randiliana
Well-known member
She had an upside down calf!! Honestly, though, this must be the luckiest cow alive. She spent at least 12 hours on her back in a rut/hollow. And she survived that. She had a prolapsed rectum, which we put back, and gave her a shot of penicillin for. She was pretty much fine after that. This was I believe on March 7, and we have been keeping an eye on her since, kind of expecting her to abort, or have a dead calf. But things seemed to be going well with her. Until a couple of days ago, when she started to prolapse her rectum again. I think it was mostly the pressure of the calf, and, she was starting to get HUGE (which could indicate problems), so we decided to induce her. She was showing quite heavily, so we knew the calf should be OK, providing it was alive in the first place.
So 2 days ago, we gave her 10 cc's of Dexamethasone. Figured that in about 48 hours she should go into labour. And she was right on schedule, she went into labour around 5 pm tonight. We watched her but after an hour, she wasn't making any progress, so we took her up to check her out, it wasn't quite coming right, but she was't completely dialated either, so we let her out for a bit longer. Gave her about another hour, and still no calf. So we checked things again. Now, the calf was completely upside down. Wasn't a hard one to turn over, and he was protesting the idea of coming out into the world. So thank goodness he was alive!! We had been picturing the dead/rotten calf scenario. Put the chains on him, and then the puller. It wasn't too hard of a pull, but it is that much easier with the puller. Once we got him straightened out, and put a bit of tension on, she mostly did the rest. Had he been coming right in the first place, I don't think we would have had to help her at all. She has a nice healthy bull calf to mother up, and she seems to be quite happy with him. I know we are!!
So, all in all, this was a successful operation, and one lucky cow.
So 2 days ago, we gave her 10 cc's of Dexamethasone. Figured that in about 48 hours she should go into labour. And she was right on schedule, she went into labour around 5 pm tonight. We watched her but after an hour, she wasn't making any progress, so we took her up to check her out, it wasn't quite coming right, but she was't completely dialated either, so we let her out for a bit longer. Gave her about another hour, and still no calf. So we checked things again. Now, the calf was completely upside down. Wasn't a hard one to turn over, and he was protesting the idea of coming out into the world. So thank goodness he was alive!! We had been picturing the dead/rotten calf scenario. Put the chains on him, and then the puller. It wasn't too hard of a pull, but it is that much easier with the puller. Once we got him straightened out, and put a bit of tension on, she mostly did the rest. Had he been coming right in the first place, I don't think we would have had to help her at all. She has a nice healthy bull calf to mother up, and she seems to be quite happy with him. I know we are!!
So, all in all, this was a successful operation, and one lucky cow.