underweight heavy bred cow

[Batman n Milly]

So I recently bought a 7 month bred jersey cow and she arived severly under weight right now she is getting half a small/medium bucket of grain twice a day free choice hay and grass for about two hours a day this evening i discovered goo on her backside and I am afraid she could lose the baby I know the food she is getting now is kinda working because she went from no bag three days ago to starting to get a bit of milk and I am wondering what I can do food wise

 

[Mini Horses]

A 7 month calf bred?

It happens but is NOT desirable or a good thing. It would be best to abort that fetus. Then the calf can grow up to adult age/size to breed. She's still a baby herself.

@farmerjan any suggestions?

 

[farmerjan]

Hello and welcome to BYH .

If I am reading your post correctly, this is a bred cow, not a heifer that was bred too young ???

How "sure" are you that she id bred 7 months? If palpated by a vet, there is a good chance they are off, because palpating after 5 months is at best a guess.... Not putting down the vet... they are most accurate at 150 days or less.... When we have our cattle pregnancy checked, the vet will say 65 days, 80 days, 3 months, 5 months, 6 months or well along 7+ or something along those lines... Now the vet uses ultra sound and it is very accurate up to about 100 days, then gets more of an educated "guess" after that...
What I am saying, is the 7 months bred could be more like 8-9 months... and she is closer than you think.

Cows might pass some of the "goo" several weeks before calving, so don't be alarmed. There is nothing to be concerned about unless it has blood in it, that will indicate a possible abortion.
Again, if this is a mature animal that is old enough to be calving... the worst thing about aborting would be the loss of the calf, she can still come into her milk for you to milk her....

Do not over feed her... the calf does the greatest amount of growing size the last 2 months of the pregnancy. You do not want the calf to grow so much that she will have trouble having it. Their bodies will put that increased nutrition into the calf first, then into her own body weight and condition...

Since I have no idea of what your bucket size is, it is hard to say how much you are feeding her...For a reference, a 5 gal bucket will hold between 20-25 lbs of feed.... usually a 50 lb bag of feed will fit in 2 buckets with a little left over... I don't normally feed more than about 1-2 lbs to a dry cow... a couple times a week at most.. they need less grain and more hay then. I make my own feed scoops out of something like a liquid laundry detergent jug... they are stronger than a milk jug. One scoop of a small to medium size scooper, is more than enough while she is still pregnant. FREE CHOICE HAY is the BEST thing you can do for an underweight cow. It helps to get her rumen stimulated so it is breaking down the grass/hay in it and feeding her body. Sounds like you are already doing that. Do not feed too rich a hay either or you can cause her body to get out of balance. She can more easily have something we call "milk fever" to happen when she calves. Just know that jersey cows are KNOWN for it.. and it comes from their using more calcium from their bodies when they first calve and you cannot "feed them" to prevent it... but you can feed to help cut down on the possibility... and that is MORE HAY, and not alot of grain ahead of time. You also should probably get a couple of tubes of CMPK gel, which can be given to them when they calve IF they are down and can't get up or act drunk when they get up to walk...more on that if you want to know in the future....

Don't increase her grain until after she calves... then you will build up to it slowly in a week or 2 so that she comes into her milk.
Do you have experience with milking cows????

Glad you joined us....

 

[Batman n Milly]

A 7 month calf bred?

It happens but is NOT desirable or a good thing. It would be best to abort that fetus. Then the calf can grow up to adult age/size to breed. She's still a baby herself.

@farmerjan any suggestions?

I should’ve clarified earlier I meant to, but then I forgot she is four years old 7 months bred

 

[farmerjan]

Another question about her being 7 months... did the previous owner have her bred AI, or was she with a bull??? We put our bulls in with our beef cows for approx 90 days... Say from June 1-Sept !... so the calf can come from Mar 1 -June 1.. approx.... when we preg check the vet will say about how far along each cow is... but there is a 90 day "window"... and some just have bigger calves than others. Since we don't normally preg check until they are at least 4-6 months bred because that is when we are usually moving them from pastures and getting ready to wean off their previous calves... it is a "guesstimate"...
I also watch the heifers we are breeding and write down those that I see... so when he preg checks them, I have a "reference date".... but I don't see them all... and with the numbers we have, you might miss seeing a few actually get bred.
I have a jersey cow that I bought at auction not too long ago, with a calf... it was supposed to be hers, but she did not have much milk so I don't think is was... but she was mothering it... and I put a 2nd calf on her that I had to supplement with a bottle because she was not producing much milk.... however, she came in heat and got bred by the angus bull that was in there breeding the heifers... I just wanted her pregnant and can start over with her the next lactation.... so I have a target date that she should calve... if she is confirmed pregnant... This group will get pregnancy checked in another month before they go to summer pasture...
What I am getting at... with knowing when the bull went in there, I have a target date of when they should START calving... and yes they can start early... but it gives you an idea of what you are looking at.
If this cow had a bull running with her all the time, she could be due "anytime" and the "7 months bred" is a good guesstimate...
And even with a specific breeding date... they can vary 1-3 weeks... partly depends on what they are bred to... some beef breeds tend to carry shorter or longer... and the bull semen will affect how fast the fetus develops...

Suffice to say, she might be a bit further along than you think... DON'T PANIC.... and don't over feed her at this stage... the more hay and grass the better than too much grain.

 

[Batman n Milly]

Hello and welcome to BYH .

If I am reading your post correctly, this is a bred cow, not a heifer that was bred too young ???

How "sure" are you that she id bred 7 months? If palpated by a vet, there is a good chance they are off, because palpating after 5 months is at best a guess.... Not putting down the vet... they are most accurate at 150 days or less.... When we have our cattle pregnancy checked, the vet will say 65 days, 80 days, 3 months, 5 months, 6 months or well along 7+ or something along those lines... Now the vet uses ultra sound and it is very accurate up to about 100 days, then gets more of an educated "guess" after that...
What I am saying, is the 7 months bred could be more like 8-9 months... and she is closer than you think.

Cows might pass some of the "goo" several weeks before calving, so don't be alarmed. There is nothing to be concerned about unless it has blood in it, that will indicate a possible abortion.
Again, if this is a mature animal that is old enough to be calving... the worst thing about aborting would be the loss of the calf, she can still come into her milk for you to milk her....

Do not over feed her... the calf does the greatest amount of growing size the last 2 months of the pregnancy. You do not want the calf to grow so much that she will have trouble having it. Their bodies will put that increased nutrition into the calf first, then into her own body weight and condition...

Since I have no idea of what your bucket size is, it is hard to say how much you are feeding her...For a reference, a 5 gal bucket will hold between 20-25 lbs of feed.... usually a 50 lb bag of feed will fit in 2 buckets with a little left over... I don't normally feed more than about 1-2 lbs to a dry cow... a couple times a week at most.. they need less grain and more hay then. I make my own feed scoops out of something like a liquid laundry detergent jug... they are stronger than a milk jug. One scoop of a small to medium size scooper, is more than enough while she is still pregnant. FREE CHOICE HAY is the BEST thing you can do for an underweight cow. It helps to get her rumen stimulated so it is breaking down the grass/hay in it and feeding her body. Sounds like you are already doing that. Do not feed too rich a hay either or you can cause her body to get out of balance. She can more easily have something we call "milk fever" to happen when she calves. Just know that jersey cows are KNOWN for it.. and it comes from their using more calcium from their bodies when they first calve and you cannot "feed them" to prevent it... but you can feed to help cut down on the possibility... and that is MORE HAY, and not alot of grain ahead of time. You also should probably get a couple of tubes of CMPK gel, which can be given to them when they calve IF they are down and can't get up or act drunk when they get up to walk...more on that if you want to know in the future....

Don't increase her grain until after she calves... then you will build up to it slowly in a week or 2 so that she comes into her milk.
Do you have experience with milking cows????

Glad you joined us....

Thank you so much the lady who we got her from said 7 months but I am thinking she is farther along I am worried about milk fever so we are prepared we have beef cows nurse cows and milking cows we currently have 5 nurse cows in milk 4 each have three babies on them and we are trying to get 2 for the 5th

 

[Batman n Milly]

Another question about her being 7 months... did the previous owner have her bred AI, or was she with a bull??? We put our bulls in with our beef cows for approx 90 days... Say from June 1-Sept !... so the calf can come from Mar 1 -June 1.. approx.... when we preg check the vet will say about how far along each cow is... but there is a 90 day "window"... and some just have bigger calves than others. Since we don't normally preg check until they are at least 4-6 months bred because that is when we are usually moving them from pastures and getting ready to wean off their previous calves... it is a "guesstimate"...
I also watch the heifers we are breeding and write down those that I see... so when he preg checks them, I have a "reference date".... but I don't see them all... and with the numbers we have, you might miss seeing a few actually get bred.
I have a jersey cow that I bought at auction not too long ago, with a calf... it was supposed to be hers, but she did not have much milk so I don't think is was... but she was mothering it... and I put a 2nd calf on her that I had to supplement with a bottle because she was not producing much milk.... however, she came in heat and got bred by the angus bull that was in there breeding the heifers... I just wanted her pregnant and can start over with her the next lactation.... so I have a target date that she should calve... if she is confirmed pregnant... This group will get pregnancy checked in another month before they go to summer pasture...
What I am getting at... with knowing when the bull went in there, I have a target date of when they should START calving... and yes they can start early... but it gives you an idea of what you are looking at.
If this cow had a bull running with her all the time, she could be due "anytime" and the "7 months bred" is a good guesstimate...
And even with a specific breeding date... they can vary 1-3 weeks... partly depends on what they are bred to... some beef breeds tend to carry shorter or longer... and the bull semen will affect how fast the fetus develops...

Suffice to say, she might be a bit further along than you think... DON'T PANIC.... and don't over feed her at this stage... the more hay and grass the better than too much grain.

She was with a the ladies bull and the neighbors bull for a short time and she has been pretty accurate with other cows we have bought from her

 

[farmerjan]

Well @Batman n Milly , sounds like you are pretty experienced with the cattle so nothing I told you should be new to you.
Would you please go to your name top right, down to account details, and down to location and put in a state or general location... it will show up on your avatar when you post... it helps when we talk about conditions or grazing or anything... What @Baymule does in TX is different from what I do in Va or others do in Calf... different grasses, temp, things like that. Plus it is fun to learn about different parts of the country...