Blown vaginal wall

[got_cows?]

Anyone ever have a blown vaginal wall on a cow or heifer?
Had a first calf heifer that we ended up pulling her 110 lb. calf. Right after we pulled him she had a glob of fat that came out after the calf. Couple hours later her cleanings were hanging down but she had a fist sized piece of bumpy flesh hanging out too. Vet came out the next morning and sewed her up, cut off the piece of flesh and said she'd be good to go after a round of antibiotics.
He explained that there was so much pressure from the calf that the fat had no where to go so it blew a hole in her vaginal wall. My FIL in all his years of dairy and beef farming had never seen such a thing. Wouldn't you know it?
I was going to get a pic but when the vet was out I had another cow that had been laboring for a while so when the vet finished up with the first cow I asked if he could check the progress of the laboring cow. Sure enough the calf was upside down. He flipped the calf and pulled it. Only one service call and two cows!! Made my day. :lol:

 

[milkmaid]

I was reading a biography recently about a team of doctors in a 3rd world country that encountered thousands of fistulas in human patients caused by traumatic childbirth. Caused a tear in the vaginal wall sort of like you're describing. I hadn't ever heard about it in cows before, though.

 

[randiliana]

We had the same thing happen to one of our heifers a couple years ago. Pulled a big (but not huge) calf, and noticed afterward that she had something unusual hanging out. We hauled her into the vet, and he said basically the same thing. He didn't seem to think she was torn to badly, and didn't even sew her up. She healed fine, and has had 2 calves since with no problems.

 

[dun]

This topic is of real interest to me since one of our cows has a fat deposit near her pelvis. When I asked the vet about it he said tha dpending on where it's located it may or may not cause a problem. In the fall he's going to palp her and deterine if it's in an area likely to cause problems. He called it a fatty tumor and says it occurs in cows 7-8 years old if it's going to occur at all.

dun

 

[got_cows?]

Our vet is always complaining that our cows are too fat. I don't know how we can change that fact as they don't get any feed after they are yearlings. We do use a bucket of feed to get them to go where we want but that is rare and how much can they get split between all of them?
Randiliana - I'm glad you've had good luck rebreeding your heifer. The vet told us that she shouldn't have a problem rebreeding once it's healed, but hearing it from an actual producer eases my worry.

 

[Chris H]

If you keep her watch her next year for signs of vaginal prolapse before calving and after calving. Sometimes a tear like that can weaken the vaginal wall that leads to a vaginal prolapse, or scarring that can tear doing birth.

 

[mgman]

got_cows,
What kind of hay are you feeding? If it's really good alfalfa that can cause beef cows to get too fat. I had problems with mine getting fat when I used to feed dairy quality alfalfa (only because that's what I had at the time). I've had much better luck maintaining adequate body condition without the cows getting fat by feeding hay that's primarily grass with just a little alfalfa in it.

 

[got_cows?]

Our hay is mostly grass. In all honesty, we don't have much alfalfa in any of the fields.
Wonder if Jenny Craig has a bovine program? :roll: