Calving season 2012 for me

[Nesikep]

I hear there may be more coming tonight, lets hope not, I don't want 20 calves born in muck, and I'm pretty sure we've all had that happen at somepoint. Now to go home and see if Mega has decided on action or not

[Nesikep]

Well, so much for what I wanted!... We had a couple inches of rain over the last couple days, the corrals are a total soup. Without fail, that's when things will go wrong, which brings me to an 8 year old cow with a breach birth who lost her water at about 8 am, there was no progress by 10 am, so I went in for an exploration, and found that the hind legs were both facing forward, so down the headgate she goes, and I fiddle around for a while, without luck, call the vet and a couple neighbours for ideas, I didn't like the idea of bringing the vet in, as we're nearly 2 hours one way from his office, I also didn't like the idea of bringing her to him, spending $500 on a C section, and quite possibly not having a live calf (She was 9 days early). So I decided to go in there once more and try to get it all righted, which I did get after about 20 minutes in there up to my shoulder, got the calf out, but it was already dead.. don't know why though.

Despite the outcome wasn't as good as it could be, I didn't have to spend money for it, and the cow seems OK for now, I'm going to give her some boluses tomorrow if she hasn't lost the placenta. I did milk out 3 gallons of good colostrum, which is always handy. Meanwhile one of my friends has a dairy farmer near him who sells fresh Holstein bull calves for $30, and he'll probably be bringing me one on monday morning to graft on this cow.

Anyone in canada know where I can get OhNoMo? The cow's going to know just by looking at it that it can't be hers!

So, I have gained experience (they say you get that from bad ones), and that to never believe the diagrams of how to fix a calf with a leg backward. The diagram shows the guy into the cow up to his elbow and grabbing the hoof of the calf... Either he's 8 feet tall or it's s dexter cow, I was in there well up to my shoulder and could *just* get the chains over the hooves. After it was all said and done, I had one warm arm and one that was frozen, the calving chains left marks on my cold wrist that lasted hours.

No, Mega has not calved yet (I think she's at 292ish days now), but she is close, the bag pretty filled.

As Murphy's law would have it, she will have twins an hour after I graft the Holstein calf on the wet cow!

Here's to hoping the rest of the season goes well

[redcowsrule33]

Breech delivery: pull the hock up as far as you can by hand until you can reach the hoof. Cup your hand under the hoof to protect the cow's uterus from snagging on the toes and tearing. Pull the hoof with that hand up and toward the center of the calf until it pops up over the pelvic floor then the leg should be able to be extended backward. The hardest part of a breech is getting the hock up far enough to be able to reach that foot. Once you have the foot you are golden.

[rockridgecattle]

Go to your vet and get a bottle of oxytocin. This works great in those hard to pull calves. It gets her to dialate more.
Hind legs pointing up..the calf comes out over the top of the back of the cow.
Our vet recommends Oxytocin for any hard pulls. The idea is will help her to clean as well by keeping her dialated. Do not give boluses to the cow, instead if the oxy does not work start her on lute.

RP....as per our vets calving manual she puts out each year...

Cows should normally expel their placenta within 6-12 hours. Risk factors that may increas incidence if R include: abortion, Csection, twins, previous RP, Vit E/ selenium deficiency, vit A/D dificiency, calcium/phosphorus deficiency, feeding silage and difficulty calving. Good nutrition greaty decreases RP (trace minerals). The objectives for treatments of RP is to cause early detachment of the RP to prevent uterine infections, decreased milk production and decreased reproductive efficiency.

RP will ususally come out without any treatment within 4-7 days. However if the cow appeaers sick or has a fever, she will need treatment

Treatment:

* Oxytocin: Give to ay high risk cow and when cown has not cleaned after 6 hours. 5cc IM then 5cc every 4 hours [Max 4 teatments per day] for the first 48 hours. Effectiveness decreases after 48 hours
* WE do not recommend antiboitics for treatment of RP in healthy cows during the first 3-4 days of calving. Antiboiotics will prolong the rp. Reason: Bacteria helps breakdown the placenta allowing it to pull away fromthe buttons in the uterus. Antiboitics kill these bacteria, leaving nothing to help breakdown the placenta attachment
* Lutalyse may be necessary in prolong cases. If the cow has not cleaned after 3 days, give 5 cc IM. It will not help remove RP ut iwll cause the cervix to open which helps prevent infection from becoming trapped in a closed uterus.
*Pen or Oxyvet LP and flunazine are necssary incases where the cow becomes sick (depressed, off feed, fevered). 60cc pen or 100cc oxyvet IM for 3-5 days and 20cc flunazine for 3 days.
* antiboiotics may be started after three days in a health cow if he has not cleanded to help prevent infection of the uterine wall. This may however cause her to retain longe. The benifits myst be weighed with the risks and take into account your previous experience RP in you herd.
*other things to consider are flushing the uterus and instilling an antiboitic called Mericure. This must be done by a VET to avoid damanging the fragile uterus.
*calcium status is also improtant for cleaning, if the cow is weak consider giving IV calcium


As for your hiefer, hiefers bag forever and a day. Remember the hiefer will eat alot because not only is she growing but growing a calf and in the last 5 weeks of gestation producing colostrum. Make sure her diet is not too restrictive. Highest nutrition needs in the year is in the last 3 months of gestation. This is when she builds colosturm and gets reserves in her body to use when milking so she breeds back on time. That hiefer is none to fat in the pics. Restricting her now could kick you in the butt at breed back

[rockridgecattle]

Needed to do a separate post for this one

Bringing in calves during calving especially dairy calves is a recipe for disaster. If you thought murphy's law was bad before...Just wait. Train wreck will follow. Can include but not limited to...serious scours issues in the whole herd. Higher risk of BVD infections, and Johnes.

Even a vaccinated herd can be suseptable to this problem. If the scour bugs reach threshold no amount of vaccine will stop the wreck.

Dairy and beef bugs are the same and yet very different strains.

Strains also vary between herds.

Any new animals brought on farm should be quarantined pre and during calving for the safety of the herd. It is called BIO SECURITY.

Finally, as a preventative, the herd should be closed from strangers who calve on their own farms. If they do come on farm, precautions should be taken. Clean disinfected boots, and clean coveralls, dung and mud free vehicles. Cross contamination is very helpful to murphy's law

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

rockridgecattle
You nailed it!!! no boluses - give lut - wait 7 days - give lut again (even if she passed the placenta) - it will help clean her out. Do not give any antibiotics UNLESS she is sick.
Be careful giving Oxy during calving - it does make her dilate - BUT - it also makes her PUSH. and if the calf is NOT in the right position, she will be pushing while you are trying to manipulate the calf. As soon as the calf is in delivery position, than give the oxy.
I totally totally agree about bringing a calf from another farm to your farm. DISASTER waiting to happen. Both can have clean healthy farm & cattle, but bugs from one farm are not the same, and the colostrum protecting each calf born, will not contain the bugs that the "new" calf is exposing all your herd to.
Ususally, the purchased calf isn't the one that gets sick, it's all your own calves!

[Kathie in Thorp]

Sorry, Nesi. Hope the rest of the season is flawless. Have had some experience with oxytocin, and as Jeanne said, be careful with it. It will kick contractions into high gear, and if she isn't far enough along in the process, it can make a real mess.

[rockridgecattle]

Thanks Jeanne, but the credit goes to our vet. She sets up the calving manuals for her customers and I just typed it back
As for the oxy, 9 times from 10 it's given post calving on hard or multiple births.
Never thought about the contractions issues. I have always given it post checking the position of the calf and after assessing if she is going to need that extra help. So it was never a second thought...Good catch ladies.

Another thing you can do, check with your vet, some vets based on state or provincial standards sell dophram. Our vet sells it in an individual dose. The combination of dophram and epinephrine can assist in reviving a calf which is unresponsive to the standard ways of getting a calf to breathe. The dophram goes topically under the tongue and the epi is in the muscle. As long as there is a heart beat...
The epi has also been given to weak calves at birth or weak beating heart calves...cheap fix
The dophram will assisst in stimulating the breathing and works well when A/R a calf...and yes we have done A/R on a calf. We keep a plastic bag in the emergency med bag just in case to place over the nose with a hole in it.

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Plastic bag w/ hole - GREAT IDEA!

[Nesikep]

Well, we indeed rethought the idea of the holstein calf, exactly for the reasons mentioned, and being organic, it makes it that much more of a PITA if you have to give antibiotics

As for Oxcytocin, I've never needed it while pulling a calf, I do use it regularly after calving, or if I have to hand milk a cow who won't let her milk down.

My calving season kicked me in the nuts on sunday, Remember "Maddy"? the 'chairman of the board'... She lost her calf too, she wasn't due to calf for about 10 more days, the calf looked OK, I have no idea what happened.. she's really sad about it and keeps murmuring. ON THE BRIGHT SIDE, Last night at midnight, Maddy's mother, who's dumber than a sack of hammers, had twins, the first born was a bull calf, which she marginally took care of, and an hour and a half later she had a beautiful little heifer who she completely ignored (both calves were about 70 lbs), and was lost wandering about in the corral, so I took her into the shop for the night, even though it wasn't very cold, and gave her a half gallon of fresh colostrum.. this morning I went to milk the cow who had the breach birth, and emptied her out half-way (she has SOOO much milk), and then brought the calf up the chute.. it was love at first sight!, the calf murmured once, the cow responded, and she licked the calf right away. She's really happy again... the little one just has to learn to find the teats a bit better and she'll be ready to go. Absolutely gorgeous little heifer!... Then just before I came out here another cow had had a nice 110 lb bull calf who was a little slow to find the teats, but since the cow is really docile it took about a half a minute to give him the help he needed.

Mega still hasn't calved yet... I'm thinking she was actually bred when I saw the bull with her and it wasn't a false alarm. Looking at her picture, anyone think twins are a possibility? Her sibling Heckla looks and acts imminent, she will probably be before Mega if my dates are correct. Rosie the oldie should be coming around in about a week too.

I'm also noticing that a lot of cows aren't bagging up before calving this year... and they are often calving around 283 days this year as opposed to an average of 288 last year... some went on as long as 295 last year.

[Kathie in Thorp]

So glad you have better news today, Nesi!

[Nesikep]

Well, it wasn't all good, but at least some was.. Glass half full, right? With any luck, Mega will have twins and Maddy can have one of them so she has something to do over the summer

[Nesikep]

Except for some bald spots and the inevitable mud, here's Mega trying to look pretty

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Sorry, Mega doesn't look like she's carrying twins to me - but that doesn't mean anything I usually can tell more by their BCS. Is she thinner than her contemporaries?
You do know that your beautiful twin heifer is a freemartin - right?

[Nesikep]

Yep, I do, we've kept one before and she's a great cow, her sister was adopted by another cow so she got all the milk to herself. I'm trying to get Maddy to adopt a calf born the other day from a cow who threw a beautiful 110 lb steer but doesn't have enough milk for him to grow to more than 400 lbs by weaning, it's proving to be a test of wills, I have to put the kicker on the cow and then she still fights the calf, but he's sure happy for some extra. I am hoping that after a week of doing this 3 times a day she'll just live with the reality... Funny thing is I think she thinks that *I* am her calf.. she watches me where ever I am and is always mooing for me, and is quite OK with being hand milked... She's actually really good for hand milking, her teats are long enough to get a good handle on even with my big mitts.

Mega still hasn't calved yet... the watched cow never boils... I mean calves... Many heifers don't show many signs of calving.. not the case here

I've never seen such a case of pudding butt before, and she should be proud of that udder too