Calving paralysis

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I have an angus cow (4 year old) down with calving paralysis. She had an above average still born calf. The paralysis seems to be affecting her back left leg. So far I have managed to roll her over to take the pressure off the leg. In my opinion it looks like I have more of a chance of losing her then keeping her alive (if she does survive I know to eliminate her from my breeding stock). Just thought I would get some last minute opinions before I shoot her. She has been down now for 24hrs, I am thinking of giving her another 24, at the same time I want to be humane.



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> I have an angus cow (4 year old)
> down with calving paralysis. She
> had an above average still born
> calf. The paralysis seems to be
> affecting her back left leg. So
> far I have managed to roll her
> over to take the pressure off the
> leg. In my opinion it looks like I
> have more of a chance of losing
> her then keeping her alive (if she
> does survive I know to eliminate
> her from my breeding stock). Just
> thought I would get some last
> minute opinions before I shoot
> her. She has been down now for
> 24hrs, I am thinking of giving her
> another 24, at the same time I
> want to be humane. i have had them down for over a week and still get up i now have hip clamps and stand them up with my loader
 
Several times a day roll her to the opposite side. Keep her fed and watered. The odds are she'll get up on her own within a few days to a week. This may not be a popular opinion, but I see no reason to cull her just becasue she had an overly large calf (somebodys mistake other then hers) and got the nerve pinched while calving. I've seen cows go down from a big calf and calf successfully for many years after that.

dun

> I have an angus cow (4 year old)
> down with calving paralysis. She
> had an above average still born
> calf. The paralysis seems to be
> affecting her back left leg. So
> far I have managed to roll her
> over to take the pressure off the
> leg. In my opinion it looks like I
> have more of a chance of losing
> her then keeping her alive (if she
> does survive I know to eliminate
> her from my breeding stock). Just
> thought I would get some last
> minute opinions before I shoot
> her. She has been down now for
> 24hrs, I am thinking of giving her
> another 24, at the same time I
> want to be humane.
 
> I have an angus cow (4 year old)
> down with calving paralysis. She
> had an above average still born
> calf. The paralysis seems to be
> affecting her back left leg. So
> far I have managed to roll her
> over to take the pressure off the
> leg. In my opinion it looks like I
> have more of a chance of losing
> her then keeping her alive (if she
> does survive I know to eliminate
> her from my breeding stock). Just
> thought I would get some last
> minute opinions before I shoot
> her. She has been down now for
> 24hrs, I am thinking of giving her
> another 24, at the same time I
> want to be humane. I've had cows down for a week to ten days they will eventually get up provided you keep them fed,watered and provide them with shelter. If you can get the use of a device to lift them up all the better. They need to have their positions changed a couple of times a day so they don't get too cramped. Best Wishes Colin



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Update:The cow is managing to be hand fed and watered. I have tried lifting her with a cow sling on my jib, just can't get her high enough off the groung.Have managed to move her to a nearby sheltered cattle camp. Her overall strength has increased as she is now resisting me rolling her over, she is also able to sit up. There still seems to be no power in her back leg/legs although she has tried several times to get up especially when she hears my 4*4 approaching. (n.b. she calved last year to the same bull. I select my bulls on low birth weight high 400 day growth wieght).

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> Update:The cow is managing to be
> hand fed and watered. I have tried
> lifting her with a cow sling on my
> jib, just can't get her high
> enough off the groung.Have managed
> to move her to a nearby sheltered
> cattle camp. Her overall strength
> has increased as she is now
> resisting me rolling her over, she
> is also able to sit up. There
> still seems to be no power in her
> back leg/legs although she has
> tried several times to get up
> especially when she hears my 4*4
> approaching. (n.b. she calved last
> year to the same bull. I select my
> bulls on low birth weight high 400
> day growth wieght).

Its great that she has sufficient strength. may be you should get an inti inflammatory drug from your vet. Sounds like she probably will get up. You might get a surprise when you go to tend to her at sometime she may already be up.Its happened on more than one occasion to me. I never use Breedplan or in the USA EPDs. They are the biggest con going in the beef industry. The only performance indicators I use is maybe birthweight (not the + or - minus rubbish no one understands that.)I actually do research into the actual birth weights by asking anyone that has used the bloodline. It hasn't failed yet. Commonsense you don't use a gigantic bull over heifers or small females. Calving paralysis is often just a quirk of nature.



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Colin,

I am curious about why you made that statement about Breedplan and EPD's? Care to elaborate? Thanks.
 
> Colin,

> I am curious about why you made
> that statement about Breedplan and
> EPD's? Care to elaborate? Thanks.

You cannot beat a bit of research or visual appraisal. I have seen too many breeders in our country obviously falsify figures. They don't weigh their cattle at birth,nutrition levels vary so much. I have been told that these forms of selection (EPDs and Breedplan) are only to back academics up when things go wrong.What went wrong they didn't perform according to their figures? But they had good figures.I have seen buyers at sales never take their eyes of their catalogue and look at the animal in the sale ring. I feel that eye muscle area,marbling and tenderness selection are much more practical to ordinary breeders. It saddens me when I see new breeders become so besotted by performance figures. Sort the visual side out first then have a look at figures. Colin



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>Today I administered 2 bags of glucose and some anti-inflammatories, I will give repeat doses tomorrow. I had a chat to my vet and she said sometimes they get up but 8 times out of ten they don't. I've administered these drugs as to her instructions. I appreciate some of the feed back that I'm getting but being negative and knocking EBV's I feel may be just a bad experience. I feel EBV's are another tool in the bag to help identify a sire that you need for your herd i.e take a look at birth weights or milk figures. If you falsify readings you will eventually get caught and your breeding efforts will be for nothing. On the other hand if you use EBV's of a reputable breeder recommended by a society I feel you have done half your homework, of course you need to go and have a look at the bull. Again this is just another opinion and we all no everyone has an opinion.

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Your wrong the odds are she won't get up on her own. I've seen one out of about 15 over the years get up.
 
Strange, I've only seen maybe one in 10 that didn't

dun

> Your wrong the odds are she won't
> get up on her own. I've seen one
> out of about 15 over the years get
> up.
 
> Your wrong the odds are she won't
> get up on her own. I've seen one
> out of about 15 over the years get
> up.

Blackpower, You are either raising an inferior breed of cattle, or your management practices suck!
 
Our neighbor bought a cross-bred bull for his heifers that weighed 74 lbs at birth... Well come this past spring he had to pull 11 out of the fifteen calves and 3 of those were pulled out with his truck. He lost 2 heifers. So how you can go off of low birth weights in a bloodline I don't know because that's what this bull supposably was

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Well I've calved out 1000 head the last 3 years and have never had one go down. You won't calve that many in 3 liftimes. As for management practices i doubt there are many on this board who have more intensive mangament practices.
 
It all goes back to willing to buy reputation cattle at a higher price. If you don't buy bargain basement cattle or composite crap you'll have no fear in breeding a 85 pound bw bull with a +2 bw epd average, bloodlines to play a vital role but as far as saying epds are irrelevant then i say you need to look at the place where you buy your bulls.
 
If you don't buy bargain
> basement cattle or composite crap
> you'll have no fear in breeding a
> 85 pound bw bull with a +2 bw epd
> average

Dream on. That sounds almost as close to fact as your calving out experience.

The relationship between what you pay and how easy calving they are is mimimal. It is probably even negatively correlated, meaning that those less well fed ones, that don't look so pretty, will probably provide easier calving than those shiny, fat as hell, pretty high dollar show animals.

Composites provide no more calving difficulty than purebreds.
 
i dont know where she got those statistics, i guess if you shoot the cow on day 2 or 3 then the stats might be 8 out of 10. Personally ive only seen 2 out of about 35 that didnt get up (over the course of 13 years). most of those 35 were b/c of a crap limousin bull on heifers years ago before EPDs. we have about 160 calves a year and only pulled one in the last 4 years. most of our cows are beefmaster crosses with angus or charolais. i'd give the cow 2 weeks unless shes given up. two of the best cows i have are angus cows that had trouble with limousin calves as heifers and are now 9 years old and have had the best calves on the farm consistently for years.
 
Day 3 My angus cow ('88-03' that's her number)had her 2nd shot of antiimflamataries today. She seems to be drinking and eating well. I managed to locate a set of hip clamps and lift her up today, just trying to get that blood circulating again. I have taken into account all the feedback that I'm getting and have decided to battle on and give her a chance to improve (I suppose time will only tell, pays to be positive). The reason I have selected this particular vet is for the fact that the she runs a very successful Angus stud along with her partner. The bull I purchased off them earlier in the year is a son of CA Future direction and he has just been selected as one of the top TEN sires for 2003 in Australia to be AI'd to some of the top hiefers/cows for a 3 year Agriculture trial. I studied EBV's for ages before selecting 3 bulls that I was interested in. Actually he was my 2nd choice on EBV's, did'nt like the look of choice number 1 in the paddock, However I feel that I'm heading off in another tangent. '88-03' is eating well and drinking plenty, hopefully she is a fighter and will get up. The vet says its not so much the size of the calf (of course big calves don't help) it's the amount of time the calf was pressing on her nerve. Will keep you guys posted.

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I don't and will NEVER buy show cattle your lack of beef genetics are appalling. I only buy range born and bred Hereford and Angus Bulls. Look up these names on the internet and see what they have done for the industry. Schutte and Sons Polled Herefords and Connealy Angus. If you told either of these people that they were raising show cattle they'd probably knock you on your ass.
 
> Well I've calved out 1000 head the
> last 3 years and have never had
> one go down. You won't calve that
> many in 3 liftimes. As for
> management practices i doubt there
> are many on this board who have
> more intensive mangament
> practices. > AND THE FIFTEEN THAT WENT DOWN MUST HAVE BELONGED TO YOUR NEIGHBOR. YOUR CREDIBILITY SUCKS!!!
 

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