Dead calf...questions...

[Deepsouth]

Tim, how old was the cow and has she ever had a calf for you?

 

[branguscowgirl]

I am sorry for your loss.
It just happens sometimes.....There are so many possibilities. Stepped on, suffocated, umbilical got pinched off in the birth canal, mineral deficiency, ect.. I personally would not cull her unless I knew the cause, and it was her fault.
There is some detective work that you can do, I am sure the folks with more experience with dead calves will chime in and explain. I personally hang around during 98% of the births here, so I usually can identify what has happened, so I am not much help with finding them this way.

 

[Putangitangi]

Came out backwards, drowned, is another possibility. Unless you were there, you can't eliminate a whole lot of really ordinary hazards which can make your year's work and expectations come to nothing. I don't have many cows and I watch as many of them as I can during calving for just these reasons, having lost several in the first years. I always watch a labor through, once the feet appear, since it's generally not long from then. Sometimes I've pulled membranes off noses which might well have suffocated/drowned had I not. Mothers don't always start at the right end and some of those membranes are strong.

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

All kinds of things could have happened, but likely a breech birth or the cord broke in labor. We lost one this year, an embryo heifer calf. When we picked her up to remove her, a ton of fluid came draining out of her mouth, which told me she was likely breech or the sack was over her face, because she never took a breath. My cow calved when I was at work, and came home and found her that way....
Sorry for your loss, it is tough.

 

[jerry27150]

some are just stillborn, some just never breathe. the more you worry about them the more trouble you seem to have. to keep her or not would be your choice

 

[branguscowgirl]

There is a way to tell if they ever took their first breath or not, which could help narrow it down some. I would have to look back on another post to see what was said though......

 

[wbvs58]

A couple of years ago I went to check on the progress of a heifer calving and from about 25m away I could hear this very loud deep hyperventilating and I am very deaf. The calf was putting in the real big ones heaving in the flanks and had the membranes over it's head, the heifer was licking it but at the other end hadn't got to the head yet. I tore the membranes from around the head and left the heifer to it and she finished cleaning it up and the calf quickly recovered. If I had been another couple of minutes the calf would have been dead and if I had been a half hour later I am sure I would have found what you did, a dead calf all cleaned up with no sign of the membranes.
I was always told that a chunk of lung tissue put in a bucket of water will float if the calf has breathed but sink if no breath but Lucky has much more experience with this than me and can say whether correct or not.
Ken

 

[Quigly]

An easier but less reliable method then dropping lung in a bucket is looking at the feet. If the bottoms of her feet have any dirt or other material on them, then she was born alive and probably tried to get up. Do you have an accurate due date on the calf, it's a little early to be calving, could of been premature.

 

[Nesikep]

I would guess that the membranes were over the nose and suffocated it like many have said.. I think it's one of the most common causes of calf deaths, and unless you do a biopsy and check to see if the lung tissue floats or not, everything else will seem perfectly normal. I know it's a rough way to end the year.. but remember that it happens to everyone...

Our first year we lost 3 calves at birth, one a month later with a broken leg, 1 cow died during calving, and had one prolapse.. That was just calving time... Summertime came and 2 of them got pneumonia and died as well...
How many cows did we have? well, we started with 12.. Perhaps that makes you feel a little better. Things have gotten better since.. I've lost 3 calves in the last 120, and I only think I could have maybe done better with 1 of them... I'm crossing fingers for this year of course.

 

[MO_cows]

Sorry it happened. We lost one like that, a mature cow, always a good mother, came home and found her standing over a nice heifer calf, cold and dead. We speculated it was born breech and she didn't get it delivered in time. It bothers you not to know what happened.

 

[Nesikep]

You're welcome
I forgot to mention year 2 when we lost 3 calves to scours, and had to doctor about 8 of them at a time in the barn, the whole lot of them on deaths door, certainly not fun times!
We've vaccinated for it since and have hardly had a case.. if we do, it's a little easier to doctor 1 calf than a pile of them.
We've had cows slip on ice and break their pelvis, we had one choke on a potato (a beautiful bred heifer we had high hopes for), One that went down in the chute while dehorning that bled out, uterine torsions, prolapses, calves twice as big as the cow could handle (just the first year), pinkeye, the atypical summer pneumonia (Panter) I mentioned, losses from 2 legged predators.. miscarriages, calves stepped on, calves born with their noses under irrigation pipes or backwards, upside down or legs the wrong way, broken legs, hardware poisoning, arthritis, mastitis, heat stroke and also real strokes..

Starting with crappy cattle and no experience is a darned steep learning curve... Where was CT when we started out!
And then you see a bunch of happy calves nursing and playing, and it makes the tough times not suck so darned much.

 

[Craig Miller]

Thanks branguscowgirl. I am new to all this and this is the 2nd year of loosing an animal. Last year I had a cow suddenly die...now this. I am beginning to take this personally, not to mention the financial hit. Anyway, thanks for the thoughts.

Tim

Well i cant speak as to what happened to the calf but i can say i know how you feel. This is my third year and i have lost two heifers- one was about five months bred and one laid down a couple days before calving and never got up- and i lost her calf after bottle feeding it for two months. Last month had a calf lame-shes up now thankfully. I know how you feel. I can only hope that it gets better for you from here and keep your head up

 

[Supa Dexta]

It's unlikely it was stepped on. I've had a cow pinch a nerve and then try and get up almost make it and then fall squarely out on top of her calf, and lay there until I could get her up enough to pull the calf out.. it still lived. They are usually pretty decent about not stepping on them, and they are pretty tough anyways.

Leaving the cow a couple of hours was probably your only mistake, you can give them a little time, but you should take a peak here and there if you're around anyways. Yes we like out cows to do it themselves but if I'm around I'm gonna keep an eye on things.

There's any number of things that it could have been, but can't beat yourself up about it now, it sucks, but comes with the territory.

 

[Williamsv]

Every time we lose a cow or calf, my almost 91 year old mother says ," Cows are like people . They are going to get sick and some won't make it. You just have to do the best that you can and move on. "
But it still worries me to lose one, so I know exactly how you feel. Just keep on keeping on is about all we can do.

 

[harlan]

I noticed one of my 5 year cow was starting to show signs of going into labor on Christmas day in central Fl. about 11:30 am. I checked on her again at 12:30 pm. and she was already showing only 1 front hoof and it was almost upside down, this isn't what I wanted to see...........
I watched her for another 45 minutes, she was up-down-on her side, pushing, moving around. When she finally got tired and layed down to try some serious pushing, I came over to help. The cow was on her side, the calf upright with the first 3" inches of his right foot and his tongue [but no head] showing. It took me 20 minutes to push the calf back in a little bit and reach in and unfold his right leg so I could get both feet out together. I was sure the calf was dead at this time, I was just trying to save the cow. After I got both feet out I started pulling on the calfs feet as the cow pushed and the calf was out in 30 seconds. I started wiping the goo away from the calfs nose and he started breathing. I was both surprised and relived ! That was 3 days ago, calf and cow are doing good. The calf weight was 80lbs. If I wasn't there to assist her I'm sure I would have lost both of them.

 

[dt34715]

Had the same thing happen this year. Nice heifer calf!! I checked on the cow and she was not having any problems that I could tell. Left her for an hour and come back and calf was dead.
I will give mine another opportunity, because she has raised good calves in previous years.