Breech baby

[El_Putzo]

Yesterday was not a productive day in terms of the growth of my Hereford herd. My only second calver had her second calf, a 76 lb heifer, breech. I think we are probably lucky that the cow is still alive as it looks like she might have been in labor for a few hours. Baby appears to have suffocated before she made it out.

Now the crappy part. The cow is still down. She tries to get up and can get her rear up in the air, but can't keep her balance long enough to get up on her front feet. Gave her a shot of Predef and some Vitamin B complex last night that I got from a neighbor who is the vet's assistant. Stopped to talk to the vet this morning after working with the cow, but he was gone. Anybody know of anything else to give her some pep? She's drank about 8 gallons of water and ate about 5 lbs of grain and some wheat hay. We borrowed the neighbors hip lift and we picked her up this morning. We had her standing 3 different times for about 5-10 minutes each time. Once we'd get her up, she'd stand on her own. We also walked her a little ways while holding up her rear end and she moves her feet just fine, just cant seem to find her balance when she tries to take a step on her own. I realize it is going to take time as I'm sure she's quite sore. Any tips or tricks would be much appreciated.

We've dealt with down cows before, but it's been a while. Guess we've been lucky. Just wondering if anybody knows of something beyond what we've already tried.

 

[holly heifer]

I have done just as you have, keep helping the cow up with the lift- we stood one up every day for 2 weeks and she recovered fine. Also several doses of steroids to decrease the
inflamation . Other than that just time::::::::::::::

 

[milkmaid]

Sometimes it takes them a few days to recover. As long as she's eating and drinking she has a very good chance of pulling through. An IV of Dextrose would give her some extra energy...

The way I've always heard it is- Dexamethasone for inflammation related to injury, VitB for nerve damage. Keep in mind an anti-inflammatory steriod like dex will suppress the immune system and make her more vulnerable to secondary infections. Has she cleaned?

Sounds like you're doing a good job, keep lifting her and keep your fingers crossed. Bet she'll do fine.

 

[El_Putzo]

She has cleaned, the afterbirth was still on the calf. Thanks for the replies also.

Milkmaid:

I'm guessing from what you said that Dexamethazone is a steroid similar to the Predef I gave her? My vet told me not to give her another shot of Predef until after at least 48 hrs of the first shot. Do you think Dexamethazone would work better?

 

[milkmaid]

Yes, dexamethasone and predef are both similar anti-inflammatory steriods. I haven't gotten a clear answer from my vet as to if there's situations where one would work better than the other; so far I'm under the impression they're nearly interchangable.

From the label of Predef2x:

• DOSAGE AND ADMINISTRATION
  
  PREDEF 2X Sterile Aqueous Suspension is administered by deep intramuscular injection...
  
  Cattle. The usual intramuscular dose for cattle is 10 to 20 mg, according to the size of the animal and severity of the condition. This dose may be repeated in 12 to 24 hours if indicated.

From another portion of the label...

• PRECAUTIONS
  
  PREDEF 2X Sterile Aqueous Suspension exerts an inhibitory influence on the mechanisms and the tissue changes associated with inflammation. Vascular permeability is decreased, exudation diminished, and migration of the inflammatory cells markedly inhibited. In addition, systemic manifestations such as fever and signs of toxemia may also be suppressed. While certain aspects of this alteration of the inflammatory reaction may be beneficial, the suppression of inflammation may mask the signs of infection and tend to facilitate spread of microorganisms. However, in infections characterized by overwhelming toxicity, PREDEF 2X therapy in conjunction with appropriate antibacterial therapy is effective in reducing mortality and morbidity. Without concurrent use of an antibiotic to which the invader-organism is sensitive, injudicious use of the adrenal hormones in animals with infections can be hazardous. As with other corticoids, continued or prolonged use is discouraged.

My guess is that your vet said to wait 48 hours before repeating the dose for the above reason, and also because it is evidently still working in theraputic levels for some time, due to the fact there's a 7 day slaughter withdrawal. In this case it probably doesn't need to be given until 48hrs min. from the last dose, maybe not even then. If she can almost get herself up now, then she may be 'fine' tomorrow.

 

[El_Putzo]

We gave her 13 cc's of Predef. 1cc per hundred lbs of body weight. We gave 20 cc's of the vitamin B complex. Just curious, but what is it that the vitamin B does for nerve damage?

 

[milkmaid]

I'm not entirely certain, though I've thought about that before. Another question for my vet next time I see him. :lol:

If nothing else though, VitB will help their appetite which is very important. Cow quits eating and next thing you know she's given up and you're hauling her out with the tractor.

 

[mnmtranching]

El_Putzo, This sounds like a cow I had last year, very hard birth. This cow was down for about two weeks. She ate, I kept her watered. I made no attempt to try to lift her. One day she she got up on her own though very weak. It took a while but she finnally recovered.

mnmt

 

[El_Putzo]

Update:

She did good this morning. We walked her around trying to let her do most of the work herself for about 30 minutes. Then when we had her where we wanted to put her, we let her stand and took the lifter off. She stood there for about 6-7 minutes and ate grass. She then took a couple of steps that were pretty wobbly, but she didn't fall. She repositioned her feet and ate some more. She stood again for another couple of minutes, but when she went to move the next time she made about 3 steps and lost her balance. She was getting tired by then so we went ahead and watered and fed her grain. We are going to give her this evening off as I know she is getting sore around her hips. She's getting wise to the hip lift too. When we try to put it on her she rolls over on her side to try to keep us from putting it on.

 

[El_Putzo]

Update again:

Went to work with her this morning and it seems as though my hard work and prayers have been answered. She was standing when we got there!!

She had moved up the hill a ways and had gotten into the grain and water buckets we had left there (imagine that). She was still standing eating grass when we left.

Timing was great on this too. We have a bunch of hay down and I have a wedding to attend tomorrow as well. The therapy sessions should be minimal now so it looks as though I'll have time to go to the wedding and celebrate with a few free cold adult beverages.

Thanks to all who offered advice and encouragement. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that we don't have to deal with this again for a long time.

 

[WisRose]

Great news! I'm glad everything worked out for you. One of ours was a breech this year (the calf in the top picture on my Feltons post), but luckily we were there and I was able to call the neighbor for help. Hope she recovers quickly for you!