Cow Incident

[cattle60]

Just read TallTimbers account of his heifer having trouble. Sorry to hear that. I also had about the same thing Friday night. Checking around 5:00 pm and missing a cow ( around 9 years old).Probably 7th calf. Had last checked late Wed night and no showing of calving soon. Anyway, Found and looked like after birth hangin nothing else. Looked for calf, nothing. Went to house, ate,fed and came back around 745 pm. Found laying down, a little stickin out, smelled bad smell, touched and seen front of hoof. UHOH. Smell, bad sign, Calf probably dead and been trying to calve awhile. Friday temp in high 90's with heat index 107. Herded to barn lot. Called vet , by this time 845, be there in about an hour. Vet arrived,got in head catcher, and checked couldn't feel no head. Said same as I expected calf dead inside. Maybe not get out in one piece. Started pulling and after some hard time, cow went down, pulled calf, come out in one piece, Big amount of fluid hit the vet and tech when it popped out,all over included in face, very bad smell, was losing hair when coming out, calf was breech and found out was deformed, Top part from nose up through forehead not there. Ears but not in between. Said probably what happened was once died, never sent the right signals for birthing, no where close the bag she normally has , no springing, no dialating, hard pull. Cleaned out and full of antibiotics. Cow up next morning, eating and drinking. Hopefully will do ok but going to make into hamburger later this fall. By the way, Vet was a young female probably not out of school very long and helper was a young female, I think probably in the middle of school or just starting. Very good, not squeamish or scared to get into all of it. Very impressed with the professionalism, to talk and give some opinions and thoughts.

 

[TCRanch]

Yikes! Horrible about the calf but great news the cow seems to be doing fine (even if you are going to eat her ).

 

[Lucky_P]

Glad you had a good experience, despite the fact that you got no live calf... cow is likely OK and will live to provide some beef or other income.

Nothing surprising to me about the female vet doing a good job... I grew up with a bunch of female vet students... married a vet school classmate right out of school - she's always been a better veterinarian than me... and for the past 20 years or more, almost every veterinary class at every veterinary school in the country has been majority female... some have been running 80% females for decades. There are more female veterinarians in the USA than males, and not all of them want to do puppies and kittens.
I always told clients who ever dared to question the abilities/capabilities of my wife... that if SHE couldn't handle it, I probably didn't have any business trying it. Yeah, I was stronger than her... but not enough so that I could 'make' a 2000 lb bull do anything that she couldn't... and us ol' boys sometimes get ourselves in trouble when the testosterone overrides common sense.