paralysis after birth

Had a shorthorn cow that I bought 1 month ago in 3rd period. She had her calf Friday night while I was attending a required graduation for work. Anyways, check the cows saturday morning. Cow had biggest calf I have ever seen, calf is dead, and cow can't get up. Got some shots from the vet. Dad claims he has never seen/heard of a cow successfully overcoming this, kind of thought I was wasting my time. Sunday afternoon, cow got on her back, bloated and died.

Has anyone had success in this type of situation? Don't foresee this happening again in our future, but in case it ever does, what did you do?

It's always hard to lose an animal. We have a dairy farm & we sometimes have cows with calving paralysis. We get a bottle of pain killer can't remember the name but I guess it would be under a different name/brand here in Aus than the US. anyway we inject 20ml another 20ml 24hrs later into the animal wait 15 -20mins than lift the cow up with hip lifters. Let her stand in those until the blood gets going around her legs & she is quietly standing there than we take the hip lifters off. back the tractor away & leave her standing up. If she doesn't want to stand up we'll lift her up massage the legs than lay her back down on the opposite side to what she was laying on. We only lost 1 cow this ear to calving problems & she had a set of twins & gave up the fight for life.

Sorry for the double post :roll:

Over the years I've seen far more get up then not. The longest took almost a month.

We had a heifer get up this morning after being down for five days. She wasn't calving when I checked her on dark but, when I went out first thing next morning, she'd had the calf (who was dead, head swollen, tongue out) and couldn't get up. She was not pleased and blamed us for the whole sorry situation so we had to keep out of head-swiping distance. After a day or so she ate and drank, although still very cranky. This morning she was up but very proppy and wobbly. I'll keep taking water and hay to her as she is about a mile and a half from the watering point.

We rarely have a heifer down with paralysis as we try to keep a close eye on them - they never seem to get paralysis from being pulled (if standing up), no matter how difficult the pull is. Can anyone explain why that is?? We always try to pull them standing up in a crush (squeeze chute) and have never had one go down after being pulled, but if we pull them lying down in the paddock and its a tough pull or even not that tough, they will paralyse. Even if its a few miles to the yards, we will try and get them in there to that crush (chute).

Over the years though, we've had paralyzed ones down for up to six weeks and still obtained a good result. Sometimes it takes that long for the nerves and bruising to come good. It's usually only if they insist on throwing themselves on their side and won't sit up, or refuse to eat and drink, that they are hard to save. You were unlucky that yours got on its side and died - she may have had a bad tear inside or something.

but if we pull them lying down in the paddock and its a tough pull or even not that tough, they will paralyse.

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Pulling technique maybe?

I don't pull many calves, not even out of heifers, but the only time I'll take them to the crush is when its a malpresentation. I pull by hand right there in the pasture and never had paralyses problems.

The only time I had a paralysed heifer was after she tried to calve a calf where the head, neck and one complete shoulder was out and the other turned back. The calf's head was about three times the normal size from swelling and pushing it back was impossible. Had to cut the head off and even then it was a hard pull. She was down for 10 days.

getting a paralized cow on her feet is 50/50.alot depends on how badly she is paralized.an how much of a will to live the cows has.ive seen cows get up.that i thought wouldnt get up.an ive seen cows i thought would live give up an die quick.

Yes, they can pull out of it but for above 50% recovery it requires work. Had one heifer that was down for awhile but she recovered fully and went on to have other calves. Shots for swelling, turning daily to prevent bedsores, massaging the legs and spine and using hip lifters to get them standing. Also checking for them to crawl into a bad position and get stuck.

are lifters necessary for success? Any success with just rotatingand massaging?

Santas and Duhram Reds":2ic09qsj said:

are lifters necessary for success? Any success with just rotatingand massaging?

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Lifters may help. The ones I've seen get up had dex at calving and were just rolled from side to side at least once a day.

Had one down for six weeks once. Most said to shoot her but she got up and has had calves each year since.

Santas and Duhram Reds":ufl761u4 said:

are lifters necessary for success? Any success with just rotatingand massaging?

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Depends on the situation. Rotating is enough if they are not down long. The problem is the longer they are down the less blood is circulating properly. Massaging is helpful at that point as it gets the blood flowing but lifters do two things - they get the blood moving and once a cow stands even when lifted it seems to give her a psychological boost to live. The desire to fight is the most importatnt.
I should have put a caution in my first post. Before using lifters (really before doing any rotatitng even- but especially before lifting) you should ensure the pelvis is not cracked and that is why the cow is down.

Is there a way to tell if the pelvis is cracked or not? We have no veterinary assistance available here. I usually assume that it is cracked if the heifer doesn't make any attempt to get up or crawl around and so leave them alone as far as lifting goes, for fear of doing more damage. We do roll them over daily though and rug them if its cold, as well as injecting with some pain relief. Then after a couple of weeks, sometimes more, if they are trying to move about or get up, we lift them.