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Bad Luck

I

I Luv Herfrds

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 8, 2007
Messages
1,639
Location
Montana
I believe I would rather be dealing with a blizzard then what happened this morning.
Husband and I were going to the neighbors auction. He came in at about 9am and told me he had just put my heifer in the barn, her water bag was out, but things looked alright.
He left for the auction. I stayed behind to make sure everything went fine.
Now that was wishful thinking.
Checked her at 9:40am. She was laying down and pushing hard, but things just didn't seem to be progressing.
Got her in the head catch, she missed kicking me 3 times. Got my gloves on and found 2 hind feet. Grabbed my chains, handles and the puller. Got the chains on the legs, no response from the calf.
Here's where everything went from bad to worse.
I gave a small pull to get the feet straight, they were crossed. Heifer started pushing and sat down on the chain that holds the squeeze gate against her. I had chained it to keep her from kicking me.
Now I can't get the calf out nor release the gate. The air was turning pretty blue at that point.
Heifers now going down, still can't get the chain released, run and get a hammer and start just beating the the chain as hard as I can while pushing as hard as I can on the gate. Was hitting it so hard I had sparks flying and I was sure hoping I didn't set the barn on fire.
Finally did the last option open grabbed the feet of the calf and lifted up ward and got everything undone.
released the heifer from the head catch, threw the puller on and started to get the job done. Now I have pulled calves before by hand and with the puller and that was the hardest pull I ever had to do.
Got the calf out, but there was nothing more I could do. No heart beat, no reflex. :(
Hauled the calf out and left the heifer alone. Took around 10 minutes to finally get her to her feet.

Ran into our vet at the auction. We both believe that the calf was already dead and the reason for the hard pull was the placenta was twisted around the calf.
Second calf we lost due to being backwards. Trying to find a twin or an orphan for her right now. Nobody seems to have one though.

Just a bad luck day.
 
I feel for ya, ILVH...we pulled a backwards calf 2 days ago. Had trouble getting the cow in and we thought the calf was dead. Mr. FH pulled it and in so doing, the calf tried to take his leg away, but pulling it
took awhile cuz the cow didn't cooperate much. Got the calf out and we both thought he had expired. However, he did try to take in some air gasping was more like it, no eye movement., Mr. FH massaged his chest and we got him hung upside down to drain the fluid out of his lungs. He started doing better, then breathing on his own. Turned the cow out, she liked him, and soon he was up and trying to suck.

Sure made us feel pretty helpless when he laid there trying to breathe. You know you don't have much time...

Wish your story had turned out better...
 
I'm sorry to hear about your loss. You tried your best and did everything you could possibly do... and then some :?. Those types of pulls are terrifying and exhausting, especially when you're doing it alone.

Sounds like what happened to me a few years ago with a heifer. While trying to pull her calf...2am of course...she sat down like a dog half way through getting the calf out. I couldn't release the headcatch since her weight was against it, the calf was munched. To add insult to injury, once I did get her released and proceeded on, the calf hiplocked. By the time I got it out, the heifer was paralyzed, in the way of the headcatch...not good in case I needed to get another cow in. Luckily another heifer was calving at the same time and had twins. I grabbed a twin, smothered it in the paralyzed heifer's placenta. The heifer immediately LOVED the new calf, and literally dragged herself out of the maternity pen after it. She did recover fully, and I wouldn't be surprised if she doesn't calve tonite.

Hope you have a better day tomorrow!
 
Sorry to hear about that. I have found that a rope that you can dally to a post in the barn alley is a lot handier than a puller. I use the headcatch to put the chains on and tie the rope to the chain with a bowline. Release the cow into the alley, rope around a post and through the eye in the bowline. Lots of times the cow will pull her own calf. If they go down in the alley, no big deal, there is lots of room for them to lie down naturally. The rope setup is easy to tighten and release. Takes a little patience to get the cow positioned right. The wild ones cooperate the best. :D
 
gcreekrch said:
Sorry to hear about that. I have found that a rope that you can dally to a post in the barn alley is a lot handier than a puller. I use the headcatch to put the chains on and tie the rope to the chain with a bowline. Release the cow into the alley, rope around a post and through the eye in the bowline. Lots of times the cow will pull her own calf. If they go down in the alley, no big deal, there is lots of room for them to lie down naturally. The rope setup is easy to tighten and release. Takes a little patience to get the cow positioned right. The wild ones cooperate the best. :D
Click to expand...
I have used this method too....... I think it works great.
 
Caught up with the husband and we are going to change the chain, so it can be unhooked with tension on it. He's good at designing stuff like that and getting to work. Hope we can get it done soon. I really don't want to go through this again.
 
Sorry about your luck. It's never any fun when these deals go bad.
I'm not a fan of the "maternity" set up for a bunch of reasons, a proper squeeze is far handier IMHO.
 
Things could of been even worse I got a call for a Rancher in North Dakota this afternoon and said his neighbor lost 60 calves in the blizzard. Did not ask if this last one of the last two blizzards. 60 dead calves in one shot would of sent me to not just one shot but a full bottle.
 
Hay Feeder said:
Things could of been even worse I got a call for a Rancher in North Dakota this afternoon and said his neighbor lost 60 calves in the blizzard. Did not ask if this last one of the last two blizzards. 60 dead calves in one shot would of sent me to not just one shot but a full bottle.
Click to expand...

I've heard about a similar loss northeast of here... just awful. I guess this ranch had decided to change calving headquarters, to a place without much shelter since it was closer to the main place. Just trying to stay ahead of health problems is hard enough without losing them like that :?. This weather is bound to break some places. I wish I could loan some boulders and trees out to those without much shelter. Let's hope a big break is on the way soon.
 
WyomingRancher said:
Hay Feeder said:
Things could of been even worse I got a call for a Rancher in North Dakota this afternoon and said his neighbor lost 60 calves in the blizzard. Did not ask if this last one of the last two blizzards. 60 dead calves in one shot would of sent me to not just one shot but a full bottle.
Click to expand...

I've heard about a similar loss northeast of here... just awful. I guess this ranch had decided to change calving headquarters, to a place without much shelter since it was closer to the main place. Just trying to stay ahead of health problems is hard enough without losing them like that :?. This weather is bound to break some places. I wish I could loan some boulders and trees out to those without much shelter. Let's hope a big break is on the way soon.
Click to expand...

I was checking some weather sites-- and its still looking like you guys are about to get a break....40-50-60 degree temps- and even when that next front moves thru about Wed or Thurs the computer runs are not showing much moisture- and that will take the form of rain instead of snow...
 
Don't know quite yet if this is good news or not. :)
Vet called this morning, he had just gotten a call from a guy up north with a twin heifer that needed a new momma.
I went up there and picked her up, got side tracked briefly trying to find a Quarter horse breeder I know to let him know his horses were heading down the road towards town. :lol:

Got the calf home and put her in the pen with my heifer. Now I was surprised when she started to sniff and lick the calf. She did head butt her once. I poured some water over the calf's back and then poured on some orphan no more. Now that got the heifer really interested.
The biggest trouble was getting the calf to start nursing. Put the heifer in the head catch and put the squeeze on her and had the calf under her belly. Took me around 20-30 minutes to finally get the calf to understand where the feed bag was. The calf had been getting fed with a bottle.
When I let the heifer out of the pen to water tonight she turned around and bawled for this new calf. :D
I really hope this graft works.
 
If she bawled at it, sounds to me like you've got a slam dunk :wink:. Congrats... don't ya' love it when a project turns easy for once!
 
I am worried that this bum calf is sick. She has the runs and looks like she hasn't eaten all day. I already called our vet and I mixed up some electrolites and some terramyacin and got a pint down her.
She really stinks too. She has some interest in nursing, but I haven't seen her on the heifer. Heifer just stands there calmly waiting.
Calf has had no vaccines.
They are both being kept together in a pen away from the other pairs until we can either figure out what is wrong or get her well.

Should I wash her butt? She smells that bad. It is not yellow poop, it is almost a greenish brown.
 

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