I just had another surprise 1 and 2 too

[cloone]

3 year old charollais heifer had difficult calving
Took calf with calving jack
Despite our best efforts and carrying out all the usual procedures , hanging by the heels and mouth to mouth etc the calf would not breadth despite having a reasonable heart beat calf died. Cow cleaned
Heifer got an infection in her calf bed,we washed her out within 48 hours and on a course of anti biotics for a week seemed to have lost control of her bladder and would pass water and manure by accident
In poor form not eating and losing condition rapidly
Infection cleared started to eat again
Infection returned more anti b's
Cleared up once more but no control of bowels or bladder
Cow out now on grass and covered in shiiite
Have to bring her in every few days and wash off manure to prevent fly strike
Will she regain control have any of your stock experienced this condition
What next??

 

[rockridgecattle]

sorry for your rough time. It's hard when it comes in batches like that.
for the calf that would not breathe, hanging by the heels is hard on the calf and can make matters worse. What happens is the stomach starts to empty and when you let the calf down it inhales what the stomach emptied out.
have you tried epenphrine and dorphram? They work real well to gether. The dorphram our vet sells, is repackaged in smaller quantiites costing way less. And rather than injecting under the tongue, its squirted under the tongue. Add to that the epenephrine, it give the calf a fighting chance.

good luck with the rest of calving

RR

 

[cloone]

Thanks for the reply
The feeling here is that the calf is too long in the birth canal and has swallowed a lot of liquid from the water bag and that by hanging over a gate you clear that mucus and allow the calf to de conjest and breadth
What do you feel about mother?

 

[rockridgecattle]

i'm not sure about that hiefer. I think i would get a vet opinion. Could be so many things. From a gut impact to hardware or twine to an imbalance in the system from the infection. Is she on a vaccination program? What is her temperature?
Hanging the calf over a gate, seems that would be hard on the calf. 70# animal over a 1-3" rail, ouch, would a 45 gallon drum on its side work better...not so much pressure on the belly of the little beast.

 

[Keren]

We had a cow that sounds similar to that . . . was bad news her uterus and bowel was ruptured (from a breech calf that was pulled by the vet).

Get the vet to look at her, but doesnt sound good.

 

[jilleroo]

I'd say at a guess it's likely she's got a fairly big tear in there somewhere....

 

[msscamp]

Thanks for the reply
The feeling here is that the calf is too long in the birth canal and has swallowed a lot of liquid from the water bag and that by hanging over a gate you clear that mucus and allow the calf to de conjest and breadth
What do you feel about mother?

There is very little fluid in the birth canal and, as long as the calf wasn't backwards, it shouldn't be an issue. Swallowing amniotic fluid doesn't generally cause a problem, as the calf has probably been doing that for quite a few months. Inhaling amniotic fluid, however, can be a very big problem, but that generally only happens when a calf is backwards and is not clear of the birth canal within a few seconds of the umbilical cord breaking. Loss of bladder and bowel function in conjunction with calving would appear to be a nerve problem due to calving, especially since her bladder and bowel function appears to have been fine prior to calving. I'm wondering if it didn't happen as a result of having to pull the calf. Another possible factor is pulling the calf to hard and fast. I'm not saying you did anything wrong, just stating possibilities. You didn't mention the weight of the calf - but the larger the calf, the harder it is on the mother when it comes to pulling it. Calf jacks can also be a bit hard on the mother, because they can exert a lot of force if not handled properly. I wish you the best with this cow, and I hope she is able to overcome this setback.