Heifer in labor

[nocows]

I have a heifer that appears to be in labor how long should I let this go on before intervention is needed? I knew she has been getting close to calving so I've been keeping an eye on her, this morning I went out to check her before I left for my day job. She was in the corner of the pasture laying down it was obvious that she's been up and down several times you can see where she's matted the ground down doing so.

That was about 4 hours ago I had my brother in law run out there to check on her and she's doing the same thing, up and down with her tail out. She will hunch every so often like she's pushing but we never have seen a water bag or anything yet.

I know every case and situation is different but how long would you expect a heifer to be in stage 1 of the calving process?

 

[nocows]

She will hunch up like that for a minute then she'll go back to normal for a bit that's why I wasn't sure if she was just having contractions or if she is in full blown labor. I plan on leaving work soon to go keep an eye on her just didn't know how serious the situation was. I read some articles online that stated they could be in "stage 1" for several hours.

 

[Son of Butch]

If you don't have catch facilities nor experience intervening too early is the worst thing you can do.
Keep an eye on her from a distance so as not to agitate her and let nature take its' course.

 

[M-5]

watch from a distance . once she breaks her water and feet are showing I would intervene after 1 hr has passed.

 

[nocows]

Not much has changed she is exhibiting the same behavior she'll lay day for a bit then get up, she will push or strain like the above picture once or twice for about 30 seconds then she goes back either grazing or laying down. I assume all is good still??

This heifer is special she was a bottle calf that my son raised, she didn't breed in a timely manner with the herd but since she belonged to him I figured we'd keep her and give her a chance. We've been done calving since the middle of April.

 

[M-5]

anything showing , Bubble, feet ? when she lays down and pusshes you should be able to see something.

 

[Silver]

Humping up and pushing with nothing showing like that would make me concerned that the calf was breech. But heifers are funny creatures and it may be no big deal. But I'd be inclined to reach in and confirm things are lined up properly.

 

[Nesikep]

Yup, by now I think you should at least be seeing feet.. I agree it could be a breech birth or a leg the wrong way.

 

[Katpau]

Get her in and check now. Every time I have had one in the early stage for that long it has turned out that the calf was in a position where it could not be delivered. Breech which means butt first is the most likely situation, but it could be there are feet or a head back. I would guess this will take professional help, but you won't know until you get in there and feel where everything is. Good luck.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Any new news? Definitely should be checked after this long.

 

[NEFarmwife]

Yep, I would have armed her. Heifers are a pain in the butt sometimes and get you antsy but she's straining without any progress.

 

[Farmgirl]

Check her quick. Calf is likely dead. May loose the heifer.

My :2cents: ,
Farmgirl

 

[TCRanch]

I lost one this year because a heifer wasn't pushing, just up & down, wandering around and I thought she was in early labor. Could barely see feet but she'd suck them back in. Still wasn't fully dilated when I got her in & it was a hard pull even though the calf wasn't that big. Did she just quit trying? Had she been in labor longer than I realized even though I check heifers every couple hours? Doesn't matter now. Get her in! And best of luck - please update.

 

[nocows]

I haven't been back online since my last update I spent several hours messing with this heifer, unfortunately we lost the calf but the heifer is doing fine and I think she will be ok. The calf was breach and he was BIG!!

I rushed home and got the heifer up to the chute and called the vet. Time was of the essence and things just didn't go well, I am a little bummed at how things progressed but I'm to blame I shouldn't have waited so long. Once we got the calf out we assumed he was dead, there wasn't any movement while pulling. After messing with him for a bit he was actually alive but barely, momma went to work right away to start cleaning him off.

My wife could tell how disappointed I was and told me to chalk it up to experience. That's a hard and expensive lesson to learn, looking back to yesterday morning I should've went with my gut and checked her sooner.

I've been around cattle for a good portion of my life but have only had my own herd for the last 3 years, I've been slowly building it up there have been some pretty rough patches and I've had a rocky start to say the least.

My respect for the men and women that raise cattle is very high, it's one thing to go help friends and family with cattle like I had only done up until 3 years ago. Owning cattle and being personally and financially invested in them is a whole different thing, there are so many ups and downs.

Now that we are officially done with calving this time I will focus on the breeding I turned the bull out Saturday and he's been busy. While on the subject of the bull when can this heifer safely be bred back?

Sorry for the lengthy post.

 

[nocows]

Sorry.
If the calf was huge, you need to figure out if it was the bull or your feed program before you put the bull back on her.
As it is, I would wait a month or 2 to let her reproductive tract heal up good

I bought the bull last year at about 15 months old he covered all the cows I had and the three heifers. The rest of his calves from the others had decent BW and all went unassisted. They all received the same nutrition hay, grass, and the occasional treat of grain or cubes just to keep them used to being called up.

 

[Son of Butch]

Sorry for your loss.
But
If you're going to raise livestock, you're going to have dead-stock, ain't no two ways about it.
And no matter how long you've been doing it, it always hurts in more ways than one.

 

[Katpau]

We've almost all made the mistake of waiting too long to assist at some point if we have enough cows and been at it long enough.

My first breach was the first calf of a set of twins. I saw the cow in labor the evening before and waited a bit thinking I'd tag the calf that night. After about 30 minutes it was getting dark and she went into the woods and I lost sight of her. The next morning she came down for hay with the other cows and her tail was still up. I knew I had made a mistake right away not running her in. When I got up close I could see the tail of the calf sticking out. It was a struggle to deliver it and we were forced to cut off a leg. You could tell it was already dead and starting to get nasty. It weighed close to 100 pounds, so everyone said we are done here, but I said make sure to check for a twin, because backward calves are often not alone. They kind of laughed, but reached back in and sure enough, there was another one so far back you could barely reach its nose. Lost them both of course.

Another time we were feeding hay and I saw one of the cows move off clearly in labor. Before too long there were two feet showing and everything appeared normal. It was taking her a little longer than usual to make progress, so I decided to give her some privacy. Went and finished some chores and came back an hour later to find her still the same. Ran her into the corrals and armed her. Couldn't find a head. The head was flipped back. It was a real struggle to get the calf back far enough to get hold of the head. Lost that calf too.

There are other stories, but the point is if you have any doubts about how long it's taking, get them in right away. It's a real pain to bring them all the way in from the pasture to the chute, so we tell ourselves that it's probably fine. I've found that when a cow is straining like the one in your photo for more than an hour there is probably a problem.

 

[TCRanch]

Katpau nailed it! I've brought heifers in too early that most likely could have had them on their own, even breaking the sac & going ahead and pulling. But ended up with a live calf. I didn't go with my gut this year. And as far as why yours had a calf that was so much larger than the others, some cows just raise 'em big & give everything to their calf. Another possibility is a neighbors bull paid a visit. Been there! Sorry you lost the calf but at least you have a live heifer with no nerve damage. It's a painful learning experience.

 

[Nesikep]

shoulda coulda woulda.. I've said that enough times!

Katpau, I had a BIG cow have a 110 lb bull calf, everything seemed fine, with the size of the calf I didn't figure on a 2nd one (Her sister had twins, both around 70 lbs).. next day she looked off, yeah, breech twin in there.. also 110 lbs, was dead by the time I got to it, but at least she had one

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

It is always a fine line between when to help and not. But, you never regret checking "too soon" like your do when you check "too late".
When we say it takes a while for 1st stages. That is when they are restless, up & down, pacing, switching tail, etc. But, when they visibly have a contraction and nothing is showing in 1 hour, we check.
Having lost the calf, she may be in heat in 7-10 days. It will be a false heat. I don't run a bull, so I don't know if having a bull breed her right away will hurt her reproduction???? I really wouldn't think so, but not for me to say.