After birth?

[Hardin Farms]

Sorry for the lousy picture, but noticed this at feeding yesterday evening. This cow should be calving any day now. First thought was that it was after birth, but I looked my whole place over and no sign of calf. What’s the “sac” that’s hanging out up there close to her rear? She did something similar to me at last years calving, so she’s going to the auction this time when she breeds back.

 

[Rydero]

Looks like a very small water bag .I'd put her in a chute and see what's up.

 

[Dsth]

looks like the water bag that has lost some of the fluid. your right, it is a bad picture but from what I can see, it looks pretty normal for a cow in early delivery.

 

[JParrott]

Normal in my experience.

 

[Son of Butch]

update please... what did you name the calf?

 

[FarmerShell]

My husband would say it's passed flipped in the wind. Yes, amniotic sac/water bag. That when you go in the house get a snack and coffee. Come back to calf.
Congratulations!!

 

[MurraysMutts]

@Hardin Farms
Did everything turn out ok?

 

[FarmerShell]

Well? Any news? Do we need send out a search party? I'm about to chew off all my fingernails and toe nails waiting.

 

[Dusty Britches]

There so much that is wrong with this thread...

Come on, lets see the new baby! And why would you sell a cow that produces a calf every year?

 

[Hardin Farms]

Thanks for the replies guys.. It has been a wild week. I contracted a corral and some horse stalls for a neighbor and have been slammed there. I apologize for the delayed response.

The "fluid sac/water bag" that was exposed had fallen off? last week. She was walking around with her tail up this morning when I left for work, so I hope she'll be calving soon.

The reason I said I would be sending her to the auction is last year, as a heifer, she calved and I could never find the calf. She never balled for it, she never went missing for a day, she was never acting anything out of the ordinary. She was showing pretty heavy and i came home to feed and noticed what I presumed to be after birth. I rode all over my property looking for a calf, nothing. So I thought she had done the same thing this year. We will see what the evening brings. My wife stays home and keeps a pretty good eye on them. She's supposed to let me know if she notices anything out of the ordinary. I cant say i am optimistic about a live calf at this point.

 

[MurraysMutts]

O man. I know the feeling. I'm debating on a couple heifers from last year myself.
Once that first one is outta the way, they usually straighten right up. I keep telling myself that but I'm not sure if that helps...

Hope she does it right this time!

 

[Dsth]

Thanks for the replies guys.. It has been a wild week. I contracted a corral and some horse stalls for a neighbor and have been slammed there. I apologize for the delayed response.

The "fluid sac/water bag" that was exposed had fallen off? last week. She was walking around with her tail up this morning when I left for work, so I hope she'll be calving soon.

The reason I said I would be sending her to the auction is last year, as a heifer, she calved and I could never find the calf. She never balled for it, she never went missing for a day, she was never acting anything out of the ordinary. She was showing pretty heavy and i came home to feed and noticed what I presumed to be after birth. I rode all over my property looking for a calf, nothing. So I thought she had done the same thing this year. We will see what the evening brings. My wife stays home and keeps a pretty good eye on them. She's supposed to let me know if she notices anything out of the ordinary. I cant say i am optimistic about a live calf at this point.

I agree with last statement that if she did not have her calf shortly after your first post, the chance of a live calf would be slim. hope we are both wrong and she has a nice healthy calf.

 

[moses388]

Looks like a very small water bag .I'd put her in a chute and see what's up.

Agreed. Sounds like the calving situation is too passive/hands off. If the cow's tail is up, she is ready to calve. You can put her in a headgate and verify. If you can pass your hand through the cow's cervix, she has dilated enough to have the calf.

 

[Hardin Farms]

O man. I know the feeling. I'm debating on a couple heifers from last year myself.
Once that first one is outta the way, they usually straighten right up. I keep telling myself that but I'm not sure if that helps...

Hope she does it right this time!

I remain optimistic. She has the look and disposition that i am looking for in my herd. She comes from good stock, but I remain skeptical whether she'll stay. She was the only one out of the 4 that I retained that I had any trouble with. All from the same stock. Maybe i'll have a surprise this afternoon.

 

[Hardin Farms]

Agreed. Sounds like the calving situation is too passive/hands off. If the cow's tail is up, she is ready to calve. You can put her in a headgate and verify. If you can pass your hand through the cow's cervix, she has dilated enough to have the calf.

I don't have the facilities that I want. I had intended to have my corral finished by calving, but I've been working on everyone else stuff trying to pay for mine. I've been buying pairs to get my numbers up so that I'd not have to deal with calving as much. I kept 4 heifers last year and she's the only one that gave me any issues. I have 4 more lined up to keep this year and I'll have my corral finished by the time they calve.

I have a friend with a portable headcatch.. I may have to go get it this evening and see what is going on.

If she is in fact dilated enough to calve, but no progression, what would be the next step here?

 

[Dave]

They can definitely fool you at times. There is an old cow here. A week ago she had what looked like a dry string of after birth hanging out of her. It was snowing hard that morning and we had a couple days of fresh snow. I guessed that she had slipped her calf and it was buried in the snow. A couple days later she was down by the river by herself, tail cocked. Not loose in the back end and not bagged up. I guessed she had issues left from slipping a calf. The next morning she had a calf. That calf spent a lot of time sucking but after a few days she seemed to come into her milk.

 

[Rydero]

I don't have the facilities that I want. I had intended to have my corral finished by calving, but I've been working on everyone else stuff trying to pay for mine. I've been buying pairs to get my numbers up so that I'd not have to deal with calving as much. I kept 4 heifers last year and she's the only one that gave me any issues. I have 4 more lined up to keep this year and I'll have my corral finished by the time they calve.

I have a friend with a portable headcatch.. I may have to go get it this evening and see what is going on.

If she is in fact dilated enough to calve, but no progression, what would be the next step here?

Reach in and if it was a normal presentation you'd feel 2 right side up hooves, a head behind(superman). If that was a water bag in the pic and she's been trying to calve since last Wednesday you're probably going to find something different. Tangled up twins, upside-down hooves (backwards calf), etc. Position the calf so you have hooves coming first, put calving chains around the legs and pull the calf out.

Here's a lecture - not that I haven't done the same as you briefly to some extent. You need facilities to have cattle. A headgate or a place to load them and take them to headgate. In the birthing process things should be measured in hours or minutes not days. Get a book about raising cattle, read it and have on hand. I bought Storeys Guide to Raising Beef Cattle but I'm sure there's others. Thing is it's the cattle that pay for you being unprepared and not knowing what to do, sometimes they pay with their lives. So if you're going to raise cattle you need to have the equipment and facilities needed to care for them.

All that said I hope that wasn't a water bag and despite the signs of a bad outcome you end up with a live healthy pair but still learn a lesson.

 

[Hardin Farms]

Reach in and if it was a normal presentation you'd feel 2 right side up hooves, a head behind(superman). If that was a water bag in the pic and she's been trying to calve since last Wednesday you're probably going to find something different. Tangled up twins, upside-down hooves (backwards calf), etc. Position the calf so you have hooves coming first, put calving chains around the legs and pull the calf out.

Here's a lecture - not that I haven't done the same as you briefly to some extent. You need facilities to have cattle. A headgate or a place to load them and take them to headgate. In the birthing process things should be measured in hours or minutes not days. Get a book about raising cattle, read it and have on hand. I bought Storeys Guide to Raising Beef Cattle but I'm sure there's others. Thing is it's the cattle that pay for you being unprepared and not knowing what to do, sometimes they pay with their lives. So if you're going to raise cattle you need to have the equipment and facilities needed to care for them.

All that said I hope that wasn't a water bag and despite the signs of a bad outcome you end up with a live healthy pair but still learn a lesson.

That's what I was assuming. I've pulled several in the past, just none that haven't already present hooves before. Pulled my first backwards calf last year.

I have been fortunate that this has been the only trouble I've had. My working pens were old and rotten when I bought the place. I got a cow hung up in a metal gate last year and decided to fix it all this year. I've had more work than I've had daylight lately though and haven't gotten them rebuilt. Getting there though.

That being said, I do my best to take care of my cows... This one just caught me at a bad time.

 

[Hardin Farms]

Little update.

Cow looked normal yesterday and no calf anywhere. I got a catch pen and head gate yesterday. Got her up in the pen last night and called the vet. He's gonna come through and check her out today. He said as long as she wasn't acting out of normal, she's not in pain or in any danger to her health. So I didn't see the need in messing with her and getting her any more stressed.

Is there anyway she might be carrying an undeveloped calf or something that long? Maybe birthing something small that I wouldn't be able to find? I know I'm reaching here and the Vet will shine a little more light sometime today, but I've never had this problem before. This is the second year its happened. Exact same thing last year.

 

[Rydero]

When's the expected due date? It's possible she aborted and you never found it. It's hard to say by looks/behavior alone. The first pic looked like a water bag. If she didn't do anything in a few hours after I saw that I'd reach in to check if she was dilated and go from there. Idk with this timeline etc. The vet can tell you if she's in calf and what's going on with her now. Go from there.