Abort

[Down in Dixie]

Had a heifer abort. She is 2 years and 9 months old. Saw her showing labor signs 24 hrs before she actually got the fetus out. I had her originally calving 6 months ago but maybe another possible abortion? I plan on taking her to the sale today or tomorrow. Hope it's just a cow issue and not any other kind of issues.

 

[Down in Dixie]

Could the stress of drought cause this also? Cows stayed in really good shape but pastures are in rough shape.

 

[TCRanch]

Could the stress of drought cause this also? Cows stayed in really good shape but pastures are in rough shape.

I doubt it. And you still have some green grass. Could be Lepto or Neospora, could be a number of reasons.

 

[Down in Dixie]

I'm going to give my vet a call and may let him run some blood work on he. Don't mind sending a calving problem down the road but don't to have something like lepto causing big trouble down the road for some one else.

 

[Silver]

I wouldn't become concerned unless fetal loss exceeds 3% per year. But I guess it never hurts to stay on top of these things.

 

[ClinchValley86]

That's a bummer.

 

[A.J.]

Sorry to hear that. It's always tough to lose one, and difficult to know what could cause that to happen. Hopefully it's just one of those things that happens for no apparent reason, and it will be a long time before you have another one abort. I wouldn't think drought itself would cause it, unless she ate something she wasn't supposed to as a result of it.

 

[Dsth]

cow doesn't look to have a really low BCS so I wouldn't expect it has anything to do with drought. how many cows/heifers do you have? one cow aborting is not that unusual if you have a large herd but more concerning if you only have a few. Your vet will give you advise on how to proceed. hopefully it is just an isolated heifer not being able to carry to full term.

 

[wbvs58]

It would have been a good opportunity to have put it straight in a cooler and take to your Vet to send away or straight to a pathol laboratory. If there was a pathogen involved yoiu would have had a good chance of finding out with a fresh sample like that I hope LuckyP sees this and gives his view.

Ken

 

[Down in Dixie]

cow doesn't look to have a really low BCS so I wouldn't expect it has anything to do with drought. how many cows/heifers do you have? one cow aborting is not that unusual if you have a large herd but more concerning if you only have a few. Your vet will give you advise on how to proceed. hopefully it is just an isolated heifer not being able to carry to full term.

She was in great condition but not overweight. Weighed her a few weeks ago at 950 but she isn't a real tall cow. I have well 9 bred heifers now and about 25 cows. All but one heifer I retained from my old bull and bred all these to my new bull. So far this is my first early calving issue.

 

[J Hoy]

ThThe

Had a heifer abort. She is 2 years and 9 months old. Saw her showing labor signs 24 hrs before she actually got the fetus out. I had her originally calving 6 months ago but maybe another possible abortion? I plan on taking her to the sale today or tomorrow. Hope it's just a cow issue and not any other kind of issues. View attachment 36252View attachment 36253

This fetus appears to have obvious developmental malformations including legs much shorter than normal and underdeveloped muzzle and upper face, thus it likely had internal malformations, resulting in death.

 

[snakegap1]

I'm going to give my vet a call and may let him run some blood work on he. Don't mind sending a calving problem down the road but don't to have something like lepto causing big trouble down the road for some one else.

I had a 3rd calf cow slip a 30 lb calf in Feb of this year. I was going to sell her but she had raised 2 great calfs and had a perfect udder so I gave her another chance. She just had a really nice 85lb calf this week. I had an older cow slip twins 5 years ago in the same manner but I think what Silver said is correct. Sometimes it happens.

 

[Lucky_P]

A full diagnostic workup on that aborted fetus & placenta - with accompanying acute & convalescent (3 wks later) serum samples from the dam would come closer to giving a diagnosis and whether it's a potential 'herd problem'. That said, over 30 years of doing diagnostic veterinary pathology, I'd say that my success rate in pinpointing a definitive cause of abortion in cattle was, at best, about 25%... but in most cases, all I got was the fetus and no other ancillary samples.
A single serum sample from the dam will give you almost no useful information. Paired with a convalescent sample, it *may* give some info, but rarely did I encounter cases where serology alone provided a diagnosis.

 

[Down in Dixie]

Looking at my records and she was first bred July of 2022. Haven't seen her in heat since. With my terrible year for hay it only makes sense to cull the questionable cattle. Sale is going on right now so will probably just wait till next week to take her.

 

[Down in Dixie]

Well I saw her out with the herd this morning before I left. Got back about noon and didn't notice her but wasn't to concerned with her because I just bought an old tractor and I was messing with it. Went out to check on her before I came in before dark and couldn't find her anywhere. Guess I will go back out in the morning and hopefully find her alive.

 

[greybeard]

Not too unusual to have one that aborted (or calved) be slightly away from the herd next day or 2 especially if she had a long labor. Laying down somewhere, recovering...hopefully.

 

[Down in Dixie]

Back with the herd this morning. Guess she just needed some time.

 

[Lucky_P]

As I stated earlier, most abortion diagnostic workups fail to determine a definitive cause of abortion - but they do 'rule out' many of the things that you, as a producer, can influence - vaccination, mineral supplementation, testing forages for excessive nitrates, etc.

If I was only allowed to have one specimen to work with... I want placenta. But... so often, placenta is not submitted - the cow ate it, the buzzards/coyotes/dogs ate it, it's still in the cow as she goes over the hill, or the producer and vet just don't consider sending it. In probably 50% of the cases where I receive placenta, there is a lesion or pathogen detected in placental tissues - and absolutely no abnormal findings in the fetus.

 

[Hpacres440p]

Good to know for future reference

 

[Down in Dixie]

Took the heifer and sold her last week. Weighed 880 and brought 1.27 a lb. I was hoping she would bring a little bit more but being a yellow heifer I guess that's about right. Question I have is they must have preg tested her since they marked her as open on my receipt? Didn't charge me for a preg test so is it normal for the barn to do that or do you think a buyer requested for her to be preg tested?