Alot of uterine prolapses this year?

[bmoore87]

Was wondering if anyone was having abnormally large amount of problems with these this year. We usually only have 1 of this kind every 3-4 years out of 300+ cows. So far we have had 3 this year the first a heifer that had a small calf in the middle of the night and died. The second was a second calf heifer that was a hard pull which prolapsed and I sewed back up(makes a little sense she prolapsed). The last one was a 4 year old that calved around 9:30 am ( pretty sure was easy birth) and was fine. I moved her and her calf into another hoop and fed them around 8 Pm and she was up eating when I left. Came back the next morning and was prolapsed dead as bad as I've seen intestines out and everything.

They were all in good shape and getting as much mineral as they want.
I have talked to the vet and he said he has sewed up more than normal this year and just chalks it up to an accident which I usually do but to go from 1 out of 900 or more births normally to 3 out of the first 180 that have calved seems to break the odds just a little. Just seeing if anyone had and theories of why it could be happening more this year than normal?

 

[Nesikep]

for uterine prolapses, we've had 2 out of 400 calves over 22 years... haven't had one in about 10 years. I always wonder if exercise doesn't play a part in it for muscle tone. If I manage to make my cows walk a good distance to water all winter and don't corral them up, I have less severe cases of vaginal prolapse, though that is somewhat different.

 

[bmoore87]

That's something I hadn't thought of. We just moved doing our calving this past year to yards with buildings. Was nice with how cold it was this winter but maybe that's a side effect. I was told lack of exercise could lead to more calving issues but besides these and a couple of heifers it has been a pretty easy year. The 3-4 for years normally was an estimate from my brothers who had helped him until I started doing his and mine a couple years ago n so it might be longer than that it was just a guess they had.

Might have to start chasing them around the pen I the morning for some exercise!

 

[Nesikep]

We've tried that, all it does is make them scared of you, and calving time is going to be more of a pain! What I did this year was kept most of the herd in the field until they were close to calving, then brought them in.. didn't manage to get all of them up in time, so I ended up carrying a bunch of them up. The cows on my cull list for vaginal prolapse have been doing it for a number of years, and I'll say they certainly weren't worse this year, possibly better, though I didn't look at them quite as closely when they were laying down. In the case of vaginal prolapse, I'm quite certain the root cause is missing or weak ligaments that hold everything in place, it's been far too hereditary here. Meanwhile I have other cows that got so flabby before calving you'd swear they were candidates for it, but they'd have a huge 140 lb calf with no trouble before or after.

 

[bmoore87]

Thanks for the help. Might have to try and figure out a something like that were they can get out to pasture to.

Makes sense on the vaginal prolapses. Ours we usually keep to a point and sew up back after a few years some start to get worse.