How early for C- section?

[kenny thomas]

Glad you had at least some good luck with her. You said you had to find colostrum, did you milk the cow to get the real thing?

No the cow had been down for a week or so, I wasn't going to push her over and try to milk her out. but did buy a colostrum mix at a feed store. Calf did very well getting it in her system, so we'll see what happens.

I have never done it either but I keep some frozen. I ask so that people will think of milking the cow if there is no colostrum available. I have had people tell me that they couldn't get any and when I ask why they didn't milk the cow they gave me a blank stare like they had not thought of that.

 

[Nesikep]

I used to milk them every chance I could, until I realized I had far more in the freezer than I ever used.. Now that I have more milkable cows I get some pretty much when I need it.. and I need it far less often


Good to see you have the calf, and it saved you the hassle of the C section.

 

[Kathie in Thorp]

Alan, almost same thing happened in my neighborhood a couple months ago. Neighbor went to move cattle from a leased pasture to the home place. He had a herf cow down, and she could not get up. He figured she was open, because a cow he'd bought with that one, both supposed to be bred, had calved months before, and that a big steer he had in that bunch had tried to mount her, knocked her down, and hurt her. So he left her there, but took food/water to her every day, and tried to get her up with a tractor. Several days went by . . . the cow still hadn't gotten up. He went out one morning, and she had a calf beside her. He brought the calf home to bottle-feed; kept lifting the cow, and in a another few days, she was up, but wobbly. He brought her home, penned her with the calf but kept supplementing it, cow got stronger every day, and now she seems to be almost perfectly fine. Congrats on saving the calf.