Malpresentation: foot jammed, frequency?

[Putangitangi]

Watching a fourth-calving cow the other evening, I noticed she wasn't showing normal signs of labour - just sitting, tail down, but mucous and blood present. She got up awkwardly and appeared to stagger just a little. About an hour later, she passed a bag of fluid and twenty minutes later a foot appeared. She's a cow whose calves are so streamlined that they have room to move their heads around and chomp on their tongues on the way out, so I was surprised by her difficulty. She's virtually tame and let me do a quick internal while she stood in the paddock, finding one foot hooked up on the pelvis somewhere under her tail head. I freed it and she had the calf in five minutes.

A vet friend tells me it's not an uncommon malpresentation, but it's not one I've come across before. Apparently the calf's foot can press on the spinal nerve, causing the partial paralysis in the hind legs.

I missed this previous thread, but good reading, thank you all: http://cattletoday.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=428266

 

[Beefy]

most malpresentations i see are foot turned under or head turned back (usually to one side).

 

[dun]

How a cow with the same malpresentation except she had it during the night. Tore her birth canal and colon.

 

[Putangitangi]

How a cow with the same malpresentation except she had it during the night. Tore her birth canal and colon.

Reparable, or not?

 

[hillsdown]

How a cow with the same malpresentation except she had it during the night. Tore her birth canal and colon.

Reparable, or not?

I would like to know also please Dun; did the cow survive and if so how did you treat it?

 

[msscamp]

A vet friend tells me it's not an uncommon malpresentation, but it's not one I've come across before. Apparently the calf's foot can press on the spinal nerve, causing the partial paralysis in the hind legs.

Most of our malpresentations have been one foot turned back, the rest have been backwards calves.

 

[dun]

How a cow with the same malpresentation except she had it during the night. Tore her birth canal and colon.

Reparable, or not?

I would like to know also please Dun; did the cow survive and if so how did you treat it?

We repaired it by sending her to the kill pen. Vet felt that with the amount of damage she would heal ok on her own but may have a rupture in the birth canal when she calved again.

 

[KNERSIE]

If the one leg and head is completely out with the other turned back, especially if the head is swollen, it is one of the most difficult malpresentations to correct.

Only had one to deal with in my own herd and that was an ugly affair and the heifer was down for a week before she finally got up. I was actually on my way to put her down when I noticed she wasn't lying in the same spot.

 

[Gate Opener]

I bet she was glad you noticed! :nod:

 

[rockridgecattle]

TNMasterBeefProducer

Never had a mal presentation so i couldnt tell ya.

if we could all be as lucky as you

 

[Putangitangi]

I've had a head presentation only, but the calf was already dead. A couple have got jammed with a foot turned back at the fetlock, hooking it up on the way out. Three weeks ago I had a calf which was turned around and coming out almost upside-down. Had to get the vet to help with that one, mostly because I don't keep any chains and pulleys on hand, since most assisted calvings are those I'd rather have help with anyway, like the backward ones. We can generally get a vet within half an hour, so we rest on that luxury.

Only a dozen left to calve this season and hopefully they're all the right way up and round and nice and slim and just pop themselves out!

 

[rockridgecattle]

hope it stays that way TNMBP

 

[tytower]

I think the main thing is to send the cow and the calf to slaughter .

Stands to reason that if you keep the calf and breed from it the problem is going to get worse.

Much as I hate it I do not interfere. They survive on their own merits and if they have something that may pass down the genetic line I will slaughter them.

Only had one problem in 30 years - I later found out was a Calcium deficiency on calving . She was a Friesan ?? cross with Hereford . Cut her up and ate her.

 

[Weaver]

I worked for a dairy throughout high school and college, and it seemed like every fifth cow had to have help. They came upside down, backwards, upside down and backwards, one leg foreward, head back or sometimes the calf was just too dang big and needed a little help. One thing though is when you had to readjust a calfs position, it wasn't to hard considering the frame siz of holsteins.
We haven't had any problems in our beef cows, knock on wood, but we did this summer have a small framed black baldie heifer come up pregnant in the feedlot and tried calving right at 15 months of age. The calf had one leg back to make matters worse and when I got off of work and got home the calf was dead and its head was swelling to add to the difficulty of repostioning it. Finally after much effort, called the vet to come out to help us out. Heifer survived the whole ordeal, but I want to do my best to not have that happen again.

 

[Putangitangi]

What's the heritbility of not putting both feet forward together when you're about to be born?

This foot-stuck presentation was a first for an otherwise excellent cow whose calves are usually very easily born. I'm not inclined to cull her on this one-off, presumably chance, happening. Or do others think it's more than that?

 

[msscamp]

I think the main thing is to send the cow and the calf to slaughter .

Why?

Stands to reason that if you keep the calf and breed from it the problem is going to get worse.

I disagree. To the best of my recollection, we have never had a cow present with a malpresentation twice. Malpresentations generally tend to be nature's, rather than the cow's fault.

Much as I hate it I do not interfere. They survive on their own merits and if they have something that may pass down the genetic line I will slaughter them.

Gee, how humanitarian of you. :roll: I'll be more than happy to own animals, make money off them, but I refuse to take responsibility for them. Sounds like a winning plan to me - NOT! How about expanding your horizons and accepting the fact that **** happens - and not because of the cow's 'genetics', either. Would you divorce your wife just because she happened to have a malpresented baby? From the sound of this post, you probably would - God forbid your geneology had any 'bad genetics'. :roll:

 

[tytower]

I think the main thing is to send the cow and the calf to slaughter .

Why?

Stands to reason that if you keep the calf and breed from it the problem is going to get worse.

I disagree. To the best of my recollection, we have never had a cow present with a malpresentation twice. Malpresentations generally tend to be nature's, rather than the cow's fault.

Much as I hate it I do not interfere. They survive on their own merits and if they have something that may pass down the genetic line I will slaughter them.

Gee, how humanitarian of you. :roll: I'll be more than happy to own animals, make money off them, but I refuse to take responsibility for them. Sounds like a winning plan to me - NOT! How about expanding your horizons and accepting the fact that be nice happens - and not because of the cow's 'genetics', either. Would you divorce your wife just because she happened to have a malpresented baby? From the sound of this post, you probably would - God forbid your geneology had any 'bad genetics'. :roll:

What??
Leave the bloody things alone clown - thats natures way

 

[msscamp]

I think the main thing is to send the cow and the calf to slaughter .

Why?

Stands to reason that if you keep the calf and breed from it the problem is going to get worse.

I disagree. To the best of my recollection, we have never had a cow present with a malpresentation twice. Malpresentations generally tend to be nature's, rather than the cow's fault.

Much as I hate it I do not interfere. They survive on their own merits and if they have something that may pass down the genetic line I will slaughter them.

Gee, how humanitarian of you. :roll: I'll be more than happy to own animals, make money off them, but I refuse to take responsibility for them. Sounds like a winning plan to me - NOT! How about expanding your horizons and accepting the fact that be nice happens - and not because of the cow's 'genetics', either. Would you divorce your wife just because she happened to have a malpresented baby? From the sound of this post, you probably would - God forbid your geneology had any 'bad genetics'. :roll:

What??
Leave the bloody things alone clown - thats natures way

It seems to me that the thing you have forgotten is this - your animals are not running wild, they are owned by you. You accepted the responsibility of ownership when you bought them, therefore, you have a responsibility to care for them - whether it's feeding, health, or assisting with a malpresentation/difficult birth.

 

[Putangitangi]

I think the main thing is to send the cow and the calf to slaughter .

Why?

Stands to reason that if you keep the calf and breed from it the problem is going to get worse.

I disagree. To the best of my recollection, we have never had a cow present with a malpresentation twice. Malpresentations generally tend to be nature's, rather than the cow's fault.

Much as I hate it I do not interfere. They survive on their own merits and if they have something that may pass down the genetic line I will slaughter them.

Gee, how humanitarian of you. :roll: I'll be more than happy to own animals, make money off them, but I refuse to take responsibility for them. Sounds like a winning plan to me - NOT! How about expanding your horizons and accepting the fact that be nice happens - and not because of the cow's 'genetics', either. Would you divorce your wife just because she happened to have a malpresented baby? From the sound of this post, you probably would - God forbid your geneology had any 'bad genetics'. :roll:

What??
Leave the bloody things alone clown - thats natures way

It seems to me that the thing you have forgotten is this - your animals are not running wild, they are owned by you. You accepted the responsibility of ownership when you bought them, therefore, you have a responsibility to care for them - whether it's feeding, health, or assisting with a malpresentation/difficult birth.

I agree with you entirely. For my part I've bred most of these cattle and in many cases I've physically put the semen in which began the pregnancy, so I figure it's my responsibility to make sure they come out again in safety.

In this country if you're caught not providing assistance to an animal in distress, you get prosecuted and are often forbidden the ownership or care of animals again for many years. Just letting them die for the lack of assistance is inhumane.