Calving in Below Freezing

[NH homesteader]

She continues to improve. Funny how we spend time wishing for our animals to fight us!

 

[babsbag]

Glad to hear that she is up and eating, that is always good. Hope that she continues to fight for life and recovers from this ordeal. It is always so hard for me to lose the babies as I get sad for myself AND for the mama, perhaps that is just foolish on my part, maybe they don't mourn like people, but I honestly think that they do. Hang in there, you a awesome to give her a chance.

 

[cjc]

Glad to hear that she is up and eating, that is always good. Hope that she continues to fight for life and recovers from this ordeal. It is always so hard for me to lose the babies as I get sad for myself AND for the mama, perhaps that is just foolish on my part, maybe they don't mourn like people, but I honestly think that they do. Hang in there, you a awesome to give her a chance.

I feel the same way. I tend to believe cows do mourn the loss of their little ones. I have had cows moo until they lost their voice from the loss of a calf. My girl is not crying out. I really don't think she has even realized she has had a calf and the vet yesterday agreed with me. He said there was not a proper stimulus of her actually going into labour which is why the calf was likely 2 months over due.

The vet did the math on the weight of the calf and with the weight of the fluid in her, in the calf and the weight of the calf itself he estimated she was carrying around 300lbs of calf weight! YIKES! I posted a few months ago thinking she had foot rot because she was almost lame. Vet came out and said she didn't and that she was just weak from carrying a big calf. Well jeeze.

I think I will ultrasound my girls going forward to get more accurate information on calving. The more I think about it the more I think this could have been prevented.

 

[babsbag]

Glad that she is still hanging in there; she is certainly one lucky cow, most would have given up with her.

Sometimes we just have to go with our gut when it comes to our animals. Ultrasounds are really great if you have a vet with a good machine. My vet could tell me the goat was bred but the vet at UC Davis could use his machine and tell you how many kids and an approximate date; that is the information that I want to know. Especially with animals that tend to have multiple babies it is nice to know how many to expect.

 

[TAH]

 

[cjc]

Sorry to hear this. It's always difficult to lose a calf, and possibly the cow too. Happened to me many times. Now that I use AI extensively, I don't have genetic problems that cause deformed calves like this. The Shorthorn breed has several genetic defects, and you must be sure to never mate a carrier cow with a carrier bull. This holds true for any breed, so I'm not picking on Shorthorns. The club calf breeders are especially careful with their mating decisions. There are DNA tests that can determine which cows/bulls are carriers of these problems, and the AI studs are very careful to test their bulls prior to selling semen on them. Good luck in the future!

You are right on this. We believe that my cow was a carrier and so was the bull. Unfortunately after this incident the bull has now been retired. He did give me two good calves but the only pure bred registered calf I was going to get out of him came out messed up. He wasn't cheap to "rent". He was known to come from a good background but the owner was pretty shocked when we showed him the calf. They believe the calf had something called PHA. God I had bad luck this year! I may just stick to bottle calves and skip breeding.

 

[jhm47]

You are right on this. We believe that my cow was a carrier and so was the bull. Unfortunately after this incident the bull has now been retired. He did give me two good calves but the only pure bred registered calf I was going to get out of him came out messed up. He wasn't cheap to "rent". He was known to come from a good background but the owner was pretty shocked when we showed him the calf. They believe the calf had something called PHA. God I had bad luck this year! I may just stick to bottle calves and skip breeding.

I would hate to see you give up on breeding. Just consider AI, and be very careful which bulls you use. All the reputable AI studs will be happy to inform you on the genetic status of their bulls, and by using "clean" bulls, you can eliminate genetic problems.
You said that you got two calves from the bull in question. If so, be aware that they have a 50-50 chance of being carriers. The PHA gene is recessive, so calves that are perfectly healthy can still carry the gene. The problem comes when mated with another carrier, and then you have a 25% chance of two recessive genes pairing up and creating a calf like you just experienced. On the positive side, you also have a 25% chance of getting a perfectly clean calf, and a 50% chance of getting a carrier calf. Just depends on the luck of the draw. It's actually elementary genetics as discovered by Mendel. Good luck with your cattle!

 

[cjc]

Thanks @jhm47. Luckily I got no heifers from this bull this year so all of his offspring are now steer's. The irritating part is I thought I was paying to breed my girls to a clean bull. Hopefully I will get some better luck next time!

 

[farmerjan]

I'm hoping that the cow is continuing to improve? How's your weather? We got down to 7 last night but should start to get warmer this week. Already up to 25 but somewhat cloudy.

 

[cjc]

We are having some warmer weather but she is in the barn. I won't be moving her out for quiet sometime if she pulls through.

She is barely eating but she's drinking. She is probably eating about 2lbs a grain and half a leaf of alfalfa a day. Not touching her hay. She has been doing this for 2.5 days now. But the vet said she will definitely get sick, its just whether or not she improves after that.

I just called the vet and I am going to step up her drugs. I want to put her on something stronger than the oxytetracycline. I am also going to give her some metacam tonight.