backwards births

[glacierridge]

Ugh I hate it when calves come backwards...
Had two this year, both from heifers, and ended up losing both of them.
Just sucks!!
Wait nine months for the calf just to have it croak on ya.
.
:-(
Neither were too big, and they looked like they would have been nice calves.
Sure hard to make money in this business this way...

 

[DavisBeefmasters]

That IS a bummer... especially when it's one of the easiest pulls ever...

...but you only have a minute or 2 to catch them in time once the placenta seperates from the calf to get them out and over those hips.

Sorry for your loss... we had a surprise loss of 2 twins toggled up this morning

:frowns:

 

[glacierridge]

:-(
Aww... That's super crappy luck too!!!
:-(
Sorry to hear!

 

[TN Cattle Man]

Man, that is always tough! Sorry to hear about your luck.

 

[inyati13]

I am sorry, I know how much you like that red heifer. You do your best Anne, someone has to meet you half way, as my dad always said, "there are things you can't do a dam thing to help."

 

[gizmom]

so sorry I hate losing a calf, it never gets any easier. Hopefully the rest of calving will go better.

Gizmom

 

[glacierridge]

Thank you Ron and gizmom.
We are going to see if we can graft the calf of one that we had to cull from a leg injury due to another stupid cow hurting her.
Poor little thing hasn't been doing as well as she should since our hand was forced to pull the plug on her dam, but you gotta know when to fold them.

Hopefully our young red heifer will take to grafting okay, I think it would help the little orphan do a little better if she gets accepted and doesn't have to try to share groceries...
If this can happen, the loss will be a little easier to take.

 

[glacierridge]

And thank you too TN.

 

[glacierridge]

Pity is she had a pretty nice bag for a heifer...

 

[Limomike]

sorry you lost em like that. Too bad you cant get another calf and put on that cow with the nice bag! Looks like shes got plenty of milk to give..

 

[inyati13]

Anne, seems like most of your cows come with lots of milk. It that the influence of the dairy in your herd?

 

[glacierridge]

Anne, seems like most of your cows come with lots of milk. It that the influence of the dairy in your herd?

It's possible. At least I kinda think so.
We have a few that just so make enough for the calf.
It really doesn't take long for the calves and cows to be in sync with each other tho.

It probably doesn't help using Simmental with dairy heritage. Lol.
Simmental usually has plenty of milk too.
Used to be a dual purpose breed way back and still with the Fleck.

 

[glacierridge]

At least her bag is smaller than her dam's.

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

Ouch, that hurts. We had a breech birth two years ago, and when I looked at the cow from a distance I thought the feet looked high, like they were coming out of her anus instead of her vulva. When I checked closer on her, I immediately called the vet (it was my first, and I did not want to do it on my own). He got there in 20 minutes, and showed me how to jack out the calf safely. All ended well in my case, thankfully.
I sure hope the rest of your calving season goes well. Our Angus heifer looked pretty close tonight, time to start doing night checks!

 

[LLCFARMS]

had two this yr saved one lost one! But as our vet (whos' 88) it sucks but its cattle farming!! Didn't help me feel better

 

[Lucky_P]

Whenever I have one lose a calf, it's handy if there's another orphan or a twin to graft on, but I'm not going to the salebarn or a dairy to get another calf - and potentially bring in some disease along with it.
But, if there's not another calf to go on her, and there's any possible way to get her to the barnlot, I'm gonna put her in the chute and milk out the colostrum and freeze it back for later use if I have another calf that needs it.

 

[glacierridge]

Oh that's a splendid idea!!!
How long can you keep it for?
I think she's taking to "Cutie Pie" okay...
I'll have to ask my nephews for the full report. But I'm guessing no news is good news more or less.

 

[Nesikep]

we keep it for years... I like thawing it just before using it, but apparently even if it's curdled it's actually still ok... but I don't like feeding the calves something I wouldn't want to drink myself

the last 2 calves I lost were from breech births.. one was the second twin which I only found the next day (the first was 110 lbs, so I didn't figure on another 110 lb'er in there), and the hind legs were forward to make matters worse, the other one I lost was a single with the hind legs forward too, and the mother adotped a twin the real mother didn't want, so that worked out too... I've been close a couple times on them when they were backward but the hind legs facing the right way.. my old cow was one this spring, and it just took a little bit of helping.

It seems to help grafting a calf to a new mother if the cow has never had a chance to sniff and lick it's calf... the one that adopted the twin (2 days after she lost hers) was love at first sight... I brought the calf up the chute, the cow MMm'd, and she accepted it right away... it was so nice after I was fighting the calf's real mother for a couple hours at 2 AM in the cold with no luck... I had taken the calf into the shop, gave it a quart of colostrum, and went to bed so I could deal with it again in the morning, and it all worked out. Turned out to be a fantastic heifer, but since she was a freemartin I didn't keep her

 

[glacierridge]

It seems to help grafting a calf to a new mother if the cow has never had a chance to sniff and lick it's calf

Guess so!!!
According to the boys, Lady and Cutie Pie are getting along pretty well.

 

[Nesikep]

All's well that ends well they say