Dead Heifer Calve

[kerley]

Four of my cows were just about ready to deliver. This morning I went out to check and one cow {my favorate] was standing all alone while the others were all in the higher pasture eating hay. I figured she had just calved and I was correct. My cow {Fatso} is her name, delivered a perfect heifer calve. It was clean and dry and very much dead. I just can't figger it out, every thing appeared normal and was full term. I guess it was just my turn for a loss.

 

[sizmic]

Thats sucks, every time!

Sizmic

 

[3waycross]

Sorry to hear that kerley the worst part is all the work you put into getting that calf on the ground and then losing it. Hang in there. You still have 3 left.

 

[farmwriter]

My fav heifer delivered a dead heifer this year too. Sorry friend.

 

[dun]

If you searxch back or maybe someone remembers the post, there is one about how to tell if the calf was born dead or died after birth

 

[Isomade]

Sorry to hear that. I had one vanish that was 10 days old. Went out in the morning and it was playing with the other calves. Went back a few hours later and poof......
That was two weeks ago.

 

[jillaroo]

If you searxch back or maybe someone remembers the post, there is one about how to tell if the calf was born dead or died after birth

Did not see the post, but here's what I do:
With the calf laying on its side, cut through the skin from chin to flank and reflect the front leg back. Cut between the ribs, along the bottom (this is cartilage and will cut easily), and reflect the ribs back. This will give you a clear picture of one lung. You can usually tell by the look of it whether the calf ever took a breath. A lung that was never inflated with air is dark, wet and heavy. An air filled lung is pink and spongy.
The easiest way to tell is to cut off a chunk of the lung and drop it into a pail of water. If it floats, the calf took at least one breath. If it sinks, it never took a breath. It may have been born alive, but failed to breath (sac on head likely).
Sorry about your luck.

 

[Workinonit Farm]

One possibility is that the calf was born backwards, not a true breech, but back legs first and the cord broke before the shoulders and head got out, couldn't breathe and therefore died before it could get all the way out. It does happen.

As Jillaroo suggested, you could cut out a lung and put it in a pail of water, I've done this. If it floats, there was breath, if not, it never breathed.

Sorry to hear that. Same thing ahppened to me last winter, beautiful full-term heifer calf------dead as a doornail.

Katherine

 

[hillsdown]

Had a bull calf born that way too this year, haven't had one like that in at least 7 years. Sucks , is putting it mildly .