Pregnant Cow Help!

[chickenlover0805]

Hello! My beef cow, Bella, is currently pregnant. This evening I gave her herd some treats (zucchini and eggplants). She was standing by the gate while the other cows were relaxing in the field. I gave her one eggplant and she ate it. After that she refused to eat anything else (which is unusual because she always begs for more food after eating a bunch of treat). She also was acting lethargic and depressed

 

[Baymule]

She looks very pregnant. Any idea when she might be due?

 

[chickenlover0805]

She looks very pregnant. Any idea when she might be due?

I have no clue. One of my cows gave birth to a stillborn on August 10th so I'm assuming that she may be due very soon. We got the bull last October and he was butchered in January, which means that's the time frame she got pregnant in. Her udder isn't getting bigger yet so I don't know how long it could be.

 

[Mini Horses]

Is she eating otherwise? Hay, grass, what? Does she have a temperature? Do they have shade & is she using it? When did you notice this? Is this first calf? Do you have fescue grass?

She's huge. Looks like calf has dropped. Judging time with bull, I'd guess anytime is possible. Did cow with stillborn have issues before, during, after ?

@farmerjan .... We need help

 

[chickenlover0805]

Is she eating otherwise? Hay, grass, what? Does she have a temperature? Do they have shade & is she using it? When did you notice this? Is this first calf? Do you have fescue grass?

So I went outside a few mins ago and she ate some corn but she was in an entirely different pasture when i first went out. She went up to the barnyard gate once I threw out some corn. I can't tell if she has a temperature. This is probably her second or third calf. They do have a barn to access anytime as well as some big trees for shade.

 

[SageHill]

Is it ok to feed eggplant to cattle?? It is in the nightshade family.

 

[Mini Horses]

Your cattle look good. I swear, she's looking big enough for twins, IMO. That girl is bellied out. May be why she's lethargic....carrying all that around

 

[farmerjan]

First off, the huge bulge on the left side is less indication of a calf... Lefty lunch, righty rugrat... in other words , the rumen is more obvious on the left side... and the calf is carried more on the right. Looking at you in the picture with the hay ring she bulges to the left. Looking at the picture where you are looking at her from the right side, she has a bulge on that side.
I am not being critical, but the cow is obese. She has too much fat around the hindquarters and tail head and is much more likely to have trouble calving due to the fat... and too much fat will also hamper their udder development and milk reproduction. The black white face is also extremely overweight... they look like finished animals ready for butcher.
The look of the "belly bulge" honestly has me concerned. When did you last see her urinate? Strong flow or little bit in spurts and dribbles? She might have a bladder blockage... which would make her look "bloated"... more common in steers or bulls but seen in fat animals.
There is also a condition called water belly, related to the blockage in the bladder... similar to having kidney stones but actually in the bladder... and there have been a few very unusual accounts of a calf getting a huge water belly while in utero, and the cow can't calve and the calf will weigh in the 200 lb neighborhood, always dead... and vets have to do a c-section to get it out or it can kill the cow. I would not even suggest that but the cow has way too much "low belly", and it concerns me.
Another thing, the way she was eating that ear of corn, she could have a partial blockage in her throat... they can easily get a chunk stuck when being fed like that... they could be able to bite it off in smaller pieces, not fed in the direction of going down the throat... they can choke or their throat can get partially blocked.

My suggestion is to get a vet to look at her... if she were mine, that is the first thing I would be doing.
If she got bred Jan 1st.. she would be due around Sept1-5...most beef cattle carry 270 +/- days... . so depending on when you butchered the bull, her due date should be soon if she is pregnant. Was she confirmed preg by a vet?

Cattle should not eat raw vegetables in the nightshade family... potatoes that are added to rations are supposed to be cooked... Soybeans can cause alot of problems if they are fed raw and not roasted. Corn is a grain, but if the corn is stunted, it can have a nitrate toxicity.... Not saying your area looks stressed or drought like conditions... just things to look at.

I would be calling a vet to look at her find out some status, she would be easy to palpate manually at this stage of the game.,... ultrasound not needed this far along. Sorry, but I am not at all comfortable with how she looks.

 

[chickenlover0805]

@farmerjan So in response to your questions, yes I am aware she is obese, but this is out of my control. All my cows just eat grass, hay, and some occasional treats. The last time I saw her urinate was tonight and it was entirely normal, in a strong flow. This is not her first calf btw, the one with a white face is her calf and she had a steer previously with our herford bull. I don't think she has any blockage but it is a possibility. We had a vet here on August 10th that said both this cow and the white faced heifer was pregnant. We were told to call a vet if her sac was out for an hour without any progress. I will give you some info about our other black cow (named Smoky) that had a stillbirth incase it helps. So Smoky was in labor for over a day and we called the vet, it took an hour to pull the calf out and it was a 100lb stillborn bull calf. Sadly it is not my call on anything with a vet and my parents/grandparents said she is fine but I am concerned and I believe I have a right to be.

 

[farmerjan]

Okay... good that you saw a normal urine flow... that eliminates kidney and bladder problems. If she is staying fat on just hay and grass then yep, not much you can do otherwise... except penning on short rations, so that's a moot point.
The genes she passed down to the bwf are really something, for them both to be so able to put on the weight they have with just hay and grass... that is what we try to get... "easy keepers" like that make you money.

If the vet said they were pregnant then I will guess the best you can do is what they said and to call them if they seem to get in any trouble when trying to calve.
Cattle will go off feed often when close to calving... and go off by themselves or to a different "spot" than normal so it is likely she is getting close to calving. Sometimes older cows' udders will only fill with milk a couple days before calving... maybe she is like that.

I sincerely hope she is getting close, and will udder up and the calf will be born easy and quickly.