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Calving problems

T99

Well-known member
We came home Thursday night to find a two-year-old heifer that had dropped a 100 pound calf. The calf died yesterday and Mom's never gotten up. We had her in hip slings yesterday hooked on to the tractor and loader. It looked like she was getting better so we unhooked her last night before dark but she still isn't able to stand or walk. She's eating and she's trying to get up. Any advice? And before anyone mentions anything about bulls, this was a heifer we bought that was supposedly bred to a low birthweight angus bull.
 

Work Hard and Study Hard

Well-known member
T99 said:
We came home Thursday night to find a two-year-old heifer that had dropped a 100 pound calf. The calf died yesterday and Mom's never gotten up. We had her in hip slings yesterday hooked on to the tractor and loader. It looked like she was getting better so we unhooked her last night before dark but she still isn't able to stand or walk. She's eating and she's trying to get up. Any advice? And before anyone mentions anything about bulls, this was a heifer we bought that was supposedly bred to a low birthweight angus bull.

I had one last week have a monster calf, she was down for 2 days. She's up walking now albeit not perfect. If shes trying to get up and moving her back legs you might have a chance. We were getting stuff ready to butcher the heifer when we went out to the pen and saw her standing :wink:
 

WyomingRancher

Well-known member
I would give her some Dexamethasone to help with inflammation. I wouldn't give up on her for at least five days, especially if she's trying to get up.
 

RRoss

Well-known member
One thing that I do on cow or a hfr. that is having difficulty getting up. Is to hobble their hind legs together. To keep them from falling/slipping and splitting the pelvis further. Use the Dex. as well. Keep her back feet under her and roll from side to side during the day. The other thing is to try and have a couple of people on hand when she first trys to stand. One on each side to steady her, hopefully she will cooperate and stand still and not try and walk.
The neighbors bulls got into my hfrs. early last spring. Two hfrs. got bred the first one calved fine. When the second hfr. calved she had a large calf that was dead when I got there, she was paralyzed could'nt get up and had a uterine prolapse to boot. It took her 2-3 days before she could get up. I left her in the barn untill she was able to handle the ice, it was 6-7 days before I could turn her out with the rest of the hfrs.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
So far the calves from my heifers are running about 5-10 lbs heavier than last year- from the same bulls....Heaviest so far has been 89 lbs.-- but they are long and trim and I still haven't seen a heifer in labor or a calf born...Just go out there and they are standing by momma sucking the way it should be....
Must be the easy winter- they didn't need the feed to survive and put more into their calves....

As far as that heifer- if she's trying to get up and eating theres a good chance she may come out of it... Especially where you can sling her...I've had them down or pretty wobbly for several days after they got those nerves pinched...
 

Mike

Well-known member
Everyone here is complaing that calves are bigger this year. I guess it's due to the supplements that were fed because of the drought situation.
 

T99

Well-known member
Thanks for all the advice everybody. She's been literally crawling around the pen all day and we've got her back up in the slings now. I noticed that once we got her in the slings there's muscle movement in her hind legs and hips about every five seconds, not sure if it's voluntary or involuntary but something's going on back there.
 

SMN Herf

Well-known member
I will probably ruin my luck here by bragging, but since I only have 9 head left, I will risk it.

I have had good luck calving my heifers this year. Calves have been 65 to 85 lbs with and I haven't had to touch a single one until yesterday when one was coming upside down. He was pretty good sized but came real easy once I got him straightened out.


Brian
 

Ben H

Well-known member
The best thing for a downer that I've seen is a float tank. We saved a cow with one back in College. Maybe someone has one somewhere to borrow. Time is against you because that animal is loosing circulation not being up. Even if you do find a float tank, It will be a challenge to keep it warm this time of year.
http://www.downcow.com/aquacow/howto/howto.html
 

IL Rancher

Well-known member
That is a real interesting website... I wonder if any of the dairies around here have one... Most folks don't even have cow lifts..
 

Juan

Well-known member
DON'TGIVE UP. keep her fed and watered and as comfortable as you can.
It could take weeks but she'll be fine.
 

T99

Well-known member
Thanks Juan, that's exactly what we're doing. We put her back in the sling last night and again this morning but she's not wanting to put any weight on those hind legs. However she seems to have perked up a bit again today and she's got a little more try in her when it comes to trying to get up. Food and water are going in and coming out so that's probably a good sign, huh? We both have to go back to work tomorrow so I hope she's ok throughout the day.
 

Mrs.Greg

Well-known member
While reading this I was thinking too bad PETA doesn't read this to see how hard ranchers work to take care of thier animals.
 

Silver

Well-known member
Mike said:
Everyone here is complaing that calves are bigger this year. I guess it's due to the supplements that were fed because of the drought situation.

No supplements fed here, in fact the cows are on pretty tight hay rations. We're feeding a full bale less to 350 cows than we should (tried to bed them with a wheat straw bale and they cleaned that up too :? ), and calves are still bigger than normal. Luckily the heifers are still having smallish calves bet. 80-95 lbs, but some of these ole cows are really outdoing themselves. Had a few at 140 lbs. Times like this I really appreciate those big ole 'inefficient' cows. :wink:
 

kph

Active member
I'd have to say my b.wts. are higher this year too, although I always get big calves (several 110- 130) but with no calving trouble out of cows. More assists than usual on heifers though, out of calving ease bulls that I've used in the past. Funny, but when there's a bad winter people blame it on the weather, and when there's a mild winter people blame it on the weather. Don't know what the answer is.I have always fed some corn silage though, and I think that contributes.
 

IL Rancher

Well-known member
We had our first, well second really, mishap yesterday with a cow going int o labor and not progressing at all.. Felt real strange when we went into pull the calf out, turned out to be a big time premie calf, no hair... We tend to get one or two of these a year but they still bug me.. Darn cow gets so close to having a healthy calf and something goes wrong.. Oh well, these things have been known to happen..
 

Soapweed

Well-known member
We have had more big calves, backwards calves, heads coming with the front feet back, etc. than we have ever had. Our calf pullers, which have hardly been used for the last several years, are now getting a good work-out. Probably 20-25% of our first-calf heifers and a fair amount of the older cows have needed assistance. The only thing we did very different was to feed two pounds of 30% DDG cake this winter, versus feeding about the same amount of regular cake in other years. One thing we are very thankful for is the beautiful mild calving weather. We are nearing the two-thirds mark at this time.
 
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