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Calves freezing to death
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<blockquote data-quote="CattleAnnie" data-source="post: 58026" data-attributes="member: 220"><p>Unfortunately, we've had our share of frozen calves. Basically all a soul can do to prevent it if you've got a cold spell and calving at the same time is to run frequent checks on your cows.</p><p></p><p>If anything looks close to calving, run her into the barn or shed. If it's minus 15C or the equivalent with the wind chill, I check every 20 to 30 minutes (always amazing how quickly some of the old gals can get the job done when it comes to delivering a calf). If it's warmer, I check hourly (maximum).</p><p></p><p>On warming up cold calves (and yeah, no matter how diligent you are, up here it seems to happen that there's always a few that need some extra TLC):</p><p>1. A real dandy indicator is mouth temperature. If the calf's mouth is cool, then you're about to work your buns off.</p><p></p><p>2. I've never had great success with the warm water immersion trick, so Honey and I built a "hotbox" for chilled calves. It's a fair sized free standing wooden structure that has a false floor with holes drilled in it. We place an electric heater under the false floor, and pop the calf into the box to let the warm air heat it up, after a brisk rubbing with old towels to promote circulation and remove excess liquid on the calf.</p><p></p><p>3. Before I put the calf into the hotbox, I also tube it with colostrum. My theory on that is that you give them an energy boost with that nice warm milk, but I'm no expert on the pros or cons of that.</p><p></p><p> BUT if the calf is severly hypothermiated (neck arched, eyes cloudy, rattling that death bawl - saddest sound in the world for a rancher-) then it's a real luck of the draw if you can bring them back to the land of the living. My understanding is that what happens is that sometimes you think you're gaining because the calf seems to be warming up, but the toxins from the tissue that was deprived of circulation when the body core temperature was so low overload the liver (if I'm remembering correctly). Kind of like a bad "crush" wound to a limb - the body can't handle the toxin overload and dies after the blood flow to the affected limb is restored. Sorry if my explanation is kind of muddled. Long day again.</p><p></p><p>Vicki would know more. Miss her input.</p><p></p><p>Sure hope your calving luck takes a turn for the better.</p><p></p><p>Take care.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="CattleAnnie, post: 58026, member: 220"] Unfortunately, we've had our share of frozen calves. Basically all a soul can do to prevent it if you've got a cold spell and calving at the same time is to run frequent checks on your cows. If anything looks close to calving, run her into the barn or shed. If it's minus 15C or the equivalent with the wind chill, I check every 20 to 30 minutes (always amazing how quickly some of the old gals can get the job done when it comes to delivering a calf). If it's warmer, I check hourly (maximum). On warming up cold calves (and yeah, no matter how diligent you are, up here it seems to happen that there's always a few that need some extra TLC): 1. A real dandy indicator is mouth temperature. If the calf's mouth is cool, then you're about to work your buns off. 2. I've never had great success with the warm water immersion trick, so Honey and I built a "hotbox" for chilled calves. It's a fair sized free standing wooden structure that has a false floor with holes drilled in it. We place an electric heater under the false floor, and pop the calf into the box to let the warm air heat it up, after a brisk rubbing with old towels to promote circulation and remove excess liquid on the calf. 3. Before I put the calf into the hotbox, I also tube it with colostrum. My theory on that is that you give them an energy boost with that nice warm milk, but I'm no expert on the pros or cons of that. BUT if the calf is severly hypothermiated (neck arched, eyes cloudy, rattling that death bawl - saddest sound in the world for a rancher-) then it's a real luck of the draw if you can bring them back to the land of the living. My understanding is that what happens is that sometimes you think you're gaining because the calf seems to be warming up, but the toxins from the tissue that was deprived of circulation when the body core temperature was so low overload the liver (if I'm remembering correctly). Kind of like a bad "crush" wound to a limb - the body can't handle the toxin overload and dies after the blood flow to the affected limb is restored. Sorry if my explanation is kind of muddled. Long day again. Vicki would know more. Miss her input. Sure hope your calving luck takes a turn for the better. Take care. [/QUOTE]
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