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Preemie

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randiliana

randiliana

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Here is our new baby. I figure he is about a month early. His coat is short, and he weighs in at a whopping 46#. Figure another 20-30 # at a lb/day makes him 20-30 days early. Mama is good, she bagged up and everything. He was a pull, but I think that had more to do with him being early than anything. Mama is a heifer. He is pretty floppy, but he is breathing well, and he sure can beller. He has a weak suck reflex so we tubed him. Now he is in a cardboard box in the kitchen. The cats are sure puzzled by the new addition :p

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randiliana said:
Red Robin said:
Did you check for a twin while you were there?
Click to expand...

Yes we did.
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A few years back I had a big cow acting like she was going to calve all day and just never would labor. I figured some malpresentation and put her in the chute. Backwards. A neighbor and me put the pullers on and jerked out a 90 pound bull calf. All was good , no troubles. We were fixing to turn the cow loose and I said I suppose I should check for another one kind of laughing, I reached in and felt more feet and pulled a 90lb one out frontwards without the pullers. The cow raised them both with no help and they both weighed better than mid 5 wt at weaning. I don't remember evey having one come all that much early. 10 days or two weeks maybe. He looks good other wise. Hope he makes it for you. Good luck.
 
Red Robin said:
randiliana said:
Red Robin said:
Did you check for a twin while you were there?
Click to expand...

Yes we did.
Click to expand...
A few years back I had a big cow acting like she was going to calve all day and just never would labor. I figured some malpresentation and put her in the chute. Backwards. A neighbor and me put the pullers on and jerked out a 90 pound bull calf. All was good , no troubles. We were fixing to turn the cow loose and I said I suppose I should check for another one kind of laughing, I reached in and felt more feet and pulled a 90lb one out frontwards without the pullers. The cow raised them both with no help and they both weighed better than mid 5 wt at weaning. I don't remember evey having one come all that much early. 10 days or two weeks maybe. He looks good other wise. Hope he makes it for you. Good luck.
Click to expand...

Speaking of twins, we had a set out of a heifer a few years back. Ended up taking her to the vet because we couldn't get the first calf. The vet got the first one out easily enough, then reached in and put a couple boluses in her and sent her home (our vet is a biiiig guy). He didn't really check her for another calf, but you would have thought he would have felt it anyways, as she was a small heifer. So, they loaded her up, and we left her on the trailer for the rest of the night (about 3 hours) with her calf. When I checked on her in the morning there was another leg sticking out of her. We pulled the second one backwards, ended up losing him as it had been waaay too long. Don't have a clue how the vet missed him, but brings up the point of really making sure that there IS only one in there!!
 
A friend of mine tells a story about calving and the late ones drifted in the early part of hay season. He saw one trying to calve on his way to rake. He came in from lunch and she still hadn't calved. He pulled it and ate lunch and checked her that night. She had a dead calf in the pen with her live one. His name is Joe. The laughing part I talked about was with my friend Wes and Me pulling the big cows backwards calf, I snickered and said for Joes sake should I check for another one. Wes laughed and said at 90 lb I wouldn't think so. It was a good thing I checked. I never pull on now with out going back in , for Joes sake. :wink:
 
Work Hard and Study Hard said:
Judging by the legs he sure looks bigger than 46 pounds. He looks healthy enough to make it. Good luck.
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I think he might make it. He sure has a good set of lungs anyways. Makes sure no-one forgets about him, even at 3:00 AM. He wants to suck now, so as soon as the bottle warms up I will give him a chance to.

We weighed him, and even to look at he is the smallest calf we have ever had, or one of the 2 smallest anyways :wink: Not sure on that and I don't feel like looking it up right now. We have had twins out of heifers that weighed more than him! In the first pic, he is next to one of the kid's remote controlled trucks just for comparison :wink:
 
Things are looking well for him this morning. He is a lot stronger. He cannot get up on his own, although he sure tries, but if you stand him up he will stand for a few minutes. His suck reflex is good, but he tires out before he eats much. But he is developing those muscles and coming around well.
 
I had an old cow cow here have preemie dwarf babies. One was 22 lbs the other was 32. Both lived, Momma died due to a bleed out, we bottle/bucket fed them and they are called the ' Dink Sisters'.

They are almost a yr old now and only about 30" tall at the shoulders and I use them a baby sitter cows when I have to keep a cow in the lot so she's not freaking out by herself.

There's not enough on them make it worth the butcher fee so they'll live here are as pets and baby sitters!
 
We just had set number 6 last night. :shock: :shock: :shock: Must be that Feedrite mineral. :D :D :wink:

The second last set were both backwards, and both breech. We were sure glad we checked that cow out! Calf number one was a little slow too. We thought she was dead at first, but we gave her a good working over, and brought her around. Didn't get up for 24 hours, but sure knew what to do with a bottle. She's up now, and raring to go.

One year we had a cow give birth to a dead calf that had the umbilical cord wrapped around a hind leg about 6 times. It had been dead for days. It's eyes were sunk into it's head already. I talked Hubby into tying her up and checking her out because this calf wasn't that big. He said it was a waste of time, but humoured me. He reached in, grabbed a foot, and yanked out a healthy calf! :D
 
Kato said:
We just had set number 6 last night. :shock: :shock: :shock: Must be that Feedrite mineral. :D :D :wink:

The second last set were both backwards, and both breech. We were sure glad we checked that cow out! Calf number one was a little slow too. We thought she was dead at first, but we gave her a good working over, and brought her around. Didn't get up for 24 hours, but sure knew what to do with a bottle. She's up now, and raring to go.

One year we had a cow give birth to a dead calf that had the umbilical cord wrapped around a hind leg about 6 times. It had been dead for days. It's eyes were sunk into it's head already. I talked Hubby into tying her up and checking her out because this calf wasn't that big. He said it was a waste of time, but humoured me. He reached in, grabbed a foot, and yanked out a healthy calf! :D
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6 sets is quite a few!! How many are you calving out? Good work on that backwards set.

We lost a set last year in similar circumstances. The first one was backwards, can't remember if it was breech, but I think it was. That cow spent all morning messing around, but never gave any "real" signs of labour. The first real sign was the placenta. That is not a good sign. We got the first one out alive, and we thought it was going to make it. But it just quit on us. The second one was dead. Hubby is always after me because he says I am too quick to check them out. It seems like every time I wait we end up with something like those twins. I'd rather check her out and know things are coming right, than leave them for an extra hour and lose the calf or calves...
 
Ive been calving about a hundred cows out for the past 4 years and have never came across a set of twins. That is pretty unlikely isnt it? Ive heard that its in the 4% range for twins or something like that?
 
tlakota said:
Ive been calving about a hundred cows out for the past 4 years and have never came across a set of twins. That is pretty unlikely isnt it? Ive heard that its in the 4% range for twins or something like that?
Click to expand...

That sounds a little unusual. But it depends on the breed of cattle, and a lot of it on the feed conditions at the time of conception. The better the feed and the better condition of the cows, the more likely you will have twins. Continental breeds are also more likely to have twins than British breeds.
 
My grand father runs 100 cows here with me... Well, I take care of them, he helps pay some of the bills and I get to learn something from a man that I should have gotten to know 16 years ago instead of 6 years ago and now it is almost too late... But to move on past that, he had 79 cows here last year and had 7 sets of twins... I had 300 and had 2... Strange... His 79 shared identical breeding season and source as about 100 of mine.. None of that 100 had a single set of twins for me.
 
I've got 75 calves on the ground now and have had 3 sets. First one we lost them both, second, one was born dead, and the last we had to day both lived. At this rate I'll have 15 sets, last year I had 3 total so go figure.
 
When calving season starts sets of twins seem to come at the beginning. One year I had 4 sets after the first 12 cows calved then nothing for the other 100 I calved that year. Lots of times there more a pain in the neck than there worth. Some years you are still lucky to ave. 1 live calf per set :?
 

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