Dead newborn

[wsrutherford]

One of my BWF cows had a calf bout 11:00 AM Sat. Everything looked OK, saw the calf up nursin 30-45 mins later, I when back at 4:00 PM to tag, calf was standin up, put a tag in ear, calf walked bout 10 feet, layed down, started that GOD awful bawl that every cow in the field comes runnin to checkout, starts flippen like a fish out of water, (convulsions I guess), and died, And ME standin there like a damn fool not knowin what to do !!!!
Has anyone had this happen and what do you do???

 

[Caustic Burno']

Thats a new one on me of course the calf is at the Vet to find out what the problem was.

 

[Workinonit Farm]

I've never had that happen. I'm with Caustic on this, have a post-mortem done.

Katherine

 

[cypressfarms]

I saw last week someone post about a foal that died. With that case, they thought it was fescue poisoning. Is that a possibility here?

 

[Dee]

Did you give the calf any shots, for black leg or whatever? A vitamin shot... or just tag it? Never had one drop over from an ear tag.

 

[Dee]

Did you give the calf any shots, for black leg or whatever? A vitamin shot... or just tag it? Never had one drop over from an ear tag.

 

[wsrutherford]

Tag Only!!

 

[la4angus]

New one on me. I hope you get it to the vet for a post mortem.

 

[ollie']

moral to the story...never use a wood stake through the head to hold a tag in place.

 

[bward]

Calf may have been laid on and did a slow internal bleed to death. That Death bawl is something you never forget.

 

[cypressfarms]

WSR,

was this a first time heifer?

I'm intrigued, cause I have to say the thought of a calf being o.k. then dropping dead has me wondering...

 

[msscamp]

I've seen older calves simply drop dead, but never a newborn.

 

[cypressfarms]

From what?

 

[msscamp]

In our case it was from alfalfa hay that contained moldy sweet clover. Moldy sweet clover produces a chemical called dicumeral that interferes with blood clotting in the fetus if fed during a certain trimester - 2nd I think, but don't quote me on that as it's been quite a few years - the calves look fine, but when they get to running around, are moved, etc, their blood vessels rupture and they bleed to death internally and simply drop dead. We lost a good portion of our calf crop that year because there was no known treatment at that time. Nowadays vitamin K shots will stop it, I think.

 

[wsrutherford]

WSR,

was this a first time heifer?

I'm intrigued, cause I have to say the thought of a calf being o.k. then dropping dead has me wondering...

No, an older cow (9-10yrs)

 

[msscamp]

wsrutherford, you did take the calf in for a post, didn't you?

 

[wsrutherford]

No I didn't take to Vet for post-mortem!
It's never happen to me or any of you!
So its just a freak occurence, Maybe 1 in 100000 or more births!
For me it's not good economics to spend $200.00 to $400.00, just to know,(for a commerical herd) if I was seed stock or purebreed, I would think differant.
My way of thinkin is not how much you gross, but how much you spend!

 

[cypressfarms]

WS,

understand your point about costs, but if you have something happen like MSSCAMP said, the cost of losing a whole calf crop will far exceed the cost of a post mordem.

 

[ChrisB]

I'm with Rutherford on this. If I have a single animal die, I just consider it bad luck/whatever. If a second one dies then I would have it checked out. Other than the satisfaction of knowing it really doesn't do you much good if it's a freak accident that will never happen again. Maybe it is something you can vaccinate for, but if you play that game, you could give your cattle 50 different shots and you would still lose one now and then.

On the other hand, I think most Universities will do a post mortem free of charge if you can get it in there fast enough.

 

[msscamp]

No I didn't take to Vet for post-mortem!
It's never happen to me or any of you!
So its just a freak occurence, Maybe 1 in 100000 or more births!
For me it's not good economics to spend $200.00 to $400.00, just to know,(for a commerical herd) if I was seed stock or purebreed, I would think differant.
My way of thinkin is not how much you gross, but how much you spend!

I can understand your reasoning and I sure didn't mean to rile you. I apologize.