Help with cow calving!

[s & s farms]

Hello all Rancher friends,

I am new to this site and a rookie farmer, I am hoping to seek some advice from some of you experienced farmers. ok, my question is, I have a heifer 1st time pregnant and she is getting ready to calf, this morning I went to check on her and she has this white/red long thing hanging out of her(*****) where the calf comes from, is this the mucas bag or after birth? her belly has not shrunk at all, and if she hasn't calfed yet does anyone know how much longer it will be? I want to be sure to be ready & prepared if anything were to go wrong, as I pray it will not....she is a young mother so I don't know how this will turn out. thanks for anyone's help on this. S & S Farmer

 

[Turkey Track Bar]

How long is it? Does it have a "balloon" or "sack" hanging at the end? If so, I'd say she is just getting ready to calve. What does her udder look like?

Can you post a picture for us to see?

Good luck and cheers---

TTB :wink:

 

[Turkey Track Bar]

s&s:

Of all the pics I have, I guess I don't have any of calving from start to finish. A couple of folks at cattletoday have done an excellent job of photographing the event. The photos of the Hereford (red, white face) cow are more detailed, showing from the expelling of the water bag to the expelling of the placenta. Check out the pics at this link:

http://www.cattletoday.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=49808

If your heifer looks like the Hereford picture entitled, "Whewww.....made it" I say the hard work is done and you should be hunting for a calf.

I hope this helps. I am sorry I don't have pictures showing the entire blessed event.

Please ask if you have other questions.

By the way, welcome to ranchers.net

Cheers---

TTB :wink:

 

[s & s farms]

no, I don't have a picture of it, but it is approx 18 in long, her udder is big, no balloon or sack hanging on the end, she is getting up & down though and I have been watching her she has been pushing, and, now it shows a yellow looking thingy trying to come out, when she gets done pushing it goes back in, I have been looking all over the net on this topic and have come to realize she is in the early stage of labor, she has not went into full blown, I cannot see a bag or sack yet, however she is hunched back with tail twisted when standing. how long to you think it will take her to calve? and thanks for your assistance. I am so nervous right now its not even funny......... :?

 

[Turkey Track Bar]

I am guessing what you are seeing are the calf's feet. Check out this link from Oregon State University. I think it should help you out.

http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/html/ec/ec1370/

Do you have a local veterinarian you use, in case you think the heifer is having problems?

Cheers---

TTB :wink:

 

[Broke Cowboy]

Well, we can talk all day about it but the fact is if you run into trouble you will need a veterinarian.

Why not call one now?

Save yourself a pile of grief.

She will likely do ok without you panicking - but you might as well call - because we can do nothing here but offer support

BC

 

[gcreekrch]

Well, we can talk all day about it but the fact is if you run into trouble you will need a veterinarian.

Why not call one now?

Save yourself a pile of grief.

She will likely do ok without you panicking - but you might as well call - because we can do nothing here but offer support

BC

Thanks BC, that is who should have been contacted first. They cost money though, don't they? Cows aren't supposed to cost money or create problems. :???:

Call me whatever you want but folks that don't know how to cook should just stay out of the kitchen.

 

[Turkey Track Bar]

Well, we can talk all day about it but the fact is if you run into trouble you will need a veterinarian.

Why not call one now?

Save yourself a pile of grief.

She will likely do ok without you panicking - but you might as well call - because we can do nothing here but offer support

BC

Thanks BC, that is who should have been contacted first. They cost money though, don't they? Cows aren't supposed to cost money or create problems. :???:

Call me whatever you want but folks that don't know how to cook should just stay out of the kitchen.

True. Better advice than I offered.

I hope s&s is able to find a Vet. who will be willing to come out on a holiday weekend. Yes, I know it sounds dumb they would not, but it does happen.

Cheers---

TTB :wink:

 

[Canadian_Cowgirl]

I understand why all of you say call the vet first thing, but that can get really expensive. We are about 70km from one vet and 100 from another, and they both charge over $2/km, so that gets really pricey for a vet call when you might not even need them, the vets i worked with hated talking on the phone about a problem as it is so hard to describe to them and they might not understand, so you might call the vet out for nothing and waste there time when someone else might truely need them. And you are being charged alot of money for something you might not even need. For a vet to come out here to "help" would cost over 200 dollars, thats $200 I dont have, to use on something i don't need, now if it was an emergancy i would have no problem calling them. I had a great realationship with our neighbours, and they were in cattle for years and also had sheep, so if i personally had any problems i would call them, unless i knew i needed to call the vet.
I also agree with gcreek. I know I didnt know anything about cattle but my dad did and i learned a whole lot from him, but i didnt just go out and decide i wanted cows, either did he, he knew about cattle before we got any his family were farmers for years at least 50 or so, so maybe if people want to have livestock they should learn about them there are courses out there you can take and most ranchers will give you some tips and help if you ask, mom and dad have taken at least 4 different courses/classes that have involved agriculture, its not just something that they can start and it go perfect. there are many problems people have to face that have had cattle for many many years.
but that is just what i think....

 

[Justin]

Well, we can talk all day about it but the fact is if you run into trouble you will need a veterinarian.

Why not call one now?

Save yourself a pile of grief.

She will likely do ok without you panicking - but you might as well call - because we can do nothing here but offer support

BC

Thanks BC, that is who should have been contacted first. They cost money though, don't they? Cows aren't supposed to cost money or create problems. :???:

Call me whatever you want but folks that don't know how to cook should just stay out of the kitchen.

my thoughts exactly...
if you want to cook, go spend sometime in someone's kitchen and learn all you can before you jump in to it on your own.

 

[Kato]

s&s... Please check back in and let us know how it turned out!

You posted the first one at 8:17, and the second at 1:13, that's more than long enough to wait, and IMO the call the vet advice was right on the money, especially for a heifer.

I would recommend you find a neighbour to mentor you through a few calvings, especially if you've got more heifers. They are far more likely to have a problem than a cow. You really need to see a number of normal calvings so you can tell when you've got an abnormal one. Maybe your local vet can take you on some ride-alongs? You'd for sure get to see what abnormal calvings look like, since that's the only ones the vet goes to see.

 

[s & s farms]

Thanks for everyone's advice, it is much appreciated, however, I want to make something clear here, when I got this heifer I did not know she was with calf, the people we got her from had let her get bred obviously....however I have contacted the vet...the cow and baby are doing fine....again thanks for all your input......have a Blessed Day!

 

[per]

Good when a plan comes together. Next time maybe we could request streaming video and give real time advise. :wink:

 

[miocene]

gcreek's comment is to the point.i've seen numerous wreck's with inexperienced people getting heifers to calve out.either caused by their inexperience or inadequate size of heifers and lack of facilitys to handle a calving