Mike, I agree with you, too. I am the person with the strong stomach in this family. Last fall, when we were calving, our "911" cow (yes, that was her number) broke water one day, we went looking for her later and couldn't find her. Found her the next day, smelling to high heaven. Had to trail her down to the barn and getting whiffs of her smell was awful. Got her in the head catch, by golly, I was gagging, and couldn't make sense of what I was feeling inside. A head was in the way, got 2 feet in the straps and the skin started slippin'. UGH. sw couldn't figure out what was going on inside, poor guy, gagging (just like me and I have a STRONG stomach) and being a good sport at relieving me to feel what was the matter....anyway we ended up doing a C-Section on her, twins, the one with the head in the way was bloated like a pot-bellied pig, the other twin was right beside it.
Got the calves out, sewed her up. Lost the cow within the week. We lost 3 sets of twins in 2 days when that happened.
We were told that if a cow has a dead calf inside her, let her be and she will eventually get rid of it on her own. No C-Section cost, no dead cow.
Sooooo, I want your opinion - do you think, if we have a cow with something very dead inside her, give her some antibiotics and let her get rid of it by herself?