I Think i need a new vet

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Missy

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October 2008 Vet #1 came and preg tested approx 15 cows,those that were empty were on their last chances and were to be sent to sale the following week.6 vet said were empty,5 of them got shipped,the 6th was our young brown swiss cow so we thought we would keep her and try her again in a couple of months!
My cow(otheres were the Inlaws) was supposed to be 6 months in calf, (I only bought her in September,which ment she was already bred))Great so i made sure i had her up around the house paddocks after X'mas! well her "due date" came and went,no bagging up,no nothing!!!

6 weeks ago i got vet #2 to come and preg test 6 of my nurse cows. 2 of them included were the Brown swiss that was supposedly empty in October and my cow who was supposed to be 6 months along in October.
Ok so he tells me Brown swiss is between 5-6 months which would work that she was bred straight after vet #1 said she was empty. Great!!
My cow he tells me was only 5 months along but a good sized calf :? so then that would make out that she aborted after being tested by vet #1( i never seen any signs but stranger things have happened) and rebred soon after. Ok no probs i thought,will keep an eye on her!
So i go away for a week,returning Sunday just gone! When i left,both girls were happy,dry bags but in great condition,no reason not to go woth what vet#2 said. Upon returning,both girls have HUGE ,FULL bags,floppy vagina's and are waddling around!
Okkk,they are only supposed to be no more than 7 months in calf going by vet #2.
This morning i welcomed a beaut heifer calf to one cow,other cow is HUGE and i would suspect she isn't far away....

So who thinks i need new vets?? Not one but 2 got it wrong!!!
Anyway heres some pics of my new heifer and mum.

cows031.jpg

cows025.jpg


And heres the brown swiss who i think will calve soon
cows040.jpg


cows043-1.jpg
 
Oh crap. They are horrible then. You better find someone else to do it, or learn yourself (its not too hard to do).
 
At least your vet didn't convince you to sell ALL your bulls as canners like mine did only to replace them and have a field full of calves 5 months later. :cry2:
 
Missy":2u3ajz1z said:
So who thinks i need new vets?? Not one but 2 got it wrong!!!
Anyway heres some pics of my new heifer and mum.

Well, if accuracy on manual preg-testing is your only reason for finding a new vet, then happy hunting. You will be going through a lot of vets! ;-) :lol: :lol:
 
redluv":1zcpzg25 said:
Oh crap. They are horrible then. You better find someone else to do it, or learn yourself (its not too hard to do).
So how do you learn how to do it?That is something i always wanted to learn how to do,thought about taking a A.I. course but the nearest place that has schooling on that is a 5 hour drive one way,and being that i am a single farmer,i really don't have any spare time to go to something like that.Any advice would be greatly appreciated,thank you.
 
redluv":xauiob7k said:
Oh crap. They are horrible then. You better find someone else to do it, or learn yourself (its not too hard to do).
If it's not too hard why don;t vets get it 100% right?
Some vets are better then others at it, some cows are harder to palpate then others. I still think it's 50% science, 50% art and 50% voodoo.
The single most common complaint I hear about vets is their preg checking.
 
I'd like to know what exactly is going on in the cow when the vet gets it wrong - it's pretty hard to hide a calf (or vice versa).

From people buying "empty" cows I've heard of a case where the error rate was 10% (50 out of 500 calved), standard seems to be 3% and the farm consultant recently told me that those 3% were as likely to be early calvers as late (where the vet might be seeking out a 5 or 6 week pregnancy).

Following the first mating season on this farm nearly all my cows calved to the recorded dates - except for the ones where I'd altered the date because the vet said they were holding to an earlier or later mating. Every one of those half dozen or so cows calved to the date I'd initially recorded. Different vet the following year, got his dates 100% correct. I spoke to a farmer just up the road and learned that the vet who'd got their dates completely wrong that same year was the vet that got mine perfect.

Were these experienced, large animal vets? I've met a good few vets who can't pd accurately because they simply haven't gained the experience... yet.
 
My black cow was 2 months in calf when i bought her. When she was first checked,vet said she was atleat 6months,(very wrong)
Both vets were awefully wrong on both occasions!!!!

I am booked in to do an AI course but i dont expect to get it all right for an aweful long time(if ever) if these 2 vets who yes are large animal vets,who say they have preg tested more cows than we could imagine(large dairy area) can't even get it close.

I'm not overly concerned,9 times out of 10,vets will only be preg testing to see if they are in or not. But when they tell me how far along and are a mile off,i worry!
 
This year our vet was off by a maximum of 7 days except on one cow. He was 75 days off on her. He palps more cows per year then most of us will even see in a year. Most times he's dead bang on, but some times he does miss.
 
i mark down if see them get bred, then i mark down what the vet says. then i wait and see which is right. it takes a lot of practice to guess how far along a cow is. i had some spring cows done and when i sold the open ones one sold in the first period. the cows that calved were not real close to where he said but they have all calved but one i'm ok with that. i use one vet that is always very close, the others not as much. you need a vet you can trust, but sometimes there is not enough choices.
 
George":1g6jidqg said:
redluv":1g6jidqg said:
Oh crap. They are horrible then. You better find someone else to do it, or learn yourself (its not too hard to do).
So how do you learn how to do it?That is something i always wanted to learn how to do,thought about taking a A.I. course but the nearest place that has schooling on that is a 5 hour drive one way,and being that i am a single farmer,i really don't have any spare time to go to something like that.Any advice would be greatly appreciated,thank you.
How I learned was after dad preg checked, he told me where the calf was and what I should be feeling. So I would check after him. I also had a neighbor with 300 cows, so when he would preg check I would go over there and follow him like I did with my dad. With someone standing there and telling me where and what I should be feeling for, it was easier to identify the uterine vein, and finding which horn the calf was in. I preg checked with dad and my neighbor for 2 breeding seasons, and by then I was about 85% accurate. Now, if I don't feel a calf, I have someone come and double check to make sure I didn't miss anything. I've also had a couple friends here at school who learned the same way I did, but followed the vet when they came and checked. Of course, the vet had to have enough time and patience to do that.
 
I think the best way to detect open cows is observation. No vet bills and it's easy. After the breeding season observe your herd. It's easy to tell when a cow comes around. She will gather tons of attention from her herd mates. Often hair will be rubbed off from all the riding. Shes OPEN! sell her or breed, hamburger whatever. You don't need a Vet to give you an opinion. :roll:
 
mnmtranching":vk70xqxd said:
I think the best way to detect open cows is observation. No vet bills and it's easy. After the breeding season observe your herd. It's easy to tell when a cow comes around. She will gather tons of attention from her herd mates. Often hair will be rubbed off from all the riding. Shes OPEN! sell her or breed, hamburger whatever. You don't need a Vet to give you an opinion. :roll:

That is one great post. I have been looking and looking for posts like this one and they are very rare. You are the type of person I would want running my operation. The cost of vet house calls are a luxury for people with nice profit pads or those with allot of cash.
 
If you want to start preg checking yourself start by doing open cows first.

You are not the first person to ship cows on the results of a vet and you won't be the last. Some friends had a vet out to preg check over 50 first year heifers. He told them that 36 of them were open, so they shipped them. The ones that he called "bred" never calved that spring. We all bet that the "open" ones did.
 
mnmtranching":30yjwqld said:
I think the best way to detect open cows is observation. No vet bills and it's easy. After the breeding season observe your herd. It's easy to tell when a cow comes around. She will gather tons of attention from her herd mates. Often hair will be rubbed off from all the riding. Shes OPEN! sell her or breed, hamburger whatever. You don't need a Vet to give you an opinion. :roll:
As much as I hate to --- I totally agree. The only time I have a vet palpate our cattle is if I can't get a heat out of them. (No heats, I GNRH & lutalise - still no heat - vet). If you see your cattle once a day, you should be able to tell who's open. Even if you miss 1 heat, sooner or later you should SEE something to make you know she's open.
We have NEVER preg checked our herd. Hubby can, but pretty much a waste of time for us. Not saying that's the right thing for everyone, but works for us. I don't think I have EVER had a cow get "close to calving time" and was actually open. And, BTW, I have an excellent vet for repro.
 
Jeanne, You ought to agree with me more often :nod:

Even though I could be wrong sometimes. :oops: :oops:

But! I don't think so. :cowboy:
 
dun":1mvqihhw said:
redluv":1mvqihhw said:
Oh crap. They are horrible then. You better find someone else to do it, or learn yourself (its not too hard to do).
If it's not too hard why don;t vets get it 100% right?
Some vets are better then others at it, some cows are harder to palpate then others. I still think it's 50% science, 50% art and 50% voodoo.
The single most common complaint I hear about vets is their preg checking.

The old timer vet preg checked all of mine last year except for the ones that had just calved. The cows were anywhere from 2 months to 6 months bred. He was within two weeks on every one, except one. That calf came a month late and it was a very small calf.

I was impressed.
 

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