Supa Dexta
Well-known member
So did it end up being a C section?
Calving seaon 2016 for me
- Thread starter Nesikep
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Nesikep
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Yeah, it was..
Now the cow just has to be OK... I think she was a little depressed last night..
Now the cow just has to be OK... I think she was a little depressed last night..
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Nesikep
Well-known member
I'm thinking of maybe putting the milk thief in there with her mother.. she can at least do something for me while she recoups, and it might do her good to claim a calf
creekdrive
Well-known member
So sorry! Sucks to lose any calves, and sucks even more when there is a vet bill to go with it. It could've been worse though - at least you kept the cow alive.
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Nesikep
Well-known member
Cow was pretty depressed last night, she's eating this morning, so that's a good sign.. and I'm going to try giving her that milk thief today to cheer her up a little
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Nesikep
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I just disposed of the calf.. it was a heifer at 110 lbs... don't know how genes lined up for such a birthweight when the entire family has below herd average birthweights, and it's not like the heifer was fat and overfed.
Thief is in with her now.. I know how persistent she can be so she might get her way after a while.. if there's milk to be had she finds a way to get it.
Thief is in with her now.. I know how persistent she can be so she might get her way after a while.. if there's milk to be had she finds a way to get it.
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Nesikep
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The bill for it.. well.. it's steep.. $966.17...
Definitely a break-even deal for when I sell the cow.
She's doing well however, up and about, eating heartily.. I tied her to a post today and got the thief nursing, she was against it at first, but the thief is persistent, and she calmed down and resigned herself to it.. I think if I do this a couple times she'll figure out that getting milked is just a fact of life.. I was actually pretty impressed, she behaved well, and the calf left with a full belly.
Definitely a break-even deal for when I sell the cow.
She's doing well however, up and about, eating heartily.. I tied her to a post today and got the thief nursing, she was against it at first, but the thief is persistent, and she calmed down and resigned herself to it.. I think if I do this a couple times she'll figure out that getting milked is just a fact of life.. I was actually pretty impressed, she behaved well, and the calf left with a full belly.
frieghttrain
Well-known member
Sorry for your loss we had a calf die this year two weeks early no idea what went wrong 
So sorry... the heifer we have that had the c section is doing well...Amazing that we just haul them to the vet, they cut the calf out and then we chunk them back in the pasture...The only way i can tell who she is without checking numbers is her belly is shaved...In all the years we've only had one c section go bad. Love watching the vet perform it, he doesnt mind at all....
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Nesikep
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It's the first one we've ever had done that I've seen (we had a uterine torsion YEARS ago).
It's pretty hard work, and I learned a lot from it, though I wouldn't be ready to do it myself by a long shot yet
It's pretty hard work, and I learned a lot from it, though I wouldn't be ready to do it myself by a long shot yet
lithuanian farmer
Well-known member
Always needs to try to see the bright side. Glad that cow is okay. It's always hard to loose somebody, but it's good that atleast the cow is doing fine.
Our cow, which had a hard calving sometimes can't keep her weight on one back leg. She is eating abit, but not much. Hopefully she'll gain abit of weight and the only direction waiting for her is the slaughter house. Even if we wanted to do c-section we had no possibilities , because the only vet, who does it was on short vacation and another vet has never done it. Plus the time she was calving wasn't very good, 11pm.
Are you going to leave your cow and give her another chance or will cull her?
Our cow, which had a hard calving sometimes can't keep her weight on one back leg. She is eating abit, but not much. Hopefully she'll gain abit of weight and the only direction waiting for her is the slaughter house. Even if we wanted to do c-section we had no possibilities , because the only vet, who does it was on short vacation and another vet has never done it. Plus the time she was calving wasn't very good, 11pm.
Are you going to leave your cow and give her another chance or will cull her?
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Nesikep
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I'll cull her... it's too bad, because she's very nicely built but I don't want a repeat episode of that... She'd make a great pet for someone... breed her to a lowline and you'd have a nice calf.
She's slowly getting used to the idea of the calf nursing.. seems she would much rather get hand milked by me, so as long as I tie her up and give her some food, and then fiddle with her udder, she seems to let the calf nurse, and as time goes by she'll get better about it.
She's eating just fine, and is bright-eyed still.. I think the big danger for infection is over, as long as the wound doesn't get infected she'll be fine.
She's slowly getting used to the idea of the calf nursing.. seems she would much rather get hand milked by me, so as long as I tie her up and give her some food, and then fiddle with her udder, she seems to let the calf nurse, and as time goes by she'll get better about it.
She's eating just fine, and is bright-eyed still.. I think the big danger for infection is over, as long as the wound doesn't get infected she'll be fine.
We've never had a cow need a c section, but have had around 4 heifers over the past 30 years. A couple of those were Uh Ohs...I do have one Uh Oh c section i kept. Took her to the vet the next season to see if she was bred, only because we took someone else for some reason. Vet checked her bred. I reminded him she was a C section her first calf and asked his advice on whether to keep her. She was a very nice heifer, otherwise she would have been sold. He agreed she pulled out of it well, she was bred and he said he'd keep her if it were his. So, she had her first calf no problem and is now mixed in with the big herd..i could not pick her out without looking at numbers now.. been meaning to, she should be on her 2nd calf this year..
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Nesikep
Well-known member
Kama just calved.. At 2 pm it I saw her, bag was full, she was somewhat in 'nesting' mode, figured it'll be a while.. took a short nap, 3 pm I go and look, and she's licking the calf. Nice little heifer calf, 75 lbs or so, up, sucking and bouncing around in short order... 9 heifers, 8 steers now... and Josie's line has had 6 heifers out of 6 calves so far (one left to go)... There's a possiblility this one could make the replacement heifer pen.. she did a pretty good job of raising her first steer. 294 days gestation.
So tell me what the heck happened with Tifa and her C section calf.. a heifer, born at 288 days gestation on a small cow is 110 lbs, and very linebred to begin with (you'd think a reduction of hybrid vigor?) The 4 other calves from the bull were all 90 lbs or less, his BW was well under herd average at 80 lbs
Here's a breakdown of Tifa's calf's family tree (er, shrub?).. Caddy is on both sides once, Arnold is there 3 times
............................Caddy
.................Chroma
............................Arnold
........Tifa
................Arnold
Calf
................Caddy
.......Marko
................Arnold
I think it might just be a freak occurrence... it's all I can chalk it up to.. The rest of Marko's calves were born much easier than the Limo bull.. it was just lucky I didn't lose 2 or 3 (out of 4) calves from first timers last year, Tatla was a very close call, Kama was a hard pull, and Sofa definitely needed a hand (no puller).
Tatla should be coming up soon,.. she's LATE at 295 days right now.. If she needs as much help as she did last year I won't be holding on to her very much longer.
So tell me what the heck happened with Tifa and her C section calf.. a heifer, born at 288 days gestation on a small cow is 110 lbs, and very linebred to begin with (you'd think a reduction of hybrid vigor?) The 4 other calves from the bull were all 90 lbs or less, his BW was well under herd average at 80 lbs
Here's a breakdown of Tifa's calf's family tree (er, shrub?).. Caddy is on both sides once, Arnold is there 3 times
............................Caddy
.................Chroma
............................Arnold
........Tifa
................Arnold
Calf
................Caddy
.......Marko
................Arnold
I think it might just be a freak occurrence... it's all I can chalk it up to.. The rest of Marko's calves were born much easier than the Limo bull.. it was just lucky I didn't lose 2 or 3 (out of 4) calves from first timers last year, Tatla was a very close call, Kama was a hard pull, and Sofa definitely needed a hand (no puller).
Tatla should be coming up soon,.. she's LATE at 295 days right now.. If she needs as much help as she did last year I won't be holding on to her very much longer.
Muddy
Well-known member
Huge birthweights from few generations ago can reappears
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Nesikep
Well-known member
I guess it's totally possible, that line has just been consistently the lowest BW's
Markos calves look good so far and seem to grow alright
Markos calves look good so far and seem to grow alright
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Nesikep
Well-known member
OK, Tatla FINALLY calved.. a heifer, spitting image of Marko (daddy) with the white hind socks.. about 75 lbs or so as well
creekdrive
Well-known member
Sometimes the combinations the big calves come from can really surprise a person. This year we had a couple big ones from cows that have never had more than an 80 lb calf ever. The one girl comes from a cow line that for 30 years has never had a calf over 85 lbs. This year was her 4th calf, 108 lb bull. The sire is definitely not a heifer bull, average bw is probably 90 lbs. I would've expected her calf to be in the 80s... Oh well he will get a band when he gets vaccinated & I'm sure will make a dandy steer & she'll head to a different pasture this summer now that we know what that combination gives us. Another cow with the same bull this year had an 82lb bull calf - her bull calf the year before was 90lb with a much more consistent low birthweight (average probably 80lb) sire. You just never know for sure what you are going to get.
How many do you have left to calve now Nesi? Any heifers left to go?
How many do you have left to calve now Nesi? Any heifers left to go?
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Nesikep
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Heifers are done (only had 2), have 3 left to go.. next is a 9 year old, then a 12 year old, and finally a 5 year old.. No idea why the 9 year old fell behind, she is bagging up a little bit, so she might calf soon enough to be right caught up next year, if not, it's a trailer for her too.. the 12 year old is late through no fault of hers really.. couple years ago she had a bad habit of breaking fences, so she was out with the bull for the first few days of breeding season, I thought I saw her get bred, and funnelled her back into the corral to eat hay for the rest of the year, and it turns out she wasn't bred, and I didn't notice until much later... The 5 year old I think slipped her calf and got rebred late.. she's also on her last strike, but my deal with her is that she catches up good every year, and raise a nice calf.. she's been holding her end of the bargain, a month earlier every year, and despite being a bit thin from nursing over the winter on 'survival rations', she's been making really good calves that are thick and meaty.. Her steer born in July last year is around 800 lbs. Him, as well as a bunch of others are getting shipped out next tuesday.
