mama won't get up

[sl567]

We had a heifer deliver a dead calf this morning. Now Mama won't get up. She got out of pasture during the night and wandered off. When we found her calf was delivered dead and we can't get her up. Any ideas?

 

[bigbull338]

sounds like she paralized herself calving.you need to get her on her feet asasp.take a hotshot an see if you cant get her up.the hotshot will make her try.but becareful because she may come up fighting.if she dont get up get a set of hipplifters an lift her with the frontend loader or a gin pole if you have 1.

 

[angus9259]

Yup. Paralysis. Some come out of it. Some won't. Need to ger her moving though. Bantamine might help if it's compounded with pain.

 

[sl567]

vet just left--front legs paralyzed too. he gave her a shot (I think Azium) said to try hot shot again in two hours. said looked pretty bleak but maybe.. this is our first heifer born on our place so kind of sad for us. we think she slipped under the electric fence while lying down and maybe got hurt then. but then she made it pretty far to where she had the calf. no idea why calf died. some things not meant to know why, huh?

 

[angie1]

Banamine or dex is a good idea. She does need to get up though ~ the sooner the better. Sorry this happened to you. Let us know.

 

[sl567]

we didn't have any success--had to put her down this morning. I had just been saying there is nothing that replaces experience--we have learned some lessons from this one--still don't know if we could have saved her or the calf, but lessons learned nonetheless. thanks for the advice, all.

 

[angus9259]

hate that. you should look back at a post by . . . caustic bruno?? . . . about death happening. good post.

 

[CKC1586]

My Grandpa always used to say it is best to keep death in the barn. Kind of puts things in perspective...

 

[bandit80]

vet just left--front legs paralyzed too. he gave her a shot (I think Azium) said to try hot shot again in two hours. said looked pretty bleak but maybe.. this is our first heifer born on our place so kind of sad for us. we think she slipped under the electric fence while lying down and maybe got hurt then. but then she made it pretty far to where she had the calf. no idea why calf died. some things not meant to know why, huh?

As the saying goes, $#it happens.

Dad told me when I first got into cattle, "You have them you're going to lose some. You just do whatever you can to limit your losses, but sometimes other powers have a greater pull."

 

[Dana Kopp]

Too bad for your loss, could it have been getting caught under the fence and the stress that did it?? We had a cow lay down, get her head caught under the fence and she fought so much she exhausted herself, even though she wasn't paralysed she couldn't stand even with the tractor holding her up. Had the same result as you...

We had a heifer paralyze herself with a monster calf - he didn't make it and she didn't stand for probably three days. When she did she walked like she'd been at the bar for the whole time...found her a replacement calf, which took some convincing. That was 12 years ago and she is one of the "founders" of our herd.

 

[Joy of Texas]

Sorry, for your loss. Take the experience and remember it. It happens from time to time. Not knowing if you could have helped her or not. Do you have a birthing pen ?. If not maybe you could fix one . I have 6 of them. They are just for my first time heifers. The cows I don't worry so much about. The heifers anything can go wrong,so it's best to be better prepared. I bring them here to the house about 2 weeks before they are due. If all is going right after calving. They go back to the pasture in a couple of weeks.
Best of luck to you.

 

[Dana Kopp]

I don't know that locking her in a pen would have helped the situation. If she got out of the pasture in the first place (even accidentally) why wouldn't she try to get out of a pen? Often the girls need to walk a lot to get the calf positioned, laying down, stretching out, getting up etc., it isn't just to torture those of us watching, we see that in our herd, locking them up only stresses them out as they forget about calving and focus on getting out. Having them locked up and watching them every second doesn't guarantee a live calf.
Probably what happened was that she laid down next to the fence then laid flat out on her side, but stuck her head under the fence, when she went to "sit up" her head was on the wrong side and she couldn't get up so after wiggling, struggling kicking etc. she frees herself from the fence and is able to get away. But depending on where the calf was positioned when she got stuck his/her air could have been cut off, even when they are part of the way out if the fluids aren't out of the lungs and the umbilical cord gets pinched they can suffocate. There are so many possibilities you can't kick yourself, if something weird can happen it will, the longer you are "in the business" the more strange things can happen - believe me - we've definitely had our share!!!

 

[sl567]

thanks a lot for all the advice.