sell mama this fall when she is fully healed and dried off. If their is an opportunity to adopt the calf to another cow, do that and sell mama this summer after observing proper drug withdrawl periods.

Another thing, if this calf is a heifer, do not keep it as a replacement.
 
Rule #4 Don't prolapse. Every animal that prolapses gets sold along with every female with her in the pedigree.

I run hereford cows but because of a strict adherence to this rule I have went 6 years without a prolapse.

The last cow that prolapsed cost me her, 2 daughters, 1 grandaughter, and 2 replacement heifers all to town for tanker price. What I lost on them I have more than made up for in vet bills and fewer problems of all kinds.
 
I'm gonna jinx myself for next year for sure....but in 30 yrs of having ' bovines'....I've never had a cow prolapse.
 
Shelly said:
Don't ya just hate it when that happens??? You know, she might not ever prolapse again, why not give her another go? Unless she has more strikes than that against her?
Click to expand...

WRONG :???: :???: If you cull her she will never do that to you again. She is youg, calf at side--I might let her go now, but for sure this fall. What do I know anyway?? :? :? I have enough trouble running this outfit, and here I go with great ideas on runnin' yours....sorry :(
 
Shortgrass, how 'bout we call it "bovine toughlove"? :idea:

Culling prolapse mama before she calves again will save heartbreak all around in the long run. Let her go out with dignity. Send her through the sale ring this fall all fat and sassy, not drag over the hill for coyote bait next spring.

Doug, I like and respect your harda$$ management philosophy. It is the right and proper thing to do for seedstock producers to set this example. Eliminating problems for you translates to eliminating problems for your customers.
 
OK, I admit it, I'm a softie and all for second chances. I just know from experience around here that the chances are good she'll never do it again. We've had the odd one prolapse and it was always a one time thing. Kept them in the herd and they were very productive cows.
 
kolanuraven said:
When my little bunch is calving I ck them about ever 2 hrs at nite time.
Click to expand...
Sugar, do the cows work for you or do you work for the cows? :lol:
 
We raise our own heifers and artifically inseminate them. This year along with those my Dad had the idea to buy some heifers from a local ranch. Ours are sliding calves right out. The boughten ones are having to be pulled out. We weren't gonna live with ours this year..........but now we are checking every two hours too. We are definatly working for them.
 
We once bought a purebred heifer that prolapsed when she calved. Since we were young and poor, and purebreds didn't come along very often, we kept her. She had ten more calves, and never a problem. She did have a really big calf first time. :shock: A vet told us that a uterine prolapse is more of an accident of calving than anything else. He said that as long as they come home bred that first year, they don't as a rule do it again.

I would say, see if she's bred in the fall, and ask your vet.

Now, a vaginal prolapse, the kind they get before calving, that's a different story. Those cows must go.
 
Tom Lasater, founder of Beefmasters, culled any cow that failed to bring a calf in in the fall. He said "Sure you lose some good cows, but you get rid of all the bad ones." Not totally wrong reasoning.
 
I've never had a cow repeat with a uterine (sp?) prolapse. Prolapses are a pretty rare occurence these days (touch wood), maybe one every two or three years on 350 head. As far as I know its a fluke. I have bought cows from a neighbour in the past that he has sold because they prolapsed, and never had a problem.
Now vaginal prolapses on the other hand are a different story, and need to be culled ruthlessly, just like bad feet and bad bags.
 
I agree with Silver, Kato, and Shelly. Based on what I've been told by a vet and what I've experienced, post-calving uterine prolapse is an accident and will likely not re-occur. I have a little cow right now that did it as a heifer. She's 8 or 9 now and has always rebred and never prolapsed again.
 
Here's a slightly different problem.. I have a cow that has a prolaps rectum occassionally ( I gues that's what you'd call it ). I had noticed a slightly bloody smear around her rectum a couple times and actually took her to the vet thinking maybe she had some hardware in her causing some bleeding. He didn't find anything wrong with her. Then one day I caught her laying down with her rectum protruding about 6 inches. When she gets up and walks about 30 feet it works back in. I took her back to vet he said just weak muscles around rectum. She's a good cow otherwise. I was afraid under the strain of calving she would blow it out again, but no other sign. What's my risk with her ??
 
sell her and her calf. Don't keep either one. Problems are not needed in this business.

We once bought a bull and used him on a handful of cows. Had 4 or 5 daughters we kept the first year and about 6 or 7 the second year. The first ones calved and everyone of them prolapsed. We sold them and the next years calf crop and the bull. Vet bills don't make a guy any money.
 
well ive read all the post and i thank you for all your opinons and advice momma will be sold , she is a sharp looking heiffer and i was hoping for a different result with her than what happened, i have herefords and a freind of mine told me that back when herefords were the breed of choice and very popular that everyone bred for quanity several years ago instead of quality so thats his opinon on why the hereford breed has a reputation for a lot of prolapses. but anyways the cow is doing good and the calf is sucking , thanks again for everyones opinion and advice
 
Sewed up a rectal and vaginal prolapse for a neighbor yesterday. After we got kickin', sh@tting, old dear tail-blocked and stitched together they infomed me that she had done it last year for a day or two before she calved but everything went in when she'd stand up. She'll make a one way trip this fall, I'm thinkin'. The only casualty was when I was putting the last stitch in my grip on the S curve needle slipped and I have a nice straight cut across the palm of my hand. Was real handy doing chores today! We ship all vaginal prolapses and their progeny, have kept the odd uterine pr. depending, haven't had to reassemble one twice..... yet.
 
we've only had 3 or 4 in the hystery of the place-a couple of them were out in the bush and got Dr's Remington and Winchester to attend to them. It's truly a labor of love to see a cow stitched up before calving and her owner watching like a hawk to cut the stitches just as she calves.
 

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